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Scripture Reading: Heb. 2:14a, Heb. 2:16-17a; Phil. 2:6-8; John 1:1, 14; 5:30; 6:38
In this message we shall continue to consider the Man-Savior’s God-man living.
The Man-Savior is a genuine man with the real human nature and the perfect human virtues. Here we use three adjectives to describe the Man-Savior in His humanity: genuine, real, and perfect. As a man, the Man-Savior is genuine. His nature is real; that is, He was a real human being, not a phantom. Furthermore, the Man-Savior’s human virtues are perfect. In order to be qualified to be man’s Savior, the Lord Jesus had to be a genuine man with a real human nature and the perfect human virtues. Because He is genuine as a man, real in His human nature, and perfect in His human virtues, He is qualified to be the Man-Savior.
The Man-Savior was not only a genuine man; He was also the complete God. As the complete God, He had the true divine nature and the excellent divine attributes.
Orthodox theologians and fundamental Bible teachers agree that Christ is the complete God. However, some will not admit that this One is not only the Son of God but also the Father and the Spirit. On the one hand, they teach that Christ is the complete God; on the other hand, they teach that Christ is only part of the Trinity. Hence, with these theologians and teachers there is a contradiction. If you say that Christ is only part of the Trinity, then He is not the complete God. Rather, He is simply a part of the complete God. The complete God is not merely the Father or merely the Spirit or merely the Son. The complete God is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
We would emphasize the fact that the Man-Savior is both a genuine man and the complete God. He is a genuine man with the real human nature and the perfect human virtues, and He is the complete God with the true divine nature and the excellent divine attributes. We have seen that with respect to His humanity the Man-Savior is genuine, real, and perfect. Now we need to see that with respect to His divinity He is complete, true, and excellent. He is the complete God, He has the true divine nature, and He has the excellent divine attributes. His human virtues are perfect, but His divine attributes are excellent; His attributes are superior, surpassing.
The Man-Savior’s divine nature and excellent divine attributes empower and ensure His ability to save man. In His humanity there is the capacity to save us, the capacity for salvation. But this capacity is empowered and ensured by His divinity. His ability to save us is guaranteed by His divinity.
When some hear that the Man-Savior’s divine nature and attributes empower and ensure His ability to save us, they may say, “Is there any verse in the Bible that says this? Have you read a book that teaches this?” I must answer both questions with a no. Apparently, there is not a verse in the Bible that teaches this, and I have never read a book that uses these expressions. Perhaps you are wondering why I have the boldness to speak this way. My answer is that this kind of teaching is the result of more than a half century of the study of the Bible. In particular, it is the result of a ten-year Life-study of the New Testament, a study that will soon be completed with the book of Acts. According to the divine revelation in the Scriptures, the Man-Savior’s divine nature and divine attributes empower and ensure His saving ability. The Bible as a whole certainly reveals that the Lord’s divinity empowers His saving capacity, which is in His humanity.
First John 1:7 conveys the thought that the divinity of Christ empowers and ensures the saving capacity within His humanity. This verse says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Here the name “Jesus” denotes the Lord’s humanity, which is needed for the shedding of the redeeming blood, and the title “His Son” denotes the Lord’s divinity, which is needed for the eternal efficacy of the redeeming blood. Thus, “the blood of Jesus His Son” indicates that this blood is the proper blood of a genuine man for redeeming God’s fallen creatures with divine surety for its eternal efficacy, an efficacy that is all-prevailing in space and everlasting in time.
According to 1 John 1:7, the blood shed by the Man-Savior on the cross was not only the blood of Jesus but also the blood of the Son of God. It was the blood of one with a dual status, the status of both man and God. The blood of Jesus was the genuine blood of a real man required for our redemption. The efficacy of this blood is ensured by the Man-Savior’s divinity. Divinity makes the blood of Jesus eternal. Apart from the Lord’s divinity, His redemption could not be eternal.
The Lord’s true divinity with His excellent attributes empowers and ensures His ability to save man. Humanity qualifies Him to save us, and divinity empowers Him to save us. His divinity also ensures His ability to save man.
As a genuine man and the complete God, the Man-Savior is the God-man. He has the human nature with its virtues to contain God and express Him. No one has ever contained as much of God as the Lord Jesus does. With His human virtues He contained God and expressed Him. In the Olympic games athletes try their best to display their ability. But the God-man did not need to exert Himself to display His ability to contain and express God. No one can compare with Him in having the human nature with its virtues to contain and express God.
As the God-man the Lord Jesus has the divine nature with its divine attributes to be His content and reality for the expression of God. The God-man has the essence of God, the nature of God, and the attributes of God. He is a genuine man with the real human nature and the perfect human virtues to express God. However, in order to express God, He must have God as His content and reality. Once again we may use the illustration of a glove. A glove expresses the hand. But if a glove is to express the hand, it must have the hand as its content and reality. The God-man is both the “glove” and the “hand,” for He has both humanity as the container and divinity as the content.
Today the Man-Savior is still both man and God. He is man as the container, and He is God as the content. In Him we have the real human nature and the true divine nature. In Him we have the perfect human virtues and the excellent divine attributes. These two categories meet in Him and are mingled in Him to become one composition. Hence, He is the God-man.
