THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The God-man Living
Message Two—The Pattern of the God-man Living
Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:20; 6:17; Phil. 1:19-21a; 3:8-10; 4:4-9, 11-13; 1 Tim. 1:16
I. The book of Acts reveals that the apostle Paul lived the life of a God-man, a life with the highest standard of human virtues expressing the most excellent divine attributes—Acts 27:1—28:10; note 1 on 28:9:
A. This was Jesus living again on the earth in His divinely enriched humanity.
B. This was the wonderful, excellent, and mysterious God-man, who lived in the Gospels, continuing to live through one of His many members.
C. This was a living witness of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and God-exalted Christ—Phil. 1:20-21a.
II. The Epistles reveal that Christ lived within Paul as Paul’s life and Paul lived Christ, taking Christ as his living—Gal. 2:20; 6:17:
A. Paul lived the life of a God-man by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to live Christ for His magnification—Phil. 1:19-21a:
1. Not living by his natural human life but by the divine life of Christ in resurrection—v. 21a; Col. 3:4.
2. Living Christ to magnify Him to participate in the salvation of Christ in life—Rom. 5:10.
3. Experiencing a continual salvation by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the operation of the indwelling God—Phil. 1:19-21a; 2:12-16.
B. Paul lived the life of a God-man, being found by others to be in Christ and having the righteousness of God through faith in Christ—3:7-9; Gal. 2:19-20:
1. Aspiring to have his whole being immersed in and saturated with Christ that all who observed him might find him fully in Christ—Phil. 3:9a.
2. Not living in his own righteousness but in the righteousness of God, and being found in such a transcendent condition expressing God by living Christ, not by keeping the law—v. 9b.
3. As such a person, Paul was not a man in culture, religion, philosophy, ethics, or morality but one who was absolutely in Christ and who lived God as his daily life.
C. Paul lived the life of a God-man, gaining Christ by experiencing the power of resurrection—vv. 10-16; Rom. 1:4; 8:11:
1. Pursuing to know and experience not merely the excellency of Christ but the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings—Phil. 3:10.
2. Being conformed to the mold of Christ’s death, dying to his human life to live the divine life—v. 10.
D. Paul lived the life of a God-man, being full of forbearance and without anxiety—4:4-7; 1 Thes. 5:16-18; 2 Cor. 12:7-9:
1. Forbearance being reasonableness, considerateness, and consideration in dealing with others, the sum total of a life that lives Christ.
2. Being one with the Lord, Paul was not anxious about anything, for he was not only under the Lord’s sovereign hand but was in the Lord Himself.
E. Paul lived the life of a God-man, manifesting the excellent virtues of the humanity of Christ—Phil. 4:8:
1. Christ being true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, well spoken of; He is the reality of these praiseworthy virtues.
2. Christian humanity being a life lived out through the mingling of the divine attributes and the human virtues with the proper human flavor.
F. Paul lived the life of a God-man, having learned to take Christ as his secret and power—vv. 11-13:
1. Learning how to take Christ as life, how to live Christ, how to magnify Christ, and how to gain Christ in every matter and in all circumstances.
2. Being able to do all things in Christ through the empowering of Christ within him.
III. We are the Body; yet at the same time, we are the members; we have to maintain our life as members and also maintain the Body life; we have to pay attention to the corporate life and also pay attention to the individual life; if we pay attention to one aspect only, we will become an unturned cake—Hosea 7:8; 2 Cor. 5:13:
A. “Whether we were beside ourselves, it was to God; or whether we are sober-minded, it is for you”—2 Cor. 5:13:
1. Being beside ourselves is being crazy; we do this to God; but we are sober-minded for others; on one hand, this is very personal; on the other hand, this is very corporate; being beside ourselves is a personal matter; being sober-minded is a corporate matter.
2. I hope that you will take care of both sides; on one hand, we should be lively before God; on the other hand, we should be very normal before men.
B. Being subject to God and subject to one another—James 4:7; Eph. 5:21:
1. James 4:7 tells us to be subject to God, and Ephesians 5:21 tells us to be subject one to another.
2. Here are two sides once again; on one hand, we have to be subject to God, and on the other hand, we have to be subject to one another; being subject to God is a personal matter, but being subject to one another is something that we should practice among the brothers.
C. “That there would be no division in the body”—1 Cor. 12:25:
1. In studying the book of 1 Corinthians in the past, we have seen the Body of Christ; we can advance individually, but no growth is independent of the Body.
