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Scripture Reading: Matt. 11:25-30; 12:19-20; 22:41-46; 26:39, 41; 27:41-43; 28:16-20; 5:3; 10:19-20
The record that Matthew gives us of Christ is not superficial. It is altogether deep. Most Christians simply realize that Matthew tells us Christ was born of a virgin to be our Savior, He was crucified for our sins, He was buried and resurrected, and now He is our Redeemer. This is indeed what Matthew tells us, but only what is on the surface. There is something much deeper than this superficial record.
Therefore, we need to see the real structure of this book. The first chapter tells us that Christ was the son of David and the son of Abraham, and He was born of a virgin, Mary, and given the name Jesus. Yet, His name shall be called Emmanuel. Jehovah is included in the name Jesus, and God is included in the name Emmanuel. So in both of the names of Christ—Jesus and Emmanuel—Jehovah God is included. This indicates that this wonderful son of David and Abraham is not simply human but also divine. He is God Himself plus something more. The Jewish people have God, but they do not have God-plus. They have Jehovah, but they do not have Jehovah-plus. But we have God with us, and we have Jehovah the Savior. This is something in addition to what the Hebrews have, and this is Jesus. Hallelujah for such a wonderful One!
For Jesus to be Jehovah-plus and God-plus, there was the need of a long, long journey. He started this journey from Genesis 3:15, just at the time Satan came into humanity. The incarnation of Jesus was purposeful, planned by God in eternity past, even before the heavens and earth were created. In eternity past God made a plan with Himself. Then He came to accomplish His plan first by creation. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image” (1:26). It seems that God had a conference. There is only one God, yet this mysterious one God is triune! He had a conference with Himself in order to make man in His image.
Why did God make man in His image? It is because man was made to be God’s container, and the container must be in the form of the content. If something is square, we would not make a round container. A glove is made according to the image of a hand because a glove is made for a hand to be put into it. Praise the Lord, man was made in God’s image with the intention that one day God would be put into him. Romans 9:23 tells us that we are vessels. We are God’s vessels; we are God’s container.
God purposed that one day He would be incarnated. Then He created man in His image and built a wife for him. But the wife became the back door through which the subtle one came into humanity. He thought that he had caught man, but he did not know that he was the one that was caught. Humanity eventually became a trap to Satan. He got into man, but he was also caught in man. Therefore, immediately after Satan came into man, the prophecy concerning the incarnation of Christ began. Genesis 3:15 says that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head. Therefore, Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Christ in the flesh through death destroyed the devil.
Now we can see the purposeful plan of the incarnation. In Genesis 3:15 the incarnation was prophesied. After many generations it was repeated to Abraham. Then from Abraham to Mary, after forty-two generations, it was fulfilled. Forty in the Bible means temptation, trials, and sufferings. Israel was in the wilderness for forty years. The Lord Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days. Whenever this number is used, there are always sufferings, trials, and temptations. The number forty-two means that the trials and the temptations are over! In Revelation we see the prophecy of the last three and a half years of the tribulation. Three and a half years are forty-two months. When the forty-two months are past, Christ will come and the tribulation will be over. That will usher in the rest of the kingdom. From Abraham to Mary is forty-two generations. Then Christ comes! Before Mary, the previous forty generations were all trials, sufferings, and temptations. There was no rest. But when Christ comes, forty is over, and the rest begins.
The incarnation was not an accident. It was planned and scheduled from eternity past. And, praise the Lord, it was accomplished! And by the accomplishment of incarnation, a wonderful person came.
As soon as He was born, religion rose up against Him, and He was forced to go to Galilee of the Gentiles (Matt. 4:15) to settle in a small, poor, and lowly town by the name of Nazareth. This is why He was called a Nazarene according to the Scriptures. He was a wonderful person, yet He became a Nazarene (2:23).
This wonderful person fulfilled all righteousness (3:15). There is nothing wrong with Him in any aspect. When we look at Him, we see that He is righteous in every way. In fact, righteousness is His very substance. His very name is “Jehovah our righteousness” (Jer. 23:6). He is our righteousness because He is so righteous. He absolutely fulfills all God’s divine, glorious, holy, and righteous requirements. He is so righteous. Our righteousness is not absolute. We may be righteous in one aspect yet unrighteous in another, but Jesus is absolutely righteous in every aspect.