However, in this mingling there is not the producing of a third nature, a nature that is neither fully human nor completely divine. Furthermore, after the essences of the two natures, the divine nature and the human nature, have been mingled and have become one composition, they still remain distinct. This means that in the mingling of divinity and humanity in the Man-Savior there is no confusion of the two natures. This mingling is mysterious; this God-man is truly a mystery.
When I was young, I did not receive this kind of help in understanding the Lord Jesus as the God-man. I am thankful that the young saints are able to receive this help today. The young generation in the Lord’s recovery is very blessed to hear such a word concerning the God-man, the Man-Savior, with His human nature and His divine nature.
Many books say that Jesus Christ is the God-man, but which of them interprets the God-man in the way presented in these messages on the Life-study of Luke? What is the God-man? He is a genuine man with a real human nature and perfect human virtues, and He is the complete God with the true divine nature and the excellent divine attributes. He has the human nature with its virtues to contain and express God. He also has the divine nature with its attributes to be His content and reality for the expression of God. This is the God-man.
Let us now go on to consider the Man-Savior’s God-man living. This is the living of a genuine man, but not by man’s life — man’s mind, will, and emotion — to express man in man’s virtues.
Two verses from the Gospel of John are helpful in understanding this. In John 5:30 the Lord Jesus says, “I can do nothing from Myself; as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” In John 6:38 He goes on to say, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” In these verses we see that the Lord Jesus did not do or seek His own will.
In a very real sense, our will represents our whole being. Yes, in one sense our being is represented by our mind. The mind, however, represents our being only in thought; the will represents our being, or our soul, in its doings. You may have thought about many things, but how many of those things have you done? Perhaps out of a hundred matters we have thought, only two have been accomplished. The point we are making here is that our mind represents our being in thought, and our will represents our being in action, in deeds.
The fact that the Lord Jesus did not seek or do His own will indicates that while He was living as a man, He was not living by His own mind, will, and emotion. This means that He was not living by His own life. Here “life” equals our being, and our being is composed of our mind, will, and emotion. The Man-Savior, the God-man, lived as a man, but He did not live by His own mind, will, and emotion.
The Lord Jesus had a genuine man’s living by God’s mind, will, and emotion — to express God in God’s attributes. The Lord did not seek His own will but God’s will. He came not to do His own will but to do God’s will. This means that He came to live as a man not by man’s life, but by God’s life. He lived by God’s mind, will, and emotion to express God in God’s attributes. These attributes are contained in and mingled with His human virtues.
In the Gospel of Luke we have many examples of the Man-Savior’s God-man living. Consider the case of the good Samaritan (10:25-37). In the human living of the good Samaritan God was expressed. God was there empowering Him. The love expressed was not simply the Samaritan’s human love; it was a human love strengthened, empowered, and enriched by the divine love. Hence, it was a superior love, a surpassing love.
Consider also the case of Zaccheus (19:1-10). In the Man-Savior’s coming to Zaccheus and His dealing with him we see something divine. It is hard to explain what we see expressed in the man Jesus. Within Him there is something more than the divine omniscience. In Him the excellent divine attributes are present strengthening His human virtues. The Lord Jesus lived in the way of having His human virtues empowered by the divine attributes.
This was true of the Lord Jesus even at the age of twelve. When the Lord Jesus was twelve, He was a human child. But as we read the account in Luke 2, we see that in this child there was the divine element. God’s attributes were expressed in His human living.
The Lord Jesus lived a genuine human life, yet in His life we see the divine element and also certain divine factors. This life did not express man; it expressed God. This is the God-man’s life and living.
In the living of the Lord Jesus, man’s mind, will, and emotion became the organs to contain God’s life. We may compare these organs to the fingers of a glove. Just as the fingers of a glove contain the real fingers, so the Man-Savior’s mind, will, and emotion contain God’s life. The five fingers of a glove are not real fingers but contain the five fingers of a human hand. In a similar way, the Lord’s mind, will, and emotion are organs containing God’s mind, will, and emotion. This was His God-Man living.
In the Man-Savior’s God-man living man’s virtues became a shell, an image, to express God’s attributes so that God may be expressed in man’s living. From this we see that our human virtues — our love, brightness, holiness, and righteousness — are just a shell, the image created by God in Genesis 1:26. God created man in His image so that God may be expressed in man’s living.
If we see this, we shall have the answer to the question raised in the foregoing message concerning why it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to live on earth for thirty-three and a half years before He died to accomplish redemption. If He had lived on earth only a short time, there would have been only a momentary expression of the divine attributes in His living. Such a brief expression could be compared to a rainbow, which appears for a while and then vanishes. The Man-Savior lived a full human life for thirty-three and a half years. During those years He was proved to be without defect or imperfection. He did not fail in any way. His virtues were an image for an expression of God’s attributes. Therefore, God was expressed in His living.
The Lord’s God-man living constituted His qualification to be the Man-Savior. At the same time, this living constituted a prototype to His believers. As we shall see in the next message, this prototype is for the “mass production,” the reproduction, of the God-man in the believers. In a factory, a great deal of time may be spent to produce a prototype. Once the prototype has been produced, it is then used for mass production. In a similar way, the Man-Savior’s God-man living constituted Him a prototype so that He may now be reproduced in us. Praise the Lord for the prototype and for the mass production!
