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Scripture Reading: John 6:57; 7:16-17; 12:49-50; 14:10, 14:24; 5:17, 19; 10:25b; 12:24; 20:17, 22; 19:34; 3:29-30; Col. 3:3
In the previous chapter we saw the seven main items revealed in the Gospels. These are incarnation, the kingdom with its requirements, the miserable condition of fallen man, the all-sufficiency of Christ to meet man’s need, the living of the divine life through and in the human life, Christ’s imparting of Himself into man, and man being brought into God through Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension.
We must know these seven items as thoroughly as we know God’s redemption. We respect God’s redemption in Christ very much. However, today in Christianity people are clear concerning Christ’s redemption, but they are not clear, for example, about Christ’s imparting Himself into us. These seven points are the very essence of the four Gospels. Unless we grasp these seven points and have a proper impression of them, we cannot understand the depth and real meaning of the Gospels; we will understand the Gospels in a very superficial way. On the surface, it may seem that we understand them, but we will not understand them deeply if we do not have this insight.
The books which comprise the first part of the New Testament first reveal that God has mingled Himself with man and has become a man, putting man on Himself to live with man and as man. We can never exhaust the consideration, understanding, and realization of this point. We all must grasp, realize, and consider this matter more and more. One day the eternal, infinite, unlimited God, who is the almighty Creator, came into man and mingled Himself with man as one in order to live in man and live as a man. This is truly wonderful!
The general teaching in Christianity concerning the incarnation is that God’s Son had to become a man in order to save man. However, this is too shallow and superficial. We may have never heard that incarnation is the mingling of divinity with humanity. God’s intention is to mingle Himself with man. Divinity must be one with humanity. This is not merely for the purpose of saving man. Even if man had never fallen, divinity would still need to be mingled with humanity. This was God’s original plan and heart’s desire. God desires to mingle Himself with man. This is His delight. Therefore, one day He came into man and became a man. He lived with man, in man, and as a man. He spoke, walked, talked, and did things as a man.
Second, when Christ came to man in this way, He brought with Him the kingdom. Without the kingdom there is no possibility for God to accomplish His purpose. A man’s home may be considered his kingdom; he is the “king,” and his wife and children are his “subjects.” This is to work out what is on his heart, to accomplish his plan. A kingdom is a sphere, a realm, in which we exercise authority to do things and work out what is in our heart.
The only way for God to accomplish His desire is by having a kingdom. He must have a sphere, a realm, in which He can reign. In this way He can exercise and manifest His authority to rule over things and accomplish what is on His heart. When Christ was incarnated, God’s kingdom was brought to man. Hence, the kingdom with its requirements is emphasized strongly in the New Testament.
The third main item revealed in the first section of the New Testament is the miserable condition of fallen man. In the four Gospels many cases are mentioned which show us the real condition of fallen man. Man is sinful, weak, full of sickness and death, possessed by demons, taken over by evil spirits and by darkness, and under the power and in the kingdom of the evil one. Wherever this incarnated One went, He encountered these things.
In addition, all these cases reveal to us the all-sufficiency of Christ in meeting man’s need. There was not one case in which Christ could not meet the need. The four Gospels give us a record of man’s condition and Christ’s sufficiency to meet man’s need.
The first two items above — the incarnation and the kingdom — are very important, but they are neglected by many Christians today. The third and fourth items, however, are not as important as the first two, but they are overemphasized by many today. Wherever we go, we may hear people speaking about the miserable condition of fallen man and the sufficiency of Christ to meet our need. This shows us that people often take secondary matters as being primary.
The fifth, sixth, and seventh of the main items of the New Testament are especially deep and vitally important. The fifth item is the wonderful living of the Lord Jesus, a living which was not a human life alone but a living of the divine life through the human life.
According to Genesis 1 and 2, in the entire universe there are four different kinds of life. The first is the vegetable life, the lowest life, which is without consciousness. The second is the animal life, the lower life with consciousness. The third is the human life, the higher life with consciousness. The fourth is the highest life in the universe — the uncreated, eternal, divine life which is God Himself. The first three kinds of life are found in Genesis 1, and the last kind is found in Genesis 2:9. This, of course, does not include the angelic life, which is not mentioned in Genesis 1 and 2. The angels were created as part of God’s original creation, but Genesis 1:2 through the end of chapter 2 is not the record of God’s original creation but an account of the recovery of God’s creation.
In the entire history of the human race and of the universe itself, there had never been a living that was the living out of the divine life. There had been the living of the vegetable life, the animal life, and the human life, but there had never been the living out of the divine life in the human life, a living which is a combination of the divine life with the human life as God Himself living in man and through man.
