It is really amazing to see how in Christ God and man have become one entity: He is the first God-man, One who is not just man but also God (He has the divine essence) and not only God but also man (He is a man).
Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of a human virgin who was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; He was conceived of the divine essence and was born of the human essence – He was born a God-man!
When Christ was born, the greatest thing was that God came into man to be born in man and become a God-man, a new kind of man who has not only the human nature but also the divine nature – He has two natures, the divine and human natures mingled together, without producing a third nature; in Him the two natures are mingled yet they can be distinguished.
The first great act of God was His creation: God as the Creator has created all things; the second great act of God is His incarnation: the Creator has become one of the creatures. This is what the gospel tells us, that Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit in a human virgin to become a God-man, One who is both the complete God and a perfect man (Luke 1:35).
As a perfect man and the complete God, Jesus Christ has the human nature with its virtues to contain God and express Him with His divine attributes. Jesus Christ was the individual fulfillment of God’s original intention in creating man: He was a man with God’s life inside to express God and represent God individually.
As such a One, Jesus Christ went through death and resurrection to be reproduced in His many believers, He Himself being the prototype to be mass reproduced in us all so that we all may become God-men who express God by living out the divine life in our spirit.
The goal of God is to have Christ as the first God-man to be reproduced in millions of believers so that they would become the corporate expression of God, even a corporate God-man which the Bible calls, the Body of Christ and the one new man.
The Lord Jesus is the Prototype for the Producing of the many God-men, His Believers
Initially, the Bible speaks of the God-man Jesus Christ; the first four books of the New Testament describe the mysterious yet wonderful birth, living, work, death, and resurrection of Christ as the God-man.
Through His death and resurrection, this One, Jesus Christ, was reproduced and multiplied in His many believers who are the many God-men, the many children of God and brothers of Christ (Rom. 1:3-4; 8:16, 29; Heb. 2:10-11).
The Lord Jesus is the prototype for the producing of the many God-men; He is the model, the pattern, the mold, the prototype that God set forth for all His children to be conformed to – He’s the Firstborn among many brothers, and we are being conformed to His image (1 Pet. 2:21; Rom. 8:29).
From eternity to eternity Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God; however, through incarnation He put on humanity, and His human part had nothing to do with divinity. Therefore, through resurrection He brought His humanity into His divinity, divinizing His humanity and bringing it into the divine sonship, and in His resurrection Christ was begotten of God to be the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4) and we were also begotten to be the many brothers of Christ.
Hallelujah, regardless of our nationality, gender, age, or background, we all who believe into Jesus Christ are God-men, and each one of us is a God-man!
Originally we were only created men with the human life, sinners in God’s eyes and alienated from the life of God; but praise the Lord, through believing into Jesus christ we have been born of God – born not of the flesh or of the will of man, but born of God to be children of God and brothers of Christ (John 1:12-13; Heb. 2:10).
Through regeneration Christ was born again in us, and we became sons of God; we are not “adopted sons” as some Christians think, but we are children of God, those who were given the authority to be called children of God born of God, God-men!
Even though the term “God-man” is not in the Bible (just as the term “Triune God” is also not in the Bible), the reality of this term is found there, the Bible clearly speaks of Jesus Christ the God-man and the believers / disciples of Christ as the many God-men.
Christ Jesus is the prototype, the first God-man, and we all are His mass reproduction – we are being conformed to His image to be the same as He is for God’s corporate expression. This is what God wants: He wants Christ, He delights in Christ, and He is satisfied with Christ, and when Christ is being reproduced in millions of people, God is fully satisfied and pleased.
God has set forth Christ as the prototype for a mass reproduction, and all those who are drawn to Him and believe into Him are daily being transformed and conformed to the image of Christ so that God may gain a large group of God-men who have Christ as their life and living to express God corporately.
God became man (Rom. 8:3) to have a mass reproduction of Himself and thereby produce a new kind – the God-man kind; we as believers in Christ are the God-man kind!
Thank You Lord Jesus for being born into us at the time of our regeneration to make us God-men. Hallelujah, we now have the authority to be called children of God who are born not of the flesh or the will of man but of God. Thank You Lord for giving us the authority to be called God-men, the reproduction of Jesus Christ as the first God-man. Amen! Lord, conform us to Your image so that You as the prototype may be reproduced in us. Make us Your corporate reproduction to be the collective expression of the Triune God in humanity!
