THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
God-ordained Way
Message Two—Living a Corporate God-man Living and Producing
the Reproduction of the God-man Living
Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:29; John 12:24; 1 Pet. 2:21; Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 5:16, 25; 1 Thes. 5:16-18
I. God needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through the high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation—Acts 26:16, 19: (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
A. There is the urgent need that we enter into a new realm and come up to a new level, that is, to live a God-man life. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
B. We need to see that we are God-men, born of God and belonging to the species of God; this is the beginning of the God-man living—John 3:3-6. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
C. When we think of ourselves as God-men, this thinking, this realization, revolutionizes us in our daily experience, making us God-men, one kind with God; this is the highest point of God’s gospel—Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
D. We need to become a corporate model, the reality of the Body, a people who live the life of a God-man. (2006 ST, msg. 2)
II. The disciples of Christ are discipled through Christ’s human living on the earth, as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in humanity, revolutionizing their concept concerning man—Matt. 5:1; 28:19; John 5:19, 30; Phil. 3:10; 1:21a: (The Vital Groups, msg. 2)
A. Our life should be a copy, a reproduction, of the model of the life of Christ, the first God-man—1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 11:28-29; Eph. 4:20-22; John 10:30; 5:19, 30; 7:6, 8, 18. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
B. The Spirit of life and reality who was breathed into the disciples would guide them into the reality of what they had observed of the Lord when they were with Him for three and a half years—16:13; 20:22. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
C. We are also discipled to live a God-man life by observing the intrinsic pattern of Christ’s sent ones, His slaves, who are His duplication. (“I was in the recovery observing how Brother Watchman Nee acted for eighteen years. All that I observed in him became things discipling me”—The Vital Groups, p. 18.)—1 Cor. 4:17; Heb. 13:7; Phil. 3:17; 1 Tim. 4:12. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
D. The only way to live the life of a God-man according to the Lord’s model is to set our entire being on the mingled spirit, walking, living, and having our being according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 10:12; Eph. 6:17-18; 1 Thes. 5:16-20. (1999 MDC, msg. 3)
III. The New Testament reveals that Christ as the first God-man made Himself a prototype for the mass reproduction of many brothers—the many God-men—Rom. 8:29; John 12:24: (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. The first grain—the first God-man—was a prototype, and the many grains—the many God-men—produced by this one grain are the mass reproduction—John 12:24. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. The believers in Christ as His brothers, the many God-men, need to live a life as a copy of the life of Christ, the first God-man—1 Pet. 2:21: (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
1. A life bearing the cross to follow the footsteps of Christ—Matt. 16:24; 1 Pet. 2:21b. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
2. A life dying to themselves and living to God—2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:19. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
3. A life being crucified with Christ to be conformed to His death by the power of His resurrection—Phil. 3:10. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
4. A life for Christ, the first God-man, to be formed in His many brothers. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. The only life that is pleasing to God is the life that is a repetition of the life Christ lived on the earth—John 8:29; 2 Cor. 5:9: (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
1. We need to follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus, bearing the brands, the characteristics of His life—Gal. 6:17. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
2. To follow Jesus is to live the life of a God-man, not by the human life but by the divine life, so that God may be expressed, or manifested, in the flesh in all His divine attributes becoming the human virtues—1 Tim. 3:15-16. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
IV. We should be the same as Christ, and our Christian life should be a duplication of the life of Christ—1 Pet. 2:21; Phil. 1:21a; 3:10: (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. Christ’s human living was the living of a man who lived God to express the divine attributes in the human virtues—Luke 7:11-17; 10:25-37; 19:1-10. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. Christ’s humanity is fine, perfect, balanced, and right in every way, lacking nothing, having no fault, and not having anything in excess—23:1-4, 14. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. There is no natural life with the Lord Jesus; He lived a crucified life daily, emanating the fragrance of His resurrection through His sufferings—1 Cor. 5:7-8; Matt. 12:46-50; Luke 9:23-24; Matt. 2:11; John 11:25. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
D. In the human living of the Lord Jesus, He was a man of prayer—Luke 3:21-22; 6:12; 9:29; 11:1-2. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
V. All of the God-man living is related to the Spirit, so we must be a man of the spirit that we may have a proper God-man living—1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 5:16, 25; 1 Thes. 5:16-18: (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. If we would become a reproduction of the first God-man and live Christ as the God-man, we must be reborn of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit and be transformed by the pneumatic Christ in our soul—John 3:3, 6; 2 Cor. 3:18. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. We live the divine life, the spiritual life in our spirit, by the exercise of faith, which is stimulated by the presence of the life-giving Spirit—Gal. 2:20 and note 5. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. When we love the Lord, pursue Him, and fellowship with Him, we spontaneously live in a condition that is beyond human description; we live not according to the environment but according to the Lord’s moving and leading within us—Phil. 2:12-13; 4:11-13. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
D. When we open ourselves to the Lord, love Him, and desire to be joined to Him as one, we are filled and possessed by Him and live out the glory of divinity and the virtues of humanity—1 Cor. 2:9; 6:17; Phil. 4:4-9. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
E. We should live by the Spirit, have our life dependent on and regulated by the Spirit, live in the new creation, pursue Christ in order to gain Him, and practice the church life—Gal. 5:16, 25 and notes 1 and 2. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
F. We must live a rejoicing, praying, and thanking life; such a life is a glory to God—1 Thes. 5:16-18; note 2 on 5:18. (2001 ICSC, msg. 4)
G. The One who lives the life of a God-man is now the Spirit living in us and through us; we must reject self-cultivation and the building up of our natural man and allow nothing other than this One to fill us and occupy us so that we may live Him and express Him personally and corporately in the church, which is His Body—Eph. 3:16-19; 1:22-23. (2015 MDC, msg. 4)