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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:9-11; Eph. 1:19-23; Phil. 3:10
There are two great principles concerning Christ. One is incarnation, and the other is death and resurrection. These two principles include everything that Christ experienced. Through His incarnation He brought God into man, and through His death and resurrection He brought man into God. This coming and going accomplished God’s work of mingling Himself with man, and as a result, God was able to gain a man in this universe. This man is not a natural man but one who has God mingled with Him and has passed through death and resurrection. This man is a God-man, a man who is the mingling of God and man, and a man of resurrection. This man enabled God to gain a model, a standard, in the universe.
In Christ we can fully see both the divine element and the human element. These two elements, however, do not exist separately from each other. God is no longer merely God, and man is no longer merely man, but God and man have been mingled together. Through His death and resurrection Christ brought man completely into God, just as His incarnation brought God completely into man. Through His incarnation and through death and resurrection, God and man, man and God, were fully mingled as one. The God who is in Christ is a man-God, and the man who is in Christ is a God-man. His divinity contains humanity, and His humanity contains divinity. As a result of Christ’s resurrection, divinity and humanity are no longer separated but are mingled together.
The mingling of divinity and humanity is the purpose of God’s plan in eternity. In the Scriptures we see that the one thing God desired from eternity past was to mingle His nature with the human nature so that He and man would no longer be separated. The accomplishment of this mingling required two procedures. The first is incarnation, and the second is death and resurrection. Through incarnation and through death and resurrection, divinity and humanity were mingled as one. Hence, in the Lord Jesus Christ we see the result that God desired—the mingling of divinity with humanity.
The goal that God has been intending to achieve throughout the ages and the purpose of His choosing, predestinating, redeeming, edifying, building, leading, and being gracious to us is to work Himself into us and, at the same time, to completely work us into Himself. In other words, the purpose of all of God’s work is to work divinity into humanity and humanity into divinity so that divinity and humanity would become fully one. Through this, God will be able to obtain what He is after in the universe. Apart from divinity and humanity, God has no other goal. God has no intention to obtain some other result in His work. What God desires to obtain is divinity and humanity, that is, to work divinity into humanity and humanity into divinity so that the two would be fully mingled as one and so that divinity would be in humanity and humanity in divinity.
Today this goal has not yet been accomplished in us. Thus, the new heaven and new earth and the New Jerusalem have not yet appeared. Hence, what God wants to do in us is to work His nature into us and our nature into Him more and more. This procedure or process involves a “coming” and a “going.” The coming is His incarnation, and the going is His death and resurrection. The principle of incarnation is God coming into man to be mingled with man, and the principle of death and resurrection is man going into God to be mingled with God. From the day of our salvation, God’s work in us has been to bring our humanity into divinity, to bring us into God.
The principle of death and resurrection is to bring man into God. It is incorrect, however, to say that a person who has passed through death and resurrection is absolutely devoid of the human element, having only the divine element. A person who has passed through death and resurrection is one who has been mingled with God. His human element has not been nullified. Rather, it has been mingled with the divine element. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus was God coming into man, God putting on man. He put on man, passed through death, and entered into resurrection, and in His death and resurrection He brought the man that He had put on into resurrection. Then what is resurrection? Resurrection is the sphere or realm of God. The Lord Jesus died and resurrected, and through His death and resurrection He brought the man that He had put on into the realm of God.
We need the light and the revelation of the Holy Spirit to see these matters of incarnation and of death and resurrection. Our natural mind has no way to fully comprehend this matter of God coming into man and man coming into God, and our words are not adequate to express it. This mystery of God becoming a man and man becoming God does not exist in our human mind. It is beyond our human thought and concept. To see this matter requires the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
While Jesus the Nazarene was living on the earth, did He live as a man or as God? The Bible tells us that while the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He lived as a man, not as God. In the Gospels the Lord told people again and again who the “Son of Man” was (Luke 6:5) and what the “Son of Man” had come for (9:56). By this He indicated that He was the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus rarely revealed His status as God. Instead, He always lived out His condition as a man. Only once, when He was transfigured on the mountain, did He fully manifest the condition of God within Him before the disciples. Aside from that instance, we can say that He seldom revealed His condition as God. In the thirty-three and a half years that He was on the earth, He mostly lived out His condition as a man. He was a man living on the earth. However, He lived out His humanity by His divinity. He was God living the life of a man.