As the righteous One, He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11). But Satan’s temptation was God’s test. God put this righteous One under Satan’s temptation. God seemed to say, “Satan, try this One. You tried Adam, and Adam failed. Now try this One.” Satan tried, but this time he failed! Satan tempted Him to abandon His standing of being a man. He said, “If you are the Son of God, speak that these stones may become loaves of bread” (v. 3). If you or I were the Lord, we would probably have answered his challenge and turned the stones into bread. But listen to how the Lord Jesus answered: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live...’” (v. 4). It seems that the Lord was telling Satan, “I am a man. Yes, I am the Son of God, but I take the position of a man. Don’t you remember what God said in Genesis 3:15? He said that the seed of the woman would bruise your head. Now I have come as the seed of the woman. Do not tempt Me to act as the Son of God. I am the Son of Man, and I have come to bruise you!” Hallelujah! This is Jesus, the seed of the woman!
In His answer to Satan, He also told us how He lived by feeding on the word of God: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (v. 4). The word that proceeded out through God’s mouth was His nourishment. He was a man who lived by feeding on God’s word.
It was such a man that eventually became the great light: “The people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; and to those sitting in the region and shadow of death, to them light has risen” (v. 16). Before this man came, the whole situation was in darkness. But He came as a great light, shining over all the darkness. Then this great light attracted the disciples (vv. 18-22). When I was young, I could not understand why Peter and Andrew and James and John left their fishing and mending works so quickly to follow the Lord. Jesus just asked them to follow Him, and immediately they came. If you or I were to say this, no one would follow us. But the disciples abandoned their works, gave up their father, and their boat, and followed Jesus. Why? It must have been some kind of attraction. This man Jesus was really an attraction. Once Jesus appears, you will be attracted; you cannot escape. He is the great light, and by His shining so many were attracted.
Following this, we have Matthew 5—7, where Jesus gave the teaching on the mount. When He came down, He began to travel through the promised land. In all those travelings He behaved in a marvelous way. On the one hand, He suffered persecution, but on the other hand, He was approved by the religion that existed. However, He was always one with God. There was no discrepancy between Him and God. When the circumstances were poor, He would still thank the Father (11:25). When we are in good circumstances, it is easy to thank the Lord, but it is not so easy otherwise. To build up the church, we need such a life. We need a life that is one with God the Father. We need a life that has no discrepancy with God’s work. Our life is not this kind of life. Therefore, we are not qualified for the church building. There is only one life that is qualified—the life of Jesus. Jesus is the life that is absolutely one with the Father. There is no discrepancy between Him and the Father.
During this time Jesus revealed Himself to the people as the greater temple (12:6), the greater Jonah (v. 41), the greater Solomon (v. 42), and the Lord of the Sabbath (v. 8). Many Christians love the Gospel of John because it tells us that Jesus is the life, the truth, the way, the door, and so many other things. But some of the things Matthew revealed, John never touched. John did not tell us that Jesus was the greater Solomon. Neither did he tell us that Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath. In Matthew we see that Jesus is greater than everything, because He is everything! If we have Him, we have God’s dwelling place. If we have Him, we have God’s prophet, God’s insight, and God’s wisdom. If we have Him, we have God’s authority and kingship. And if we have Him, we have the real rest.
Jesus is such a wonderful person! He is not only wonderful with God but also with man. He never breaks a bruised reed, and He never quenches smoking flax (v. 20). In ancient times the Jewish children made the reeds into a kind of musical instrument. Whenever the reed was bruised, it would not emit the proper sound, so the children would break it. But Jesus never breaks any bruised reed. Sometimes we are just as these bruised instruments. We should give forth a good sound, but we do just the opposite. As a rule we should be broken, but Jesus would never do that. He would come in to rearrange us so that the beautiful music might come forth.
In those days the Jews used burning flax when they traveled at night. When the oil ran out, the flax would begin to smoke, so they would quench it and cast it away. Many times we are just like smoking flax. We should be shining, but rather we are smoking. As a rule, the Lord should quench us and cast us away. But He will never do that. Jesus knows why we are smoking. It is because we are short of oil. Therefore, instead of quenching us, He supplies us with oil. When the flax gets the oil, it burns. We should not be disappointed in some of the smoking brothers and sisters. We only need to supply them with oil so that they might burn to give the light.