2. May God bless us so that we know the preciousness of the individual life as well as of the corporate life; may we not annul the corporate life by our individual life, and may we not annul the individual life by our corporate life.
IV. Paul was shown mercy and was graced by the Lord that he might be a pattern to those who are to believe on Him—1 Tim. 1:16 and note 2:
A. We should practice the things that we have learned, received, heard, and seen in the apostle—Phil. 4:9 and note 3.
B. Because Paul was an imitator of Christ, we should imitate him that we may also become imitators of Christ and a pattern to all the believers—1 Thes. 1:7 and note 1; 2 Thes. 3:7-9 and note 1 on 3:7.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE LIFE OF CHRIST, THE FIRST GOD-MAN,
ON THE EARTH
Being Both God and Man, Having the Divine Life and the Human Life
First, we need to be clear about the life of Christ, the first God-man, on the earth. He was both God and man, having the divine life and the human life.
Living a Life of Humanity, Not by His Human Life, but by His Divine Life
Christ lived a life of humanity, not by His human life, but by His divine life.
Dying to Himself but Living to the Father,
Dying to Live Out the Divine Attributes as His Human Virtues
He died to live. He was dying every day during His whole life of thirty-three and a half years. He died to Himself that He might live to the Father (John 5:19, 30; 8:28). I like this phrase dying to live. Christ died to Himself in order to live out the divine attributes as His human virtues.
Expressing Not Himself but the Father under the Cross
All the Time in His Life on the Earth
Christ was under the cross all the time on the earth, expressing not Himself but the Father. One day Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). The Lord responded, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). The disciples saw the Lord Jesus, but when they saw Him, they saw the Father. This shows that He was the expression of the Father.
Until Being Practically Crucified on the Cross
Christ lived a life under the cross all the time until He was practically crucified on the cross to accomplish His all-inclusive death for God’s eternal redemption of His chosen people. God’s chosen people became fallen and lost, but He redeemed them back through the wonderful death of that wonderful Person, Christ.
Making Himself, the First God-man,
a Prototype for the Mass Reproduction of Many Brothers—
Many God-men
Christ made Himself, the first God-man, a prototype for the mass reproduction of many brothers—the many God-men (Rom. 8:29). I have been a Christian for about sixty-nine years. After so many years, I have been made by God to know only one thing—God became man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is my unique burden, my unique message. God and man will become one entity, and that one entity is the mingling of divinity with humanity. This mingling will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which is the conclusion of the entire Bible.
BEARING THE CROSS IN THE STEPS OF CHRIST
In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” This is to live a life of bearing the cross in the steps of Christ (1 Pet. 2:21b).
DYING TO THEMSELVES AND LIVING TO GOD
Both 2 Corinthians 5:15 and Galatians 2:19 show that the believers in Christ should die to themselves and live to God.
CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST TO BE CONFORMED
TO HIS DEATH BY THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
Paul said that he was crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20) to be conformed to His death by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
PUTTING TO DEATH THE PRACTICES OF THE BODY
BY THE SPIRIT IN RESURRECTION
Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” You have to put to death by the Spirit in His resurrection whatever your body does. This is to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection. No one in his natural life can put everything that his body does to death. But we, the God-men, who are the reproduction of the prototype, can. We can know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.
FOR CHRIST, THE FIRST GOD-MAN,
TO BE FORMED IN HIS MANY BROTHERS
Such a life of dying to ourselves and living to God is for Christ, the first God-man, to be formed in His many brothers, the many God-men, for the building up of His organic Body that the eternal economy of God might be carried out. The Christian life is not a matter of outwardly loving people or of being meek or patient in our human ethics. We need to die every day (1 Cor. 15:31). The married saints need to die to their spouse. The students need to die to their classmates and teachers. We need to die to live so that the many God-men can become the building material for the building up of the Body of Christ to carry out God’s eternal economy.
CONSTITUTED TO BE HIS OVERCOMERS
Thus, a number (not all) of His brothers, the many God-men, through His death and in His resurrection may be constituted to be His overcomers to close this age and to bring in His kingdom age. This is the real meaning of our being a Christian. It is a life of dying every day. We must admit that we have not been that absolute or faithful in practicing this dying-to-live life. God has opened up to us the high peak of His divine revelation. He also puts us in an environment of sufferings to force us to die to live. I hope we all would be brought into the reality of Philippians 3:10: “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” (The Practical Way to Live a Life According to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, msg. 2)