As believers in Christ, we are human beings loving the Lord, having His life in our spirit, and living a life to the Lord and no longer to ourselves. However, we are still human beings, and we have a certain humanity – which in some cases may not be that high and uplifted.
As we love the Lord, enjoy Him, open to Him, and allow Him to infuse us with Himself, God’s divine attributes are filling our human virtues and are expressed through our human virtues.
As believers we do not and should not strive to “have a better humanity” or be better people; we should simply cooperate with the Lord’s inner operation in us and let Him fill our virtues with Himself so that Christ would be our humanity.
The highest morality and the highest standard of human living is not something we attain to through working on it, zealously perfecting it, or developing it throughout our human life, but it is simply divinity added to our humanity so that the divine attributes of God would be expressed through the human virtues of man.
In order for Christ to be our humanity, we need to be found in Christ; we need to be daily transformed from merely being in Christ to being found by others in Christ. We may be found by others in ourselves, in our deep thinking, our up-and-down emotions, or in our strong will – but do others find us in Christ?
As we grow in the divine life day by day we need to allow the Lord to transform us from being merely in Christ to being found in Christ (Phil. 3:9) so that His divine attributes may be expressed through our human virtues.
It matters to God and to man whether we cooperate with the Lord in the matter of our humanity; if we don’t pay attention to our humanity and we don’t allow the Lord to live in us, we will lose the proper humanity and thus be disqualified from serving God.
It is possible for Christians to lie, steal, and do all kinds of things that people in the world who are not believers do, simply because they don’t cooperate with the Lord in the matter of their humanity.
Today we want to see yet another way for us to cooperate with the Lord in this respect: loving the Lord to be safeguarded in our humanity!
Being Safeguarded in our Humanity through our Loving the Lord and Consecrating to Him
We shouldn’t think that, now that we are Christians, our humanity is safeguarded; there are plenty of examples both in the Bible and in Christian history of believers who loved the Lord and servants of God greatly used by God who have failed in the matter of their humanity (see David, Solomon, Zechariah, Demas, etc).
Whether or not our humanity is safeguarded depends on whether or not we continue to love the Lord and consecrate ourselves. In ourselves we are still in the natural man in the old creation, and the natural life within us can do many things.
This is why God sovereignly put nations, boundaries, rulers, and laws and regulations on earth. We need to be subject to the authorities over us, for there’s no authority except from God, and those which exist are ordained by God (Rom. 13:1).
God put the human authorities and government in place to safeguard and protect us; the law courts, governments, and police stations exist for our living and working peacefully.
In addition, God has created a conscience within man. The conscience controls our walk and conduct. Moreover, we the saved ones have God added to our conscience. The conscience forms a part of man’s spirit. Since God lives in our spirit, He lives in our conscience. However, God does not use brute force to rule over this part of us. Rather, He draws us with His love. We see this in the Lord’s question to Peter, “Do you love Me?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” The Lord said to him, “Shepherd My sheep” (John 21:16). This is His drawing us with His love. If we do not love the Lord, we lose the restraint that comes from this kind of attraction and are liable to do anything and everything. (Witness Lee, The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, ch. 4)
God ordained many things outwardly to safeguard us in our humanity, and He has placed a conscience in us to protect us; even more, we need to cooperate with the Lord to safeguard our humanity by loving the Lord and consecrating to Him.
Our humanity is safeguarded through our loving the Lord (see John 21:15-17); when we love the Lord, we are constrained by His love, we are pressed from all sides, held to the end, forcibly limited, confined within the bonds of His love, shut up in His love and purpose to live no longer to ourselves but to Him.
Loving the Lord safeguards us in our humanity and keeps us in a proper relationship with God and with man. However, if we do not love the Lord, we lose the restraint that comes from His attraction and are liable to do anything and everything (see 2 Tim. 1:15; 4:10, 14; Eph. 4:17-21).
It is quite shocking that in such a high epistle as the one to Ephesians Paul writes of such low things such as the vanity of the mind, darkened in understanding, hardness of heart, being past feeling, lasciviousness, uncleanness, greediness, etc (see Eph. 4:17-21); this shows us that, if we don’t love the Lord and learn Christ, we can do all these things in our humanity.