Such a living is very wonderful, and it must be our Christian living. What is the Christian living? The Christian living is the divine life, God Himself, lived out of humanity. This must be our Christian living today. Our Christian living must be the living out of God Himself through man, a living by the divine life through the human life. In the record of the four Gospels, especially the Gospel of John, there was a man on the earth who lived not by His own life but by another life (John 6:57). He was a man, but He always lived by God, by the divine life. He was a man with the living of God. He had a wonderful living, which was a combination of God’s life with the human life.
From my youth I heard many Christian teachers and ministers speaking about love. They told us that Christianity is the religion of love, so we should love others. We were instructed from the Scriptures to love our neighbors, to love one another, and to love even our enemies. However, even if all Christians could love others, that is not the real Christian love. Genuine Christian love is not from ourselves; it is a love by God, by the divine life. We may love others by ourselves, but that is not genuine Christian love. It is not a matter of our own love but a matter of living out God. We must live out God and live God through us. The genuine Christian living is not a matter of loving or hating, or of being humble or proud; it is a matter of living out God.
The principle of the New Testament is that man would not live by the human life but by the divine life. The living that the Lord Jesus had while He was on earth was the living of the divine life mingled with the human life. Although this wonderful Jesus had His human life, He did not live by that human life; rather, He lived by God as His life. When this man spoke, He did not speak by His own life but by God’s life (John 7:16-17; 12:49-50; 14:24). When this man worked, He did not work by His own life but by God as His life (5:17, 19; 10:25; 14:10b). The first few books of the New Testament reveal a wonderful, real man living on this earth not by His own life but by God as His life. This is the living of Jesus, which is the fifth main item mentioned in the four Gospels.
The entire Gospel of Matthew shows us that with the living of Jesus there was the kingdom of God and the real submission to God. The kingdom of God was brought in to exercise God’s authority because there was a person who was completely submissive to God’s authority.
The Gospel of Mark shows us the living of Jesus as one who was fully obedient to God.
The Gospel of Luke shows us the living of a very proper, normal man. Such a man was absolutely separated, holy, toward God; He was righteous with Himself, being wrong with others in no way; and He was always peaceful, kind, and good toward others.
In the Gospel of John we see the living of Jesus as the living of a human life mingled with the divine life. Man and God, God and man, are mingled together to live, to walk, and to work as one.
In summary, the Gospel of Matthew shows us a living which brings in the exercise of God’s authority and causes people to submit to His authority in a full way. In the Gospel of Mark we find a person who lives a life in absolute obedience to God to serve God’s will and His purpose. Luke’s Gospel presents the Lord Jesus as a proper, normal person who is wrong in no way with God, with Himself, and with others. Jesus could be such a perfect man because He had this kind of living. The Gospel of John shows us a human life mingled with the divine life. These two lives live, walk, work, think, and do things together. In everything, these two lives are one.
Such a wonderful God-man, a man with God living in Him, needs to be duplicated and reproduced. This is the sixth major item in the New Testament. For this purpose, He needs to impart Himself into many others. In this way, Christ may be likened to a stencil for copying. Everything of the Lord is composed as a stencil in order to be duplicated and reproduced. Such a man with such a wonderful life and living must be duplicated in the way of mass reproduction.
This man with such a living is likened to a grain of wheat that is multiplied (John 12:24). The way in which this grain of wheat is multiplied is by death and resurrection. By His death and resurrection Christ imparted Himself into all His believers (20:22; 1 Pet. 1:3). The one grain of wheat after death and resurrection became many grains. This is the imparting of Christ into us. At the beginning of the four Gospels Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18), the one grain of wheat, but at the end of the Gospels Christ became the Firstborn among many brothers (20:17), the first of many grains. The one grain became many grains because He imparted Himself into many others.
The Lord’s death and resurrection are a matter not only of Christ’s imparting Himself to us but also of His redemption. By His death Christ redeemed and recovered us, bringing us back to God. However, redemption is not all; redemption is for imparting life, just as cleaning a cup is for the purpose of filling it. In order to use a cup in the way we intend, we must clean it; then after cleaning it, we can fill it. Christ’s work is in this principle. After He redeemed us, He fills us with Himself as life. In this way, redemption and life-imparting always go together.
John 19:34 says, “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.” Two things flowed out of the Lord’s side: blood and water. The blood is mentioned first and then the water. The blood is for redeeming and cleansing, and the water signifies the imparting, the life-giving, of Christ. In this verse redemption comes first, and life-imparting is second, just as we must clean a cup before we can fill it. This is because John 19 shows us the process of redemption and filling. Redemption, however, is supplementary to God’s goal; it is not the original goal. In the process, Christ needed to redeem us before He could fill us, but God’s original goal is that man would be filled with His life.
