What an amazing fact it is that the One who lived the life of a God-man is now the Spirit living in us and through us, and we simply need to open to Him, love Him, be joined to Him as one, and He will fill us, possess us, and live out in us the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity! Amen!
We as believers in Christ are God-men, men born of God with the divine life and the divine nature.
Through regeneration we have been born of God; we were born of man at the time of our human birth, but we have been born of God at the time of our regeneration.
As John 1:12-13, to whomever, has received Him by believing in Him, God gave them the authority to be born of God; all those who received Christ are born not of the will of the flesh but of God, and they are children of God.
The Spirit has come into our spirit to regenerate us and bring the divine life into us; now we have not only our human life by our birth from our parents, but we also have the divine life by the divine birth.
We need to see that we are God-men, born of God, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God.
If we realize what we are, our daily living will change; if we realize that we are God-men, we will no longer live as before, because we will realize that God lives in us, and we should live by the life of God, not by the life of man.
What an amazing fact is that we are born of God having the life and nature of God!
We are not only saved sinners but even more, we are God-men; God is happy when He sees us, for we are His reproduction, those who look like Him, walk like Him, talk like Him, and have the same life as He does.
This is what God is up to today: His hobby, His heart’s desire, and His full-time preoccupation are to gain a reproduction in man; He wants to gain many duplications and reproductions of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.
The first step is regeneration, and the second step is transformation; through transformation, we are being inwardly saturated and changed by the divine life which we enjoy and live by.
If we realize that we are God-men, we will seek the Lord, love Him, and exercise our spirit to touch Him and be one spirit with Him, allowing Him to live in us and be expressed through us!
Amen, when we consider ourselves as what we really are, God-men in Christ having the life and nature of God, we will be revolutionized in our daily experience.
May it be that all of our life as a believer, as a Christian, as a member in the church be thus revolutionized!
May we not only have the knowledge but also have a daily experience of Christ as our everything for Him to live in us to make us the reproduction of Christ, those who live out the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity!
As the Increase and Reproduction of the first God-man, we should Live a God-man Life as He did
Christ’s God-man living constituted Him to be a prototype so that He might be reproduced in us and live again in us, the many God-men in Christ (John 14:19; Gal. 2:20).
If we realize that we are God-men, the continuation and reproduction of Christ as the first God-man, we will pray, Lord Jesus, live in us again today. Be our life.
We don’t want to live by our own life but live by Your life so that You live in us. As the reproduction of the God-man, we believers in Christ need to live the life of a God-man today in our daily living (Phil. 2:19-21; 3:10).
We can’t just declare to others that we are the reproduction of Christ; even more, we need to live in this way, that is, we should live a God-man life even as the Lord did.
This is our shortage; our shortage is not in our knowing what we are and what the Bible tells us that we are and have, and our shortage is not even in our vision – our shortage is in our living, our daily living.
Christ’s human living was a man living God to express the attributes of God in the human virtues; His human virtues were filled, mingled, and saturated with the divine attributes (see Luke 1:26-35; 7:11-17; 10:25-37; 19:1-10).
If we read the stories in the Gospels, we will see a clear picture of how the Lord Jesus lived; He didn’t mere teach us to live in a certain way, but He Himself lived in such a way and became a model, a pattern, for us to follow.
We should follow His pattern not by imitating Him outwardly but by following Him inwardly.
We need to be conformed to His death by means of His resurrection so that He would be the One living in us the life of a God-man, not us living our natural life.
We are the expansion, the increase, the reproduction, and the continuation of the first God-man; therefore, we should live the same kind of life that He lived (1 John 2:6).
The Lord’s God-man living set up a model for our God-man living; He lived a daily life of being crucified to live so that God would be expressed in humanity (Gal. 2:20).
This is the model; now we as believers in Christ need to live in this way, a life of being crucified to live so that God may be expressed in us.
We daily die to live; we die to ourselves, we apply the cross to the self and the flesh, and we take the Lord’s life to live by Him.
We need to daily deny ourselves, be conformed to the death of Christ, and magnify Him by the bountiful supply of the Spirit (Matt. 16:24; Phil. 3:10; 1:19-21).
Paul was one who made it; toward the end of his life, close to his martyrdom, he was still being stripped as if he was being consumed; but he was there in prison with no complaint, no murmuring, no self-pity.
He was in prison realizing that, whether he lived or died, Christ was magnified in his body.
For us to live the life of a God-man for Christ to be expressed through us, we need to die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us.
As God-men, we simply need to turn to the Lord, reject any self-cultivation, condemn the building up of the natural man, and simply live in spirit, living by the divine life in our spirit so that Christ may live in us.
