Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 22:41-45; Rev. 22:16; Isa. 11:1; Matt. 26:63-64; Rom. 1:3-4
In this message I have the burden to give a further word on 2 Samuel 7:12-14a.
Second Samuel 7:12 refers to the seed of David. Eventually, this human seed becomes the Son of God (v. 14). Concerning this, the Lord Jesus asked a question of the Pharisees (Matt. 22:41-45). First, He asked them, "What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is He?" (v. 42). When they said that Christ was David's son, the Lord Jesus went on to ask how David could call Him Lord (v. 43). Finally, He said, "If then David calls Him Lord, how is He his son?" (v. 45). This is the greatest question in the universe. How could Christ be the seed of a man and also the Son of God? How could He be the son of David and also David's Lord? The Pharisees knew the Bible very well, but when the Lord Jesus questioned them concerning the two aspects of His person, their mouths were shut. The Pharisees realized that Christ was the seed of David, and they answered without any hesitation. But when the Lord Jesus asked why David, a forefather of Christ, called Christ the Lord, they could not answer. On the one hand, He was a man; on the other hand, He was God. No one can reconcile these two.
The study of Christ's person, Christology, began with the second generation of the church fathers, and it became a great concern among the believers. Today, however, most believers would not pay much attention to this matter. They know that God is Christ and that Christ is their Savior and their Redeemer, but if we ask them how Christ can be God and also man, they cannot answer.
Today there are many who do not believe that Christ in His resurrection and ascension still has a physical body. They believe that when Christ died He died in the body, but when He resurrected He put off the body and resurrected only as a divine person. Because of this wrong understanding, there are many verses in the Bible which they have no way to interpret.
Revelation 22:16 says that Jesus is "the Root and the Offspring of David." Christ is God; thus, He can be the source, the Root, of David. This refers to His divinity. At the same time, He is also a man; hence He is the Offspring, the issue, of David. This refers to His humanity. David came out of Him as the Root, and as the Offspring He came out of David.
Isaiah 11:1 says, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots." All knowledgeable teachers of the Bible agree that this verse refers to Christ. At Solomon's time the house of David was a flourishing tree, but a short time later that tree began to be cut down. Eventually, it became a stump consisting mainly of two persons — Joseph and Mary. Out of that stump a rod, a sprout, came out — the little child Jesus. That was God's building a house for David and giving David a seed.
Colossians 1:12 tells us that Christ is God's allotted portion to us, and verse 15 says that this Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation." God is the Creator, and Christ is the image of the Creator. As such a One, He is surely divine. He is also the Firstborn of all creation. This indicates that He is also a creature. Since He became a man with blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), surely He is a creature. Therefore, He is both divine and human. He is God and He is also a man. He is the Creator and He is also a creature.
Many do not know that after His resurrection and ascension Christ still has His humanity, and others would strongly disagree, saying that Christ is no longer a man. However, Matthew 26:63-64 reveals clearly that He is still a man. When He was being judged by the Sanhedrin, they charged Him: "Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God." In answering Jesus said, "You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven." Today Christ as the Son of Man is sitting on the throne in heaven, and He will come again also as the Son of Man.
Christ's being a man is altogether related to God's economy. His humanity, therefore, means a great deal. He has been exalted by God as a man, and as a glorified man He is now sitting in the heavens. At this point, I would ask you to consider a hymn on His exaltation as a man (Hymns, #132):
Both John 20 and Luke 24 provide evidence that Christ was resurrected with a body. On the night of His resurrection, the disciples were gathered together in a closed room. There was no opening, yet the Lord Jesus was suddenly in their midst (John 20:19-22). Some of the disciples could not believe that it was Jesus with a physical body, so the Lord Jesus asked His disciples to touch His hands and feet (Luke 24:36-43). He had a real body that could be touched, yet He entered a closed room without any opening. This is a mystery.
Christ is human and divine; He is the Creator and He is also a creature; He still has a physical body, yet He dwells in our spirit. We simply do not have the capacity to reconcile these things. Even in the physical realm there are many things that we cannot understand. How can we understand all the divine things? We can understand the reality of everything only through the Bible, a book of revelation. Apart from the Bible, we cannot know God, man, or the universe.
The Bible is a book that clearly reveals Christ in many aspects. In 2 Samuel 7 God promised a seed to David. Eventually, this seed of David was designated the Son (Rom. 1:3-4). Today Christ as the seed of David has become all in all to us. He is the centrality and universality of God. He is the hub and the circumference. He is the condensation and consummation of God and man. He is the all-inclusive, all-extensive Christ. He is God and He is man. He is the Creator and He is a creature. He is the First and He is the Last (Rev. 1:17). He is the beginning and He is the end. He fills all in all (Eph. 1:23), and He has been consummated to be the Spirit. He is our food, our drink, our breath, and our clothing. He is also every member of the Body and He is within every member. The Body is not the Head, nor the Head the Body, but Christ is both the Head and the Body (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 1:18). In life, in nature, in constitution, we as the Body are the same as Christ the Head. Eventually, this Christ is every person in the new man (Col. 3:10-11). In the new man there is no room for any nation, any race, or any class of persons. There is room only for Christ.
Regarding this, we need a vision to see that we are nothing. We have been annulled by Christ, and Christ has become all of us. In the church, in the Body, and in the new man, Christ is all, and He is in all.
The person of Christ is the greatest mystery in the universe. With Him, everything is a mystery, yet everything is real. We can experience Christ as the Spirit because He is within us and with us all the time, even until the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20). Where there are two or three gathered into His name, He is in their midst (18:20).
Being a Christian is not a matter of adjusting ourselves or improving ourselves. Such things are something of religion and have nothing to do with God's dynamic salvation. God's dynamic salvation is just the Triune God Himself passing through the processes to become the condensed, consummated, life-giving, all-inclusive Spirit. As such a One He can be contacted through our prayer from our spirit. When we pray even a little from our spirit, we contact this all-inclusive Spirit. He is real, genuine, living, fresh, and moving. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. He is the Redeemer and the Savior. He is life and everything to us. He is even us. He has become us in order to make us Him. This is God's dynamic salvation.
God's intention from eternity to eternity is to make Himself us, that we might become Him in life, in nature, and in constitution (but not in the Godhead). This is actually the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 concerning the seed of David who is called the Son of God. He is divine as well as human; He is human as well as divine. He, the firstborn Son of God, is our elder Brother, and we, His many brothers, are the many sons of God. In God's dynamic salvation there is no need for us to adjust ourselves or improve ourselves. What we need is for this One to be wrought into us through the metabolic process of transformation. Through this process He will move in us and gradually transform us into His image (2 Cor. 3:18) until we are fully the same as He in life, in nature, and in constitution. This is God's salvation, and this is the revelation in the Bible.
