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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26, 28; Ezek. 1:26; Dan. 7:13-14; Matt. 19:28; John 5:27; Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5; Rev. 20:4
In this last chapter on the meal offering, we will see how the humanity of Jesus is necessary for the kingdom. In the above verses we can see from Genesis 1 to the end of Revelation that humanity has much to do with God’s kingdom. In the beginning, God created man not only to be in His image but also to have dominion. “God said, Let Us make man in our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth...And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26, 28).
Image is a matter of expression. God created man in His own image so that man may express God. The image of God is for the expression of God. But man was also created to exercise dominion over all the earth. This is the kingdom. The word over is used five times in Genesis 1:26 — one time for the living things in the air and three times for the living things on the earth. And it is especially mentioned that man is to have dominion over the creeping things. Satan, who is called the old serpent, is the head of all the creeping things; therefore, this means that man must have dominion over Satan, the rebellious one. God’s intention is for man to control the earth.
Then in Genesis 1:28 the Lord says that man must subdue or conquer the earth. If there were nothing rebellious on the earth, there would be nothing to subdue. But because of the rebellion of Satan, there is the need of subduing the earth. God would never do it Himself, although He could. To deal with a rebellious creature would lower His position as Creator. Therefore, God needs another creature, a man, to subdue the rebellious creature. This is a matter of God’s kingdom.
At the end of the Lord’s prayer, we have the words, “Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (Matt. 6:13). Here we see the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Without the kingdom it is impossible to exercise power, and without power there is no glory. Glory depends upon power, and the power is exercised only in the kingdom. Hence, God needs a kingdom on the earth so that He may exercise His power to manifest His glory. God’s intention is to build a kingdom on the earth, and in this kingdom God will be free to exercise His authority and power. It is in this realm of His authority in the kingdom that God can express His glory. Glory is simply the manifestation of God Himself. When God is manifested, that is glory.
For example, the glory of an electric light is just the manifestation of the invisible electricity. The glory and the light of electricity is the electricity itself manifested. When electricity is manifested, the glory in the light appears. God is a mystery; He is hidden and invisible. Like the mystery of electricity, we can see the light when the electricity is manifested. Likewise, when God is manifested, we can see His glory. However, to express God’s glory, a realm is needed where God may exercise His authority and power. This realm of authority and power is God’s kingdom.
In a sense, the church on earth today is God’s kingdom. This is shown in Romans 14:17: “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 12 speaks of the Body, the church. Then in chapter 14 Paul speaks of the church, not as the Body but as the kingdom of God. If we put these chapters together, we can see that the kingdom of God mentioned in Romans 14 is just the church. The church is not only the house of God or the Body of Christ but also the kingdom of God. And in the kingdom of God, the main factors are God’s authority, God’s reigning, and God’s ruling. God’s kingdom does not require angels; God’s kingdom needs man. The need is for humanity.
Let us look at Ezekiel 1:26: “Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a man, above it.” Ezekiel saw a vision of a throne in the clear sky, and on the throne there was One in appearance like a man. We would think that God would be sitting on the throne, but Ezekiel saw a man. In this book Ezekiel was called the son of man ninety-three times by the Lord. The whole concept of this book in God’s divine vision is altogether focused on the matter of man. God needs a man. Our concept is that the One on the throne of the whole universe is God, but here is a verse telling us that the One who is sitting on the throne is a man.
Humanly speaking, it is easy for God to establish a kingdom by Himself. But Satan would only belittle this. We can see the belittling of Satan in the book of Job. Satan told God that Job feared Him simply because He blessed him, and if God were to take away all the blessings, Job would not fear Him. Satan thought that God bought Job by His blessings. But what a glory to God that Job still feared Him when all the blessings were taken away! That was a real shame to Satan. When God stripped Job of so many things, he still loved God. He loved God not for the blessings but for God Himself.
God would never establish a kingdom by Himself. He knows what Satan would say if He did. Therefore, God created man and then left this man in a garden without any fence. God did this purposely so that Satan could try whatever means he chose to attempt to frustrate God’s plan. But after Satan damaged man, God’s wisdom was even further expressed. God had created a good and perfect man, yet Satan damaged him and made him a rebel and a sinner. But God would regenerate this man and make a new man. Out of all Satan’s destruction, God would build something new. And praise the Lord, God did it!
Before we were saved, we were just a sketch of destruction. But out of this sketch of destruction God has regenerated us to become a new humanity. This is a glory to God and a shame to Satan. As long as the church has the proper humanity, God can tell Satan, “Even in Los Angeles, the movie capital of the world, I have built up a humanity against you. I have not done it by angels or by Myself but with the human beings you damaged. I have built up a new humanity.” What a glory to God to be able to say this to Satan! Even Satan will realize that the more he damages man, the more glory God will get.
My burden is that the veil may be taken away so that we will all know God’s ultimate intention. His purpose is not merely that we may all go to heaven. God’s ultimate intention is to build up a kingdom with His humanity on this earth. Do not think that I was a good person before I was saved. I certainly was not. But I am here ministering something of Christ to all of you. This is a glory to the Lord and a shame to Satan. All Satan can say is that the little man whom he once damaged is now ministering Christ.
