Mark 6:3 tells us that Christ was a carpenter in a lowly home. Carpentry is not a magnificent work, but it needs much of fineness and patience. In such a work Christ was found in fashion as a man, not in loftiness but in lowliness, fineness, and patience.
Another aspect of Christ’s work in His human living was to declare God. “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). In His human living Christ declared God. According to John 1:1-18, Christ declared God by the Word (vv. 1, 14), life (v. 4), light (vv. 4-5), grace (vv. 14, 16, 17), and reality (vv. 14, 17). The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized. God is declared in the Son through these five things. Although no one has ever seen God, Christ in His human living has declared God in the way of being the Word, life, light, grace, and reality. The more we receive the Word, have the divine life, and let the light of life shine within us, and the more we enjoy God as grace and apprehend Him as reality, the more He is declared to us. In His human living Christ carried out the work of declaring God in this way. During the thirty years of His living and working as a carpenter, Christ declared God. While He was living to build up the fashion of a man, He declared God to His mother, brothers, and sisters. They must have realized that there was something excellent and extraordinary with Him, something higher than the expression only of humanity. What they saw in the human living of the Lord Jesus was the declaration of God in Him. His human living declared God.
If you want to serve the Lord, you should not begin by trying to do a great work for the Lord. This is contrary to the divine principle. You should simply live a life that declares God. Then others will see in you something excellent, something divine. This indicates that in your daily living there is a work that declares God.
As we read the New Testament, we may wonder what the Lord Jesus was doing day after day for thirty years. In a sense, He was not doing anything. He was just living, and that living was His unique work to build up a fashion of a genuine man. Because the Lord Jesus was built up in this way, when He came out to minister, He did not need to pretend or to perform. There was no need for Him to deliberately try to behave like a God-man, a man with God in Him, for He was a genuine man and was found in fashion as a man. As a real man, He spontaneously declared God. Before the three and a half years of His ministry, He accomplished a preparatory work for thirty years. Therefore, with the Lord Jesus, thirty years were for the work of preparation. Afterward, the Lord Jesus was used by God in His ministry for only three and a half years.
Christ’s work in His human living also includes His expressing the Father (John 14:9). According to the Gospel of John, Christ the Son came in the Father’s name (5:43), worked in the Father’s name (10:25), did the Father’s will (6:38), spoke the Father’s word (3:34a; 14:24; 7:16-17; 12:47-50), and sought the Father’s glory (7:18). He was one with the Father (10:30). He had no work, no will, no word, no glory, and no ambition for Himself. As such a one, Christ expressed only the Father. He did not express Himself. He was the Son, yet He expressed the Father.
Because the Son expresses not Himself but the Father, the Son’s expression is the Father’s expression. Therefore, when we see the Son, we see the Father. This is proved by the exchange between the Lord Jesus and Philip in John 14. In verse 7 the Lord pointed out to the disciples that if they had known Him, they would have known His Father also. Then He said, “Henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” However, Philip replied, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us” (v. 8). To this the Lord Jesus answered, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). In the Son the Father is expressed and seen, for the Son is the expression of the Father. If we have seen the Son, we have seen the Father because the Father is embodied in the Son to be expressed through Him in His human living.
This was true of the Lord Jesus even at the age of twelve. When the Lord 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 Christ’s human living. The Lord Jesus lived a genuine human life, yet in His human life we see the divine element and also certain divine factors. This life did not express man; it expressed God the Father.
In His human living the Lord Jesus cared for the things of the Father. Luke 2:41-51 reveals that at the age of twelve He cared for God’s interests. Verse 42 says, “When He became twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the feast.” At the age of twelve, a boy was called by the Jews “son of the law,” and first incurred legal obligation (Alford). The number twelve also signifies eternal perfection in God’s administration. Hence, “twelve years old” indicates that what the Lord Jesus did here was perfectly related to God’s administration.
According to verses 43 through 48, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it. When they realized that He was not with them in the caravan, they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him. When they found Him, His mother said to Him, “Child, why did You treat us like this? Behold, Your father and I are greatly distressed seeking You” (v. 48). The Lord replied, “Why is it that you were seeking Me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of My Father?” (v. 49). This indicates that the boy Jesus was caring for the interests of God. The words “My Father” in verse 49 point to the deity of Jesus (John 5:18). In His humanity He was the son of His parents; in His deity He was the Son of God the Father. Here we see the Lord’s dual status, His status as the Son of God and the Son of Man. In His humanity Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, cared for the things of the Father, for God’s interests.
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