The resurrected Christ, the “pneumatic Christ,” is both God and man, possessing both divinity and humanity. He is a God-man. All that He is, is truly beyond our enumeration. He is light, and He is love. The reality that comes out of light is truth, and the reality that comes out of love is grace. Light manifested is truth; love expressed is grace. From within these are produced holiness, righteousness, and every kind of virtue.
Philippians 4:8 says, “What things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what things are well spoken of....” These six virtues are higher than the benevolence, justice, politeness, wisdom, and trustworthiness taught by the Chinese sages. To be true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of are items of what God is. Out of these are produced holiness, righteousness, goodness, meekness, modesty, forbearance, kindness, and so on. All these riches of God, which are also the riches of Christ, become our enjoyment in our experience, and we thereby express the virtues of God.
God is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. When God created man, He created him according to these virtues. The Bible tells us that God created man in His image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:26). In other words, God created man according to truthfulness, dignity, righteousness, purity, loveliness, and well speaking. If man had not fallen and not been corrupted by the devil, man’s condition would be true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of. The created man was merely like a photograph. Even though he had the outward form of these virtues, he did not have their reality. It is only when Christ enters into us as our content that we have that reality. Christ is the reality of all the virtues. He truly is rich because all the divine attributes and all the human virtues converge in Him. He is the God who became flesh, the Christ who died and resurrected, and even more the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. Truthfulness, dignity, righteousness, purity, loveliness, and well speaking are His riches. After the Lord Jesus resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit, the riches of Christ became in us the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The riches of Christ are unsearchable, and the supply of the Spirit is bountiful, having no lack.
Today the riches of Christ in the Spirit become the bountiful supply in us. You should never ask God to make you humble in a mere outward way. The more you beg for and have this kind of humility, the more you will be proud. When you read the portion in Ephesians 5 which says that wives should submit to their husbands, you may make a decision to be a model wife who absolutely submits to her husband. You might be able to submit temporarily, but eventually you will not be submissive because within you there is no submission. Instead, you should pray by saying, “Lord! I praise You that You are all things; You are a wife’s submission to her husband. You are submission, and I am not; I do not have submission, and therefore I cannot submit. You are the Lord Jesus; Your name is ‘I Am,’ ‘I Am who I Am.’ You are the Lord, and You are submission. O Lord Jesus! I thank You and praise You that Ephesians 5 is wonderful in that Christ is submission. You are my submission. I enjoy You as my submission.” If you pray like this, you will submit to your husband for the entire day with rejoicing and praise.
It is the same thing for husbands toward their wives; the love with which you love your wife must be Christ. It is the same thing for children toward their parents; the obedience with which you obey your parents is Christ. Ephesians 6 says that children must obey their parents in the Lord. Therefore, there is no real obedience outside of the Lord. Only in the Lord can there be the husband’s love; only in the Lord can there be the wife’s submission; and only in the Lord can there be the children’s obedience. Only in the Lord can there be truthfulness, loveliness, and goodness. These virtues can be found only in the Lord.
The life of the Lord Jesus, the salvation of Christ, and the bountiful supply of the Spirit are definitely not culture, religion, or philosophy; nor are they ethics, morals, traditions, or customs. The Lord Jesus is the living God who became the God-man and who died for us and resurrected to accomplish redemption and become the pneumatic Christ. Within this pneumatic Christ are hidden all the virtues of divinity and all the perfection of humanity. Today He is the life-giving Spirit who dwells in our spirit as our blessed portion. Therefore, we should not outwardly pursue submission, love, obedience, and other items. Instead, we should live in our mingled spirit to experience the riches of Christ and enjoy the supply of the Spirit. In this way, we will live Christ. When we live out Christ in this way, His effulgence will shine out of us, His virtues will be manifested in us, and we will become the expression of the riches of Christ.
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