Even as He lived, so we should live today; even as Christ lived the life of a God-man, so we should live the life of a God-man today for the expression of God in man.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the first God-man to set up a model for our God-man living. We want to live the same kind that You lived; we want to live the life of a God-man in our daily living today by being crucified to live so that God may be expressed in humanity. Lord Jesus, live in us today. We want to be one with You to deny ourselves, be conformed to Christ’s death, and magnify Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ! May it be no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us, and the life we live in the flesh would be in the oneness with Christ so that God may be expressed through us and in us!
Loving the Lord and being joined to Him to Live out the Glory of Divinity and the Virtues of Humanity
The Lord’s human living and our Christian life are the most mysterious kind of living, for it is not just man living and not just God living, but it is the life of a God-man, the God-man living.
We as believers in Christ are reborn with the Spirit in our spirit, and we are gradually being transformed by Christ as the Spirit in our soul.
Spontaneously, as we open to the Lord, love Him, and remain one spirit with Him, we shall live Christ, the God-man, by the bountiful supply of His Spirit.
The only way we can live the life of a God-man is by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; as we are supplied, we take the Lord’s mind and shine the word of life as luminaries reflecting His brightness.
The life of a God-man, the God-man living of the Lord Jesus, is in the Spirit who is in our spirit.
The way for us to live the God-man life is not by trying, struggling, or striving, but by turning to Him, enjoying Him, and being joined to Him to live out the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity.
As the Lord moves in us as the Spirit, He is mingling Himself with us more; He rescues us from living in the self and from our temper simply by mingling Himself with us as the One who indwells us.
We simply need to turn to Him as the One in our spirit and call on His name, He will move in us with all His elements; in this way, we are saved, we are mingled with Him, and we live out the life of a God-man.
From the time that we are saved, we have received not only divinity but also the highest humanity for us to live a transcendent life.
Our Christian life is not a life of adhering to certain regulations or rules; rather it is a life of enjoying the Lord and receiving His element into us for us to live the life of a God-man.
Because the Lord’s divinity is in us, we can live out all the glory of divinity. Because His humanity is in us, we can live out all the virtues of humanity.
The more we contact the Lord, love Him, and seek to be one spirit with Him, remaining in the organic union with Him, the glory of God and the virtues of man flow out spontaneously in us.
One who is truly saved and who lives by the Spirit within him lives out the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity for the expression of God in man.
Such a life was lived by the Lord Jesus; as we read the Gospels we see not only His divinity but even more, His human virtues.
The way He behaved, His attitude toward others and the way He treated those around Him were too wonderful; He had a surpassing humanity.
Such a One became a life-giving Spirit and has come into our spirit to live in us. He is in our spirit waiting for us to call on Him and believe into Him!
When we call on the name of the Lord and receive Him as our Savior, He enters into us, and we enter into an organic union with Him.
Daily, as we live the Christian life by opening ourselves to the Lord, loving Him, and desiring to be joined to Him as one, we are filled and possessed by Him every day. Amen!
In this way, what is lived out of us are not mere human virtues but the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity for the expression of God in man.
We simply need to enjoy the Spirit, receive the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit so that we have the with all to live Christ while the outward environment is consuming us.
The outward environment is causing our outer man to decay, causing many of the human things that we might have built up to be torn down, so that all things may be replaced by something divine, something of God.
May we learn to simply turn to the Lord, open ourselves to Him, love Him, and desire to be joined to Him as one! May we live in this organic union with the Lord, living one spirit with Him, so that we may be filled and possessed by Him and live out the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity (1 Cor. 2:9; 6:17; Phil. 4:4-9).
Lord Jesus, we love You. We love You and we open ourselves to You. We desire to be one with You. Fill us, Lord. Possess us. Live out in us the glory of Your divinity and the virtues of humanity again. We reject any self-cultivation and we condemn any building up of the natural man. We just open to You, Lord, for You are our bountiful supply for us to live the life of a God-man for God to be expressed through us. Grant us the mercy to have Your grace to take You, Lord, and have a longing and desire that we may live You so that we may truly fulfil God’s intention in creating man. Make us the same as You are, Lord, and live in us today. Stir up within all of us a renewed, holy desire that we would live as the God-man kind. Amen, Lord Jesus, do this in us for Your glory! Live in us the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity for the corporate expression of God in man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1983, vol. 3, “The Wonderful Being of Christ“, ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 5, God’s Intention with Job – a Good Man Becoming a God-man.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Beloved we are children of God, / And through this life we onward trod; / When He is seen on earth again / We will be seen as only Him, / Even as He is. (Song on, Even as He is)
– Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / In all things Thy will be done; / I but a transparent vessel / To make visible the Son. (Hymns #403)
– This the secret of the holy, / Not our holiness, but Him; / O Lord! empty us and fill us, / With Thy fulness to the brim. / Oh! it is so sweet to die with Christ, / To the world, and self, and sin; / Oh! it is so sweet to live with Christ, / As He lives and reigns within. (Hymns #482)
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