Jesus is such a wonderful person! He is not a breaker or a quencher; He is a rearranger and a supplier. Do not say that you are a hopeless case. Nothing is hopeless with Jesus. He is very capable at rearranging. He can rearrange us for the church life. In ourselves we are not qualified, but Jesus qualifies us with His life. Regardless of how bruised or smoking we are, Jesus can rearrange us and supply us. Hallelujah for such a One!
While Jesus was traveling and saying so many wonderful things, the religious ones were continually questioning Him. The Pharisees, the ancient fundamentalists, and the Sadducees, the ancient modernists, joined together with the political parties to question Him (22:15-40). They tried their utmost to pin Him down, but they just could not. He is the wisest of all men; He answered all their questions. When they finished, He asked them a question: “What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is He?” (v. 42). The religious ones who had the knowledge of the Bible quickly answered that He was the son of David. Then Jesus answered, “How then does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies underneath Your feet’? If then David calls Him Lord, how is He his son?” (vv. 43-45). They could not answer Him. And from that time they asked Him no more questions.
What does this mean? It simply means that Jesus is a mystery. They only knew one aspect, but there is another aspect. They knew Christ as the son of David, but they did not know Him as the Lord of all. Even David, who was before Him, called Him Lord. He is a mystery. We should never think that we know Jesus fully. We may only know a fragment. He is too full and unsearchably rich. We can know Jesus, but we cannot know Him to the uttermost. This is why He said, “No one fully knows the Son except the Father” (11:27). Praise the Lord that Jesus is such a mystery! In the last twelve years in this country we have seen more things about Him. But even in eternity we will have more and more discoveries of Jesus. He is so rich! We all must open ourselves continually to know Him in a deeper and richer way. I do believe that in the coming years we will see something more, something deeper, something higher, something fuller, and something richer about Christ. He is so wonderful and unsearchable.
Another point about Christ which we must see is that He saved others, but He would not save Himself: “Likewise also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked Him and said, He saved others; Himself He cannot save. He is King of Israel; let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe on Him” (27:41-42). To be qualified for the church life we must have such a life. Never save yourself. When others put you on the cross, you must remain there. This is the right place for you to be. Let others say that you can do so many things to save others, but you cannot save yourself. You have to say, “Amen!” This is the cross-bearing life. We can save others, but we cannot save ourselves. This is the life that bears the cross all the time.
Many times God would allow circumstances to put us on the cross. We should not try to escape; we should stay there. This cross-bearing life is the life that is good for building the church. So many husbands are just the cross to the wives, and the wives are the emotional crosses to the husbands. Many times the husbands are crucified by the wives’ emotions. But thank the Lord we have so many crosses. The husbands are the crosses to the wives, and the wives are crosses to the husbands. We do not need to buy a cross; the Lord has prepared a lot of crosses for us. Let others say that we can save others, but we cannot save ourselves. This is right. The life of Jesus is such a life. By His life we can save others, but we cannot save ourselves.
But, praise the Lord, the cross brings in the resurrection. Christ is on the other side of the cross, not on this side. If we stay on this side of the cross, we will miss Christ. If we would reach Christ, surely we must pass through the cross. On the other side of the cross, we have the resurrected Christ. This is wonderful.
To reach the resurrected Christ, we have traveled from chapter 1 to chapter 28 of Matthew. Before the incarnation in chapter 1, the promise of the seed of the woman traveled four thousand years from Genesis 3:15. Then the seed of the woman came in Matthew 1, and from chapter 1 to chapter 28, He was fully processed to become the resurrected Christ. Now He is no longer just God but the God who has traveled through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. He is God, plus so many items. He is God, who after being made flesh took a further step by death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This is the processed God. The resurrected Christ is the processed God. Before the incarnation He was the “raw” God, but now He has been fully processed. For God to be incarnated was a real process. For Him to live thirty-three and a half years on this earth, raised by a poor family, persecuted by religion, and finally crucified on a cross, was also a real process. Then He passed through death and went into resurrection. By resurrection He was fully processed to become the life-giving Spirit.