You and I are humans, and the life that we live is one hundred percent a human living. What is a human living? What is the means by which we live out our human living? A human living is a living that a man lives out spontaneously and effortlessly by his humanity. For example, I am a Chinese, my nature is Chinese, and it is natural for me to have a Chinese living. It is not difficult at all for me to have a Chinese living according to the Chinese nature. While the Lord Jesus was on the earth, the life He lived was exactly the same as ours, except that He was without sin. However, did He live by His humanity or by His divinity? He lived a human life by His divinity. Most of us live out the human life by our humanity, but because He was God coming into man, our Lord lived a human life by His divinity.
While the Lord Jesus was on the earth, His living was apparently the same as that of Peter and John’s living. Just as Peter and John lived out the human life, so also the Lord Jesus lived out the human life. Outwardly speaking, they all lived the human life, but Peter and John lived the human life by man, while the Lord Jesus lived the human life by God. They all lived the human life, but Peter and John lived a human life as men, and Jesus the Nazarene lived a human life as God. In Peter and John’s living, there was the flavor of man but not the flavor of God. The living of Jesus the Nazarene, however, was full of the flavor of God. Outwardly, He had the form of man, but inwardly, His content had the element, nature, and flavor of God.
Although the Lord lived a human life on the earth, He spontaneously expressed His divinity and manifested His divine nature. Why was this the case? It was because He was actually God. His divinity had been put into a man and was constrained, pressed, and confined by this man. He was great, even infinitely great, but He limited His infinite greatness to a small man. Thus, the life that the Lord lived on the earth was that of a man in appearance but was actually God in its content. God was concealed in a man. He intentionally lived a human life by His divinity so that He might mingle His divinity with humanity. This is the principle of incarnation.
In His death and resurrection the Lord Jesus did not put off the humanity that had restricted, bound, and limited Him. Since the purpose of His incarnation was to bring God into man, and His goal was ultimately to bring man into God, it was not possible for Him to put off His humanity. In His death and resurrection He did not put off His humanity. Rather, He brought the humanity that He had put on into God. In His incarnation the man that He put on was finite and limited, but in His death and resurrection He brought the man whom He still had on into death. In resurrection this man was transfigured. Before His resurrection this man had been finite, but through His death and resurrection this man became infinite. Formerly, He had been a man, a finite man, but through His death and resurrection this finite man was brought into the realm of resurrection and entered into God. Thus, He became infinite. Through death and resurrection the man who was finite became infinite.
God is infinite and eternal, but the man the Lord Jesus put on, before entering into death, was a finite and limited man. After the Lord Jesus passed through death and entered into resurrection, the man He had put on became eternal and infinite. Because He entered into God, what was finite became infinite, and what was temporal became eternal. Through death and resurrection this man fully entered into God and was mingled with God. In the thirty-three and a half years that the Lord Jesus was on the earth before His death and resurrection, He lived a human life that was filled with divinity inwardly and that expressed God spontaneously, and after His resurrection when He appeared to His disciples, what He expressed was God’s living. Romans 1:4 says that in His resurrection He “was designated the Son of God in power.”
In His incarnation the Lord Jesus appeared as the Son of Man, but after His death and resurrection He appeared as the Son of God. In His incarnation He appeared as a man in the midst of men, but after His resurrection He appeared as God among men. As God, the Lord Jesus was incarnated to live a human life, but He died and resurrected to live God’s life. Just as He lived a human life that was different from man’s living, so also He lived God’s life in a way that was different from God’s living. This statement may seem too extreme, but the fact is that when He was on the earth, although He lived a human life, He was different from ordinary men. Similarly, after His resurrection, although He lived God’s life, He was different from the God before incarnation, death, and resurrection.
Before the Lord Jesus was incarnated, He was already God. After His death and resurrection He again expressed Himself as God. However, the God whom He expressed at that time was very different from the God whom He had expressed before incarnation. What was the difference? The difference was that before His incarnation He as God did not have humanity, but after His incarnation He as God possessed humanity and was full of humanity. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He lived a human life in which the divinity that was in Him was expressed spontaneously. In like manner, after His resurrection what was expressed was God’s living, but it was a living in which the humanity that filled Him was also expressed spontaneously.
Death and resurrection did not put off or nullify man. Instead, death and resurrection brought man into God, causing man to become the content of God. Hence, incarnation is God becoming the content of man, and death and resurrection are man becoming the content of God. Incarnation is for God to become man to live out a human life, and death and resurrection are for man to become God to live out God’s life.
