In this message we shall begin to see that, through the experience of the dispensing of the divine Trinity, the believers have the highest standard of morality and virtues.
In the New Testament salvation is based on the principle of faith; it has nothing to do with the law. We all have been saved through faith, not through the keeping of the law. But after we are saved, we must live a life that has a standard of morality higher than that of the old law. We should not think that, just because God does not deal with us according to the principle of the law but according to the principle of faith, we should not care for the moral commandments of the law. On the contrary, after we have been saved, our standard of morality should be far higher than that of the requirements of the law.
It is important that we understand clearly what we mean by the highest standard of morality. In Genesis 1 we see that man was created in God’s image and according to God’s likeness. God is love and light. Love is the nature of God’s being, and light is the nature of God’s expression. Furthermore, God is holy and righteous. God is holy in His nature and righteous in His actions. These four attributes-love, light, holiness, and righteousness-are revealed in the law of God.
To say that man was created in the image of God means that man was created according to what God is. Man was created according to the God who is love and light and who is also holy and righteous. However, at the time of his creation man did not have God within him. For this reason, God placed the man created by Him in front of the tree of life. This indicates that it was necessary for the God-created man to take God into him as his life. If man had taken God into him as life, then the divine attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness would have come into man. The man created by God had only the appearance of God’s love, light, righteousness, and holiness. Man cannot have the reality of these attributes unless he receives God into him as life.
One day God Himself became a man named Jesus. This man was conceived of the divine essence and born of the human essence, the very essence God created in man. Therefore, the Lord Jesus, the God-man, was a composition of the divine essence with all the divine attributes and the human essence with all the human virtues. When He was on earth, He lived a life that was a composition of the divine attributes and the human virtues. This is the highest standard of morality.
When we speak of the highest standard of morality, we are not using the word “morality” in a traditional way. By morality we mean the standard of life God requires. The highest standard of morality is the living of the One-the Lord Jesus Christ-whose life was a composition of God with the divine attributes and man with the human virtues.
Although the man created by God failed to live a life in the highest standard of morality, the Lord Jesus lived such a life on earth with the attributes of God expressed in the virtues of man. God’s intention in His New Testament economy is that all the believers in Christ become a reproduction of Christ, the God-man. In order to become such a reproduction, we need to be reborn of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit (John 3:6), and then we need to be transformed gradually by the pneumatic Christ in our soul (2 Cor. 3:18). Then spontaneously we shall live Christ (Phil. 1:21), the God-man, by the bountiful supply of His Spirit (Phil. 1:19), taking His mind (Phil