The principle applies to all of us. Some of the young people in the church were hippies in the past. Only the Lord knows the kind of life they lived. For all these so-called “ex-hippies” to take the Lord’s humanity for a proper human life is the biggest shame to Satan. Satan would have to say, “Five years ago I greatly damaged these young people, yet today they have such a proper humanity. I have no face to stay in Los Angeles.” This is for the kingdom of God.
Look at the corruption and lawlessness of today’s situation, especially among the young generation. The young people long to be liberated and free in everything. They want to be liberated from the yoke of their parents, from the yoke of their schools, from the yoke of the police, from the yoke of the neighborhood, and even from the yoke of the constitution of the country. Their concept is that the more wild they are, the more free they are. They do not want to be bound in any way. But have you realized that this kind of concept comes from Satan, the source of lawlessness? He is the source of all the rebellion against authority, because he hates the kingdom of God.
For God to have a kingdom on the earth among the younger generation, there is the need of a group of people to be redeemed and regenerated in order to take the humanity of Jesus. By this humanity they are balanced in all things. For example, not long ago the neckties were quite narrow. But today they are wider than ever. They look like a big fan. Do you not think that is rather extreme? Of course, outward adjustment will never work, but if we take the humanity of Jesus, I believe that we will not be that extreme. By taking the Lord’s humanity, we will never be out of balance. We must be under God’s heavenly ruling. If we are, even our neckties will manifest our balance. Our shoes and our clothing will give others the impression that we are absolutely sane, healthy, and sober. We are sober and balanced. Everything is properly proportioned. We know what kind of shoes we must wear; we even know how much we can spend to buy a pair of shoes. We are so balanced, so moderate, so sober, and so healthy. We must be able to make such a declaration to the whole universe. All the demons know the true situation much better than we do. If we make such a declaration, they may point to our hair. Our hair may indicate that we are not so sound. They may point out the pair of shoes that we bought last week. We may say that we are balanced, but actually we may not be. We may be simply following the modern ways of today’s evil generation. When they wear strange things, we follow and wear them too. Only unbalanced people do this. This is why there are many mental cases. However, we are under the covering of the Lord’s prevailing blood. By His victorious grace we can boldly declare to Satan that we are not mental cases. We are moderate in everything. But it is not because of us; it is by the humanity of Jesus. We enjoy His humanity in our daily walk.
The Son of Man is sitting on the throne not only in Ezekiel but also in Daniel 7:13-14: “I watched in the night visions, / And there with the clouds of heaven / One like a Son of Man was coming; / And He came to the Ancient of Days, / And they brought Him near before Him. / And to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, / That all the peoples, nations, and languages might serve Him. / His dominion is an eternal dominion, which will not pass away; / And His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.” Daniel saw this vision of the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days to receive the kingdom. We know that this is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Himself told us of the time when the Son of Man will sit on the throne (Matt. 19:28), and John 5:27 tells us that God gave Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. As a man He is qualified to execute God’s judgment.
First Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21, and Ephesians 5:3-5 are verses that show us the humanity which is not fit for God’s kingdom. I do not even like to mention all these things; they are the negative side of human virtues. These verses mean that if we do not have the proper human virtues, we are finished as far as the kingdom of God is concerned. If we mean business with God to participate in His kingdom, we must have the proper human virtues. It is impossible to have these virtues by ourselves. But thank God that we have One who is the proper, unique man dwelling in our spirit. Such a One with all His proper human virtues is in us to be our humanity. Paul says in Ephesians 5 that we should not allow these negative things to be even named among us, as is fitting for saints (v. 3). We must realize that as saints, we are holy human beings. Therefore, our mouths should never be used even once to mention anything filthy. We need such a human virtue. We should never mention our sordid failures in the past. God has forgotten them, so let us forget them. We never need to speak of things like that. Rather, we should say, “Praise the Lord!” and give thanks to God.
All these virtues show us that for the kingdom of God we need the proper human virtues, and for all these proper human virtues, we need the humanity of Jesus. When we have this humanity we will not only be in the kingdom of God; we will be the kingdom of God. The church in Los Angeles is the kingdom of God in Los Angeles. Satan has been deceiving the church for many generations. Either he keeps Christians from spiritual things, or he causes them to pay their attention to spiritual things on the divine side, neglecting their proper humanity. But the Lord is going to recover the humanity of Jesus. This is another item that the Lord has recovered in order to strengthen His recovery of the church life. Without the proper humanity it is impossible to have a proper local church life.
In all the local churches, people must see the glory of God expressed in human beings. How they behave, how they dress, how they contact one another, how they behave in their family life, and how they act in their daily walk must be really human yet manifest the glory of God. This is the proper church life.
Finally, when we come to the end of the Bible, we see the overcomers who will reign with Christ for a thousand years. “I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and of those who had not worshipped the beast nor his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:4). How do all these overcomers become qualified to reign with Christ? I believe that it is by the humanity of Jesus being worked into them.
May the Lord help us to realize how much we need His humanity. We need all the human virtues in order to put Satan to shame. Every bit of our daily walk must conform with the Lord’s humanity in our spirit. If the Lord’s humanity does not agree with what we are doing, we must say, “Lord, I will never go against Your humanity within me in this matter. I will simply give it up.” If we do this, we will all have a proper daily life in the humanity of Jesus. Then we will have a proper church life, and this church life will be God’s kingdom on the earth today. This will be a real shame to Satan and a real boast to God.
