THE SECOND PART: A Bird’s-Eye View of the New Testament
The Full Ministry of Christ in the Stage of Incarnation
Message Two—Expressing the Bountiful God’s Rich Attributes in His Humanity
Scripture Reading: John 8:12; 5:19; Luke 10:21; Eph. 3:19; Acts 3:14; John 5:19, 30; Matt. 12:28
I. Christ expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through his aromatic virtues—Eph. 3:19; 1 John 1:5; Acts 3:14; Luke 7:36-50; Heb. 2:17: (2000 TGC, msg. 5)
A. God’s rich attributes are the unsearchable riches of what God is. (2000 TGC, msg. 5)
B. Christ expressed the divine attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness—Eph. 3:19; John 8:12; Acts 3:14. (2000 TGC, msg. 5)
C. Christ’s aromatic virtues include His mercy, compassion, meekness, forbearance, lowliness, obedience, faithfulness, and truthfulness—Heb. 2:17; Matt. 9:36; 11:29; 2 Cor. 10:1; Phil. 2:8; Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 11:10. (2000 TGC, msg. 5)
II. The Gospel of Luke unveils the ministry of the Man-Savior in His human virtues with His divine attributes—Luke 7; 10:25-37: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
A. The Man-Savior healed the slave of the centurion, who saw that the Lord was a man under authority with the word of authority—7:1-10: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
1. In the Man-Savior’s human virtue, as a man under authority, He was willing to go to the home of the centurion—v. 6. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
2. In the Man-Savior’s divine attribute, He spoke the word of authority to heal the centurion’s slave—vv. 7-10. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
B. The Man-Savior showed pity to a weeping widow by raising up her only son—vv. 11-17: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
1. In His human virtue of compassion, the Man-Savior spoke to the widow and touched the bier of the “only son of his mother”; (note: He also healed the daughter of Jarius, his “only daughter”, and cast a demon out of a man’s son, his “only child”)—v. 12; 8:42; 9:38. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
2. His divine attributes were expressed in His human virtues by He is raising the young man from the dead. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
C. The Man-Savior forgave a sinful woman—7:36-50: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
1. The Man-Savior’s human virtues of affection, kindness, patience, mercy, and understanding were displayed in His fellowship with this woman. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
2. His divine attributes, especially the attributes of divine authority to forgive a person’s sins and His giving of peace to the forgiven sinner, were also displayed—vv. 49-50. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
D. The Man-Savior presented the parable of the good Samaritan to signify the expression of His divine attributes with His human virtues—10:25-37: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
1. The Man-Savior, in His lost-one-seeking and sinner-saving ministry journey, came down to the place where the wounded victim of the Judaistic robbers lay in his miserable and dying condition—19:10. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
2. When the Man-Savior saw him, He was moved with compassion in His humanity with His divinity and rendered him tender healing and saving care, fully meeting his urgent need—10:33-35. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
E. The Man-Savior presented the parable of the prodigal son, showing His shepherding, seeking, and saving spirit with the Father’s loving, forgiving, and compassionate heart—15:11-32; cf. 9:55-56: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
1. A seeking saint should be poor in spirit and pure in heart, and a repentant believer should always have a willing spirit for the things of the Lord and for the church—Matt. 5:3, 8; Psa. 51:12; cf. Phil. 2:20-22. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
2. We must follow the steps of the processed Triune God in His seeking and saving fallen people according to His heavenly ministry of shepherding people with His saving love—Luke 15. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
F. The Man-Savior acted in His human virtues with the divine attributes in His word to the criminal on the cross—23:42-43: (2008 ST, msg. 3)
1. When Christ was being crucified, one of the two criminals who were crucified with Him said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” —v. 42. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
2. Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise”; this shows the divine attribute of His eternal and indiscriminate love expressed through His cherishing human virtue—v. 43. (2008 ST, msg. 3)
III. Christ’s incarnation and God-man living fulfilled God’s intention in His creation of man—Gen. 1:26-27; John 1:1, 14; Luke 1:31-32, 35; 2:40, 52: (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
A. The hidden mystery is that God in His divine Trinity desires to dispense Himself into man and to work Himself into man to make man His duplication for His expression—Rom. 16:25; Eph. 1:9; 3:9; Col. 1:27. (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
B. The incarnation of Christ is closely related to God’s purpose in the creation of man in His image and after His likeness—that man would receive Him as life and express Him in His divine attributes—Gen. 1:26; 2:9; Acts 3:14a; Eph. 4:24. (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
C. The Man-Savior was born of the human essence with the human virtues in order to uplift these virtues to such a standard that they can match God’s attributes for His expression—Luke 1:35: (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
1. As the One who was conceived of the divine essence with the divine attributes to be the content and reality of His human virtues, Christ fills the empty human virtues—Matt. 1:18, 20. (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
2. The divine attributes fill, strengthen, enrich, and sanctify the human virtues for the purpose of expressing God in the human virtues. (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
D. When the Lord Jesus saves us, He comes into us as the One with the human virtues filled with the divine attributes—Luke 2:10-11, 25-32; 19:9-10: (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
1. As the life-giving Spirit He enters into us to bring God into our being and to fill our virtues with God’s attributes—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17. (2000 TGC, msg. 4)
2. Such a life saves us from within and uplifts our human virtues, sanctifying and transforming us—Rom. 5:10; 12:2. (2000 TGC, msg. 4)