Living the Life of a God-man as the Reproduction of Christ as the First God-man
The highest gospel is that God became man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead; according to the highest point of the gospel, God Himself became a man to have a mass reproduction of Himself in humanity and produce a new kind – the God-man kind.
First, the birth of Christ produced a God-man, whom the Bible calls, Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23); this God-man Jesus is the prototype for the mass reproduction of many God-men. Throughout the ages, all those who believe into the Lord Jesus are born of God to be God-men.
If we realize that we are God-men, we will conduct our daily life in a way of dignity, because God Himself lives in us to be expressed through us. If we realize that we are God-men, we will cooperate with the Lord to live the highest standard of human virtues for the expression of the most excellent divine attributes.
How can we live such a life? Just like the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul, we need to live a crucified human life so that the divine life may be expressed. We are born with the human life, we grow and develop our human life, and we express our human life; by default, we are natural human beings expressing ourselves. Through regeneration, another life came in: the divine life came into our spirit, and this life wants to spread in all our being and be lived out of us.
We need to live a crucified human life, realizing we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer us who live, so that Christ may live in us (Gal. 2:20). We need to live the life of a God-man as reproduction of Christ as the first God-man; He lived not by His perfect human life but lived a crucified life so that the divine life within Him may be manifested.
Daily, we believers in Christ need to be “dying to live”, that is, we are dying to ourselves to live to God. Tee more we die to ourselves, the more Christ can live in us; the more we live a crucified life, the more the divine life can live in us.
Such a life, a crucified life for the expression of the divine life, is for the reproduction of Christ as the first God-man with His life and living in us, so that God may gain a corporate God-man living for God’s expression.
May we realize that we are God-men and no longer live according to our natural man for the expression of the self but live a crucified life for the expression of the divine life.
Lord Jesus, cause us to realize that we are God-men, men born of God having God’s life in us. May this revolutionise our daily living so that we may live no longer in our natural man but live a crucified life for the expression of the divine life. Thank You Lord, we have been crucified with You, and it is no longer we who live but Christ lives in us – and the life we now live in the flesh we live by the divine life in our spirit! Amen! Lord, cause us to realize that our living must be a crucified living for the expression of the divine life in us, so that we may be the reproduction of Christ, the first God-man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message for this week, and The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, chs. 1, 2, 6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 5 / msg. 5, The Highest Point of God’s Gospel.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God was born a human being / As the Babe of Bethlehem, / Passed He then through human living, / Perfect blend of God with men. / God, according to His plan, / Lived a mingled life with man. / Hallelujah, Hallelujah, / Hallelujah, Amen! (Hymns #1088)
# Every time I say “Amen” to His Spirit / And walk by my spirit, / The kingdom seed grows and develops / Deep inside of me. / On the outside, it may seem that there’s / No change in me— / But I’m not the same, / ’Cause as the seed grows in me, / Inside I’m becoming God! (Song on being a God-man)
# I am crucified with Christ, / And the cross hath set me free; / I have ris’n again with Christ, / And He lives and reigns in me. (Hymns #482)
About aGodMan
One day God became a man on this earth. Then this God-man lived a human life on earth to express not anything human but the divine attributes as human virtues, thus expressing God in humanity.
Christ passed through human living by living a crucified human life to express the divine life….We need to realize that our living must be a crucified living. We should always put our human life to death. This is to crucify our human life. This is for the purpose of expressing the divine life. Our human life has to be crucified so that the divine life, which is ours also, can be expressed. In this way we are dying to live, that is, we are dying to ourselves to live to God. (Witness Lee, The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, pp. 14-15)
Amen! … The God-man, Jesus Christ, for the producing of the many God-men, His believers and the many brothers to our Lord, who are being conformed to the image of God’s only begotten Son, to become the many sons of God, for God’s corporate expression! O Hallelujah! Thank You Lord Jesus! … Lord, daily, we are dying to the self, “dying to live” that we may live unto You, for Your glorious expression, in the church. … O Lord Jesus! Amen.