At the Lord’s table there are also two items: the bread and the cup. The bread is of fine flour from wheat, and the cup is of wine. The cup represents the redeeming blood of Christ, and the bread speaks of the imparting of Christ Himself. Of these two items, the bread is the goal, and the cup is a supplementary item. Because of the accomplishing of Christ’s process, we can testify at the Lord’s table that we are one with the Lord; this is signified by the bread, which comes first. Our testimony is our oneness with Him, as seen in the bread, the loaf, the body of Christ. Following this, we declare to the universe that we, the fallen race, can be one with the Lord because of His redemption. As fallen, sinful, dirty, evil people, we can be one with the Holy One by His blood. The cup, therefore, is supplementary to the main item, the main testimony, which is the bread. Although we were sinful, dirty, and fallen, we are one with Him and one in Him because He has shed His blood for us. Therefore, at the Lord’s table we first partake of the bread and then we share the cup.
We must always keep in mind that in the Lord’s death and resurrection there is redemption and the impartation of Christ. In John 19 redemption is signified first, but this is not the most important thing; it is part of the process as an additional matter. The foremost matter is the life-imparting aspect that enables us to be one with Him. The imparting of life always requires redemption. Without Christ’s redemption, it is impossible for Him to impart His life into us. Similarly, without cleansing it is impossible for a cup to be filled up; the filling of a cup includes its cleansing. Therefore, the imparting, the life-giving, of Christ includes His redemption. It is by redemption and life-imparting that the created and fallen man is made one with God.
In John 3:29-30 John the Baptist said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease.” The bride here is the increase of Christ just as Eve, the wife of Adam, was the increase of Adam. Originally, God did not create a man and a woman at the same time. God created only a single man, a bachelor. However, God said that it was not good for the man to be alone (Gen. 2:18). Man needed an increase, a counterpart to match him. God took a rib out of Adam, and that part became Eve, his counterpart, his increase (v. 22). After that, if we were to look at Adam, we would see not Adam alone but Adam with a wife as his increase. Before His death and resurrection Christ was single; He was alone. In His resurrection He gained His increase as the bride to match Him.
John 12:24 tells us that the one grain of wheat fell into the earth and died to produce many grains as the increase of Christ. Chapter 15 of the same Gospel speaks of the many branches which are the increase of the vine (vv. 1-5). In John 17 the Lord prayed that all of His believers might be one (v. 21). The many grains are crushed and ground into fine flour to be blended together as one loaf, one Body. This indicates that the oneness mentioned in the Lord’s prayer in John 17 is for the Body. All the believers of Christ must be one, and this oneness is for the Body. In addition, in 20:17 the Lord spoke of “My brothers.” After His resurrection He told Mary to go to His brothers, who are the reproduction, the duplication, of Himself. The many brothers are blended and built together to become one Body signified by the bread. This is the duplication, the reproduction, of Christ.
The last important point revealed in the four Gospels is that man is brought into God. By His incarnation, God was brought into man; God was made one with man. Now by Christ’s redemption and life-imparting, man is made one with God. God is now one with man, and man is one with God. Not only we are human but Christ also has the human nature. He is God in man and man in God. In this way, God has accomplished His work. He brought God into man to make God one with man, and He also brought man into God to make this man one with God. Now man and God, God and man, are one.
Therefore, it is not easy to say where we are. While we are on this earth, we are also in the heavenly places. This is why Colossians 3:3 tells us that our life has been hidden with Christ in God. We are in the heavenlies because we are one with God. At the same time God is in us on the earth. We may illustrate this with electric lamps. Without electricity the lamps are separated from the electric generator and from one another. In the electricity, however, all the lamps are one with the generator, and the generator is one with the lamps. By Christ’s incarnation, God has been brought into man, and by His redemption and life-imparting, man has been brought into God. Now God and man, man and God, are one. This is the meaning of our being in Christ and our abiding in Him.
These are truly high and wonderful matters. We must realize Christ’s work to the extent that we are clear about these truths, which are mostly neglected by Christianity today. May the Lord reveal these truths to us! May He remove the veils from our eyes and grant us this vision!
The above points are the depth of the meaning of the four Gospels. By His incarnation, Christ brought God into man, and with Him there was the kingdom of God. Then, by His redemption and life-imparting, He brought man into God; He made us one with God. Now we are not merely men but God-men, men mingled with God. We are one with Him and one with one another. Therefore, He is the Head, and we are the Body. Hence, we can now live a life exactly as He lived on this earth. This is the depth of the real meaning of the four Gospels. If we read the four Gospels from this point of view, we will be able to understand them more deeply.