Loving the Lord safeguards us, keeps us, preserves us, and constrains us to live no longer like the rest, no longer in ourselves, and no longer to ourselves but to God. Loving the Lord keeps us in Christ to live a life to the Lord, a life in which we are organically one with Him so that He may be expressed through us.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we consecrate ourselves to You. Save us from thinking that our humanity is automatically safeguarded, and keep us touching You, enjoying You, loving You, and consecrating to You so that we may be revived every morning and overcome every day. Oh Lord, keep our love burning brightly for You, a love never dwindling – always hot for You! Rekindle our love for You. Draw us with Your love. Constrain us with Your love so that we would no longer live to ourselves but to You. Lord, cause us to realize that by loving You we are safeguarded in our humanity!
Looking to the Lord to Keep us and Preserve us to the End by Loving His Appearing
We may love the Lord today and may enjoy Him in the church life right now, but we don’t know what the future holds and we cannot trust ourselves to keep ourselves or preserve ourselves.
We have to look to the Lord to keep us unchanged and to preserve us all the way to the end; if we love the Lord’s appearing, we will be kept in the realm of having Christ as our humanity – and when He returns, we will surely be rewarded (see John 14:21; 2 Tim. 1:15-18; 4:7-8).
Paul was greatly used by the Lord to bring the gospel to many cities, but at one point he said, All those in Asia left me….Alexander the coppersmith did much evil to me…Demas left me for the love of the present age…This shows that, at one point, even though many believers and churches were raised up by Paul, some of them refused his ministry and didn’t accept his portion anymore, while other believers – and even some leading ones among them – did evil to him and forsook him.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery, similarly, there have been storms and rebellions, and dear believers who loved the Lord and the ministry have left the church life; at the same time, even some leading ones in the church life have rebelled against brother Witness Lee and spoke evil things of him, and then left the church life never to return.
Oh Lord Jesus, we don’t know what is in us and when it will be manifested, but rebellion is in all of us, and storms will come. In Mark 4 the disciples were crossing the sea to the other side, the storm came – and Jesus was sleeping on the cushion in the stern, right there in the middle of the storm (Mark. 4:37-38).
If we love the Lord and His appearing, we will “sleep” with Him right through the storm and arrive at the other side. But if we try to investigate and listen to all the rumors of the storm and rebellion, we will be swept away.
May we be those like the Apostle Paul who, in the middle of all the saints and churches leaving him, he was singing the victory song, I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
May we be those who love the Lord and love His appearing so that we may be kept in the realm of having Christ as our humanity. If we love the Lord’s appearing, we will be safeguarded by Him until we die or until His appearing, and we will express His virtues.
The key is our real love toward the Lord and loving His appearing; this love will restrain us, control us, keep us, and safeguard us.
In ourselves we are capable to do all the things that the rebellious ones did and what the fallen people do, but when we love the Lord and His appearing, we are safeguarded and kept in the realm of having Christ as our humanity to express Him through our virtues.
Lord Jesus, we look to You to keep us unchanged in our love for You. We look to You to preserve us all the way to the end in the realm of having Christ as our humanity. Lord, we love You and we love Your appearing. Safeguard us until the end to love You and remain in You even when the storm comes. We don’t want to look at the waves, the wind, or anything of the storm; we simply look to You, Lord Jesus, and we love Your appearing! Keep us and preserve us, Lord. We don’t trust in ourselves but in Your keeping power. Oh Lord Jesus, we love You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Minoru C. for this week, and The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, ch. 4 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 5 / msg. 5, The Humanity of One who Serves the Lord.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I have fought the good fight; / I have finished the course; / I have fought the good fight; / I have kept the faith. / Henceforth there is laid up for me / The crown of righteousness, / Which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, / Will recompense me in that day, / And not only me / But also all those who have loved His appearing. (Scripture song)
# Your love constrains me to give my all to You. / Lord, I can’t help it; my heart is drawn to You. / Oh what a privilege! I give myself to You! / I love You, Lord, dearest Lord. / I love You! I just love You! (Song on being constrained by the Lord)
# The love of Christ is now constraining me / That I would love and love Him utterly. / His mighty love has touched me deep within / To consecrate my life and all to Him. (Song on loving God utterly)
About aGodMan
Paul said in 2 Timothy 1 that all those in Asia had turned away from him (v. 15). Chapter 4 also shows us that Demas had forsaken Paul (v. 10). Moreover, Alexander did many evil things to Paul (v. 14). It seems that there was no one there who was one with Paul. But thank the Lord, there was still Timothy who was one with him. That is why in 2 Timothy Paul did not show any discouragement. Rather, he was singing the victory song. He said, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing” (vv. 7-8). If we love His appearing, we will be kept in the realm of having Christ as our humanity. When He returns, we shall surely be rewarded. (Witness Lee, The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, pp. 45-48)