Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:4; Gen. 1:26; John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17; Col. 3:11
In this message I have the burden to speak a word on the highest point of God’s gospel — God becoming a man that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
The eternal God in His eternity had a “dream” according to His heart’s desire, and He made a plan, which in the New Testament is called God’s economy (1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9). Then God created the universe, making His heart’s desire (Adam) the center. This heart’s desire is nothing less than one who is the same kind as God is (Gen. 1:26), one who would reproduce and fill the whole earth (v. 28).
God made man after His kind. This means that before the fall of man there was no mankind, only God’s kind. Contrary to the definitions given in Webster’s dictionary, from God’s point of view the word mankind is a negative term, for there should be no mankind, only the man created by God as God’s kind. However, after the fall man separated himself from God and became mankind. Through this fall Satan came in to cause trouble, and the whole world was thrown into confusion.
Out of the confused world of mankind, God chose Abraham, whose descendants became the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel should not be listed with the nations, because it was among the nations but not with the nations. This nation was a separate people, a holy people sanctified unto God. God used His elect Israel as a type to signify that, among fallen mankind, God would have a people to come in the future.
Two thousand years after Abraham, the choosing God became a man. This God-man, through His death and resurrection, has made a mass reproduction of Himself. He as the one grain became many grains (John 12:24). The many grains are ground into fine flour and blended together to become one loaf (1 Cor. 10:17). The Lord Jesus as the only begotten Son of God was the one grain, and He made us the many grains, His many “twins,” His many brothers (Rom. 8:29), to be blended into one loaf, one Body. Among us there is no difference in nationality, race, or social rank (Col. 3:11). We are a new kind, “God-man kind.”
Just as there are new words to describe new developments in human culture, so we need new terms and expressions to describe matters in our spiritual culture. God-man kind is such an expression. In Christ God and man have become one entity, the God-man. In God’s creation there was no mankind; there was only man as God’s kind. It was through man’s fall that mankind came into existence. Eventually God became a man to have a mass reproduction of Himself and thereby to produce a new kind. This new kind is neither God’s kind nor mankind — it is God-man kind. Today as believers in Christ, we are God-man kind; we are God-men.
According to our genealogy, we were scattered far away from one another. How could we be blended into one Body? This is now possible because of the great changes that have taken place on earth during the past fifty years. Through the modern means of transportation and communication, people from all over the earth can be blended. In our semi-annual trainings saints come together from as many as fifty nations. The globe today has become a small earth-ball, making it possible for me to speak the holy Word to people from so many different nations.
On the day I was saved I told the Lord that from that time onward I wanted to travel from village to village in China, preaching the Bible and telling people about Jesus Christ. My intention was to speak only to my countrymen. I never dreamed that I would be here in the United States speaking to saints from fifty nations. From this we see that God has blended the earth together so that we may be blended into one Body.
One day, in 1938, I received from a sister in Peking a letter containing two checks. This sister told me that she believed that God would send me to America and that one check was for my trip there and back and the other was for taking care of my family while I was gone. I answered her, saying that I did not have any burden to go to the United States. But she told me that I should keep the checks and that sooner or later the Lord would send me to the United States. Twenty years later I visited this country, and eventually I became a citizen. This was the Lord’s doing. Acts 5:31 tells us that in His ascension the Lord Jesus is the Leader and the Savior. He is the Ruler of all the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5), and I was sent here by Him.
God created the earth and made man according to His kind. Man fell and became mankind. From fallen mankind God chose Abraham to be the father of another people, and then two thousand years later God became a man and lived on earth as a God-man. I am glad that I have become an American, but I am much more glad that I have become a God-man. I am an American by naturalization, but I am a God-man by regeneration.
Do you know what God wants today? We may say that He wants Christians and believers in Christ. Actually, what God wants is not merely Christians or even believers in Christ; He wants a big group of God-men. I believe that our God, who is sitting in the heavens, is happy whenever He looks upon a gathering of God-men, especially a gathering of God-men from fifty nations. In such a gathering everyone has the appearance of a God-man.
At this juncture I would ask you to consider Hymns, #203:
This hymn says that once Christ, the only begotten Son, was the only grain. Through His death and resurrection He has made us the many grains. As such grains, we are the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10), Christ’s many brothers, His many “twins.” Now the many grains are blended as one loaf, which is Christ’s Body, His reproduction.
In the second to the fifth centuries, the church fathers found three high mysteries in the Bible: (1) the Triune God, the Divine Trinity, the highest mystery; (2) the person of Christ; and (3) the deification of man — that man could become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. However, after the fifth century the truth concerning this last mystery was gradually lost. Using the Nicene Creed, today’s Christianity affirms the first two mysteries — the mystery of the Divine Trinity and the mystery of Christ’s person — but much of Christianity does not see anything about the third mystery — the mystery of God becoming man that man may become God in life and in nature. There is no teaching regarding this among most Christians today. But I feel strongly the Lord is going to recover this truth. As far as the truth is concerned, this may be the last item that the Lord needs to recover.
When we think of ourselves as God-men, this thinking, this realization, revolutionizes us in our daily experience. For example, a brother may be unhappy with his wife. But he remembers that he is a God-man, and immediately his attitude is changed. Then he will desire to be a God-man husband.
We need to understand that to be a part of mankind is to be something negative. In God’s view mankind is a negative term referring to fallen man. As believers in Christ and children of God, we are not mankind — we are God-man kind. To realize this is to be changed, even revolutionized. When we realize that we are God-men, we will say, “Lord, You are the first God-man, and we are the many God-men following You. You lived a human life, not by Your human life but by God’s divine life to express Him. His attributes became Your virtues. You were here on this earth dying every day. You were crucified to live. Lord, You are my life today and You are my person. You are just me. I therefore must die. I need to be conformed to Your death. I have to be crucified to die every day to live a God-man’s life, a human life yet not by my human life but by the divine life, with Your life and Your nature as my constitution to express You in Your divine attributes, which become my human virtues.” This makes us not just a Christian or a believer in Christ but a God-man, one kind with God. This is the highest point of God’s gospel.
According to this gospel we were fallen, yet Christ died for us. If we believe in Him and receive Him, we will have the eternal life to be the sons of God. Christians today admit that all the believers in Christ are the sons of God or the children of God, but they do not dare admit that the believers in Christ are God. At the end of this age, we are teaching and preaching the truth that God became a man in order to make man God, the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. It is a great blessing to hear this truth.
After hearing that God wants a group of God-men, how can you be content to be anything else? What do you want to be? Do you want to be a typical Chinese or a typical American? Do you want to be merely a Christian or a believer in Christ? We should all declare that we want to live the life of a God-man. Eventually, the God-men will be the victors, the overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem. This will bring in a new revival which has never been seen in history, and this will end this age.
