THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The God-man Living
Message One—The God-man, the God-men, the Corporate God-man,
and the God-man Living
Scripture Reading: Luke 1:35; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:24; Phil. 1:19-21a; 3:10
I. In Christ God and man have become one entity, the God-man—Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Matt. 1:18, 20-23: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
A. Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the divine essence and born of the human essence, He was born a God-man; hence, for His being as the God-man He had two essences—the divine essence and the human essence—v. 18. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
B. The conception of the Holy Spirit in a human virgin constituted a mingling of the divine nature with the human nature, producing the God-man, the One who is both the complete God and perfect man—Luke 1:35. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
C. As a perfect man and the complete God, the God-man has the human nature with its virtues to contain God and express Him with the divine attributes. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
II. Initially, the Bible speaks of the God-man; today this God-man has become the God-men—Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
A. The Lord Jesus, the first God-man, is the prototype for the producing of the many God-men; the many God-men are His reproduction—1 Pet. 2:21. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
B. God became man to have a mass reproduction of Himself and thereby to produce a new kind; this new kind is God-man kind—Rom. 8:3, 29; Heb. 2:10. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
C. The Lord Jesus, the God-man, was a grain of wheat falling into the ground in order to produce many grains as His reproduction—John 12:24: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
1. The first grain—the first God-man—was the prototype, and the many grains—the many God-men—produced by this one grain through death and resurrection are the reproduction of the first God-man. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
2. Such a reproduction makes God happy because they look like Him, speak like Him, and live like Him—1 John 3:2; 4:17b; 2:6. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
D. 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—John 1:12-13: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
1. As children of God, we are God-men; we are the same as the One of whom we are born—1 John 3:1; 5:1. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
2. Since we have been born of God, we may say and even we should say that we are God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
3. To think of ourselves as God-men and to know and realize who we are revolutionizes us in our daily experience—2:20; 3:1-2; 5:13, 20. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
E. Eventually, the God-men will be the victors, the overcomers; this will bring in a new revival and will end this age—Rev. 12:11; 14:1; 11:15. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
III. The one new man is the corporate God-man—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
A. The first God-man, the firstborn Son of God, is the Head of this corporate God-man, and the many God-men, the many sons of God, are the Body of this corporate God-man—Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18; 2:19. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
B. The God-men, as the regenerated children of God, constitute the new man—Eph. 5:1; 4:24. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
C. In Christ God became man to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh as the one new man—1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 3:10-11. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
IV. For the one new man as the corporate God-man, we need to live the life of a God-man—Phil. 1:19-21a; 3:10: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
A. Christ’s human living was 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—Luke 1:26-35; 7:11-17; 10:25-37; 19:1-10: (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
1. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, though He was a man, He lived by God—John 6:57; 5:19, 30; 6:38; 8:28; 7:16-17. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
2. The Lord Jesus lived God and expressed God in everything; whatever He did was God’s doing from within Him and through Him—14:10. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
3. The Gospel of Mark reveals that the life the Lord Jesus lived was absolutely according to and for God’s New Testament economy. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)
B. As the expansion, increase, reproduction, and continuation of the first God-man, we should live the same kind of life He lived—1 John 2:6. (2002 TGC, msg. 1)