When we truly know death and resurrection, many things will happen to us. We all know that all the Epistles written by Peter, John, Paul, and James are parts of the Word of God. However, when we read the Epistles of Paul, we find that the flavor of Paul’s Epistles is absolutely different from that of Peter’s Epistles, and the flavor of the Epistles of John is altogether different from the flavor of the Epistle of James. What each of them wrote was the Word of God, but when we read the Epistles of John, we sense John’s flavor, when we read the Epistles of Peter, we sense Peter’s flavor, when we read the Epistle of James, we sense James’s flavor, and when we read the Epistles of Paul, we sense Paul’s flavor. All their writings are the Word of God, but the flavors are not the same. Why is this? It is because of death and resurrection. Death and resurrection do not nullify man but bring man into God. Hence, Paul’s speaking was God’s speaking, Peter’s speaking was God’s speaking, James’s speaking was God’s speaking, and John’s speaking was God’s speaking. Through death and resurrection they entered into God and were mingled with God. They were not nullified or done away with. Rather, they still existed.
People of death and resurrection are not without their own mind, emotion, and will. Rather, their will is strong, they are thoughtful, intelligent, and wise, and they are the most emotional people, easily angered or easily made to rejoice. Do not think that it is unspiritual to be angry. Many Christians have the concept that spiritual people are always meek. They think that no matter how much spiritual people are irritated, they will not lose their temper. If being meek is spiritual, then the statues of Mary in the Catholic Church must be the most spiritual. Recall that even the Lord Jesus became angry, and His rebukes were harsh. He rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, saying, “Serpents! Brood of vipers!” (Matt. 23:33) and “You resemble whitewashed graves” (v. 27). One day He entered into the temple of God and cast out all those who were selling and buying in the temple (21:12). Seemingly, He was not reasonable, overturning the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. Our Lord was full of wrath. Paul also had a similar story. He said to the Corinthians, “What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of meekness?” (1 Cor. 4:21). Therefore, a spiritual person is not devoid of emotion. In fact, the more spiritual a person is, the more emotional he is. To be spiritual is not to be nullified or done away with. Genuine spirituality is the issue of death and resurrection. The principle of death and resurrection is the bringing of man into God.
According to the principle of death and resurrection, we have been brought into God, yet we still exist. In the past we were not in God, nor did we have the element of God, but now we are in God and have the element of God. We still have our mind, but we also have God’s mind in us. We still have our will, but we also have God’s will in us. We still have emotions, but we also have God’s emotions in us. God’s emotions are in our emotions, God’s mind is in our mind, and God’s will is in our will.
I have a very heavy burden within me regarding this matter. Most of God’s children have heard many messages and have much in the way of knowledge and doctrines but have not touched this reality. They speak of the spiritual doctrines concerning death and resurrection, such as nullifying the self, denying the self, and being delivered from the self. This kind of speaking is useful only when it serves the purpose of mingling us with God, that is, mingling our mind, emotion, and will with God. Otherwise, all we have is empty knowledge and doctrines. Incarnation brings God into man, producing the living out of a human life by the divinity of God. Death and resurrection bring man into God, producing the living out of God’s life through the humanity of man.
Most of those who have read the Bible know that the Epistles of Paul are full of Paul’s flavor, while the Epistles of Peter are full of Peter’s flavor. From this we see that God does not nullify man. Just as the twelve tribes of Israel will still be the twelve tribes in eternity future, the twelve apostles of the New Testament will still exist as the twelve apostles in eternity future. Even after entering into the new creation, man will not be nullified. Instead, God will be mingled with man. Formerly, God was God, having no humanity mingled with Him, and man was man, having no God in him. But now divinity has been mingled with humanity, and man has God in him. In the past man did not have God, and what had been added into man was sin, Satan, and the world. Now due to Christ’s redemption all these things have been taken away, and the element of God has been added into us.
Hence, before we were saved, we all sinned, but when we were saved, God was added into us, and as a result, we are no longer slaves of sin. Nevertheless, we are not nullified. Though all of us have had God added into us, our lives still have different flavors because we as men have not been nullified. Peter had the flavor of Peter, John had the flavor of John, James had the flavor of James, Paul had the flavor of Paul, and you have your flavor, and I have my flavor. God has come in, but man has not been nullified.
Death and resurrection do not put man aside or nullify man but bring man into God. In eternity future God will see many different faces with many different personalities and kinds of humanity joined as one in His divinity. Everyone will live out God Himself, but each one will do so with his own flavor and character. In eternity, in the last poem of God, we will see that the brothers will have the brothers’ flavor, but at the same time they will all have the glory of God, and the sisters will have the sisters’ flavor, but at the same time they will also have the glory of God. This is death and resurrection. Death and resurrection do not mean that we no longer exist but that we enter into God.