After He had been fully processed, the Lord came to the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:18-19). Today we must preach the gospel with such an authorization. We have been authorized to disciple the nations. Then we must baptize them into the name of the Triune God. In Galatians 3:27 Paul says that as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. If we compare this verse with Matthew 28:19, we can see that to be baptized into the Triune God is to be baptized into Christ. This Christ into whom we have been baptized is the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit is just the processed God for us to participate in. We all have been baptized into such a Christ.
When I was young, I tried to discover how I could get into Christ. The Bible told me that I was baptized into Christ and that I was in Christ. But I was also taught that after His resurrection Christ ascended to the heavens. He was there, and I was here. How could I be in Him? I was told that it was through the Holy Spirit. But what does that mean? Then after years of studying the Word and experiencing Christ as life, we found the answer. Yes, Jesus is in the heavens, but both Ephesians 1:23 and 4:10 tell us that Christ today is filling all in all. The resurrected Christ fills the heavens and the surface of the earth. He is omnipresent. Now He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). So we must be baptized into Him. This is why baptism should not be a formality but a reality. When we baptize others, we must exercise our faith to realize that we are putting them into Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the Triune God.
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord told us to baptize the nations into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Greek preposition translated “in” should be “into.” Therefore, we should baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. To understand this, we must also read Galatians 3:27: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” By these two verses we can see that to be baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is equivalent to being baptized into Christ. The Father is in the Son, and the Son by resurrection became the life-giving Spirit. Therefore, today if we touch the Spirit, we touch the Son. And when we have the Son, we have the Father. This is the Triune God.
Before Matthew 28:19 the Triune God was never revealed in such a clear way. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit is one name of three persons. This one name is the fully processed Triune God. After His resurrection He was fully processed in order to be dispensed into us. The Spirit who comes into us is the Son with the Father. This is proved in Romans 8:9-10. In these verses we see that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself. Then there are many verses in the New Testament which tell us that the Father is in us, the Son is in us, and the Spirit is in us. We all know that there are not three in us but only one. This is because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are just one. This is the processed Triune God.
In order to be processed, God first became flesh. Then, after living on this earth as a man, through death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This is our living Christ today. He is in the heavens, and He is also on the earth. He is omnipresent; we do have Him within us. In Him we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In Him we also have our Redeemer, our Creator, and our Savior. In Him we have everything, because He is everything. He is our all in all. He is our life, our light, our power, our strength, our holiness, our righteousness, our love, our kindness, and our peace. All the divine attributes and human virtues are in Him. Hallelujah! He is everything! This is the processed Triune God who is the all-inclusive Christ. When we baptize people, we baptize them into this One. Baptism should not be a formal ritual but the real putting of people into the Triune God.
To baptize people into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit really has a deeper meaning than most have realized. For years I had seen that this verse signifies the putting of people into the Triune God, but I did not have the confirmation of any other record. Therefore, I hesitated to say this. Then one day I obtained a set of books entitled Word Studies in the New Testament, by M. R. Vincent. In one of these books Mr. Vincent comments about baptizing into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Matthew 28:19. He says, “Into, denoting union or communion with, as Rom. vi.3...Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with him...The name...is the expression of the sum total of the divine Being...It is equivalent to his person...his name is of no avail detached from his nature. When one is baptized into the name of the Trinity, he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that he is and in all that he does for man.”
This is wonderful. Now we can understand what it means to be baptized into the name of the Triune God. It is to be put into this mystical union with Him and to appropriate whatever God is into our being. The purpose of this is to produce the church.
Now we have seen a sketch of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. He was the son of David and the son of Abraham, born of a virgin with the names of Jesus and Emmanuel. Eventually, He passed through all the processes to become the life-giving Spirit. Now we are to be baptized into Him, into the Triune God.
Having been baptized into Him, we can partake of all that He is, for He is in us. To do this we must exercise our spirit. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (5:3). We have a willing spirit (26:41). Our flesh is weak, but our spirit is strong. So we must exercise our spirit and call Him Lord as David did (22:43). We can call Him Lord in spirit. When we do this, He becomes so practical to us in our daily life. This is for the building up of the church.