It is terrible to be a person without humanity, and it is terrible to be a Christian without humanity. It is right to be humble, but to be humble without humanity is not right. It is right to be meek, but to be meek without humanity is not right. It is right to give hospitality, but to give hospitality without humanity is not right. This means that a person should not be too mild. Even mud should bear the flavor of mud. If a person becomes so spiritual that even his human flavor is gone, then he must be pretending. Such a one is full of the flavor of falsehood, and his understanding of death and resurrection is wrong.
Sadly, this kind of spiritual pretense and falsehood exists among Christians today. For example, there was once a sister, who, pretending to be spiritual, lowered her shoulders, bent her waist a little, took a few seconds to sit down, and then remained still. People were amazed when they looked at her. However, was this sister spiritual? No, she was just pretending. Her self and natural man had not yet been broken. Instead, they were deeply hidden in her.
Genuine spirituality is reached through death and resurrection. Man is not nullified or done away with. Rather, man is still there, but this man has entered into God. In the past, regardless of whether we were sinful or not sinful, good or bad, we did not have the element of God in us. Now we not only have been cleansed from our sin, but we also have God in us. Thus, if we could have seen James, we would have seen God; if we could have seen Peter, we would have seen God; and if we could have seen Paul, we would have seen God. Their “human flavors” were not nullified but were brought into God.
Through death and resurrection man enters into God and is mingled with God. Death and resurrection do not mean that there is no longer man and that there is only God. If this were the case, then in eternity there would only be God Himself and no man. God keeps on working because He has no intention to nullify man. Hence, we should not be influenced by the erroneous doctrine that we should pretend in any way. If we are influenced in this way, eventually we will lose our human flavor. If there is a brother among us who is quick and stubborn, we should never try to annul his quickness and stubbornness, because this will cause him to become like mud or tofu. What he needs is to pass through death and resurrection. He may be quick and stubborn as an ox, and no one may be able to do anything with him. However, after passing through death and resurrection, his stubbornness may still be there, but there will be the flavor of God in his stubbornness. His stubbornness will be in God and will have the element of God. Likewise, he may still be quick, but his quickness will be in God and will have the element of God.
One who is in God still has his own personality and existence, but he has entered into God. This is what God is doing. One day we will all see a beautiful scene in which there will be all kinds of people with various characteristics in all the churches, yet all of them will have entered into God, will be living in God, and will have the flavor and glory of God. This will not only be a beautiful scene but also a beautiful song. What a glory it will be to Him when all of us different people are in our great God and are living out His image and His flavor! This is what God wants. This is death and resurrection.
Just as incarnation brings God into man to live a human life with the flavor of God, so death and resurrection bring man into God to live God’s life with the existence of man. In this way God is in man, man is in God, and both God and man share one living.
Therefore, on the one hand, while we need to have our own personality, on the other hand, we all have to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to bring our personality into God. We have no need to imitate other people. In the past several thousands of years there have not been two saints who were the same. Many Christians want to imitate Madame Guyon in her piety and spirituality, but Madame Guyon was Madame Guyon, and no one can look like her by imitation. God has no intention to nullify us, and we have no way to imitate others. The sixty-six books in the Bible were written by more than forty people. Even though all the books are the Word of God, the Pentateuch has the flavor of Moses, the book of Isaiah has the flavor of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah has the flavor of Jeremiah, and the book of Daniel has the flavor of Daniel. It was impossible for one to imitate the other.
We should be spiritually influenced by others, but we should not imitate them. No one can utterly put himself aside and imitate others. We should not even imitate the Lord Jesus. The Lord wants us to deny ourselves and to enter into Him. He does not want us to live in ourselves. If there were no man in the universe, God would feel the emptiness the most. If there were no man in the universe, God’s work would equal zero. Hence, what God is after is that all of us who are different would enter into Him and mingle with Him. God has no intention to nullify us. Therefore, the more a person is in resurrection, the more human he will be. The more a person is in resurrection, the more he will have humanity and the stronger his humanity will be.
In death and resurrection it is not that man is nullified or done away with. Rather, when man reaches the realm of resurrection, he looks more human, is more human, and has more human flavor, having human thoughts, emotions, and will. However, all of these are mingled with God. Formerly, all of these did not have the element of God, but now they all are mingled with God. May God have mercy on us to show us that spiritual reality is not the nullification of ourselves. Rather, spiritual reality is man plus God so that man may live God’s life in God. Though it is God’s life, it is full of human flavor. Just as God came to be a man to live a human life that was full of God’s flavor without nullifying the human flavor, similarly, we also should be full of humanity while we are living God’s life. Our humanity should not be nullified. Instead, we should be more human and even be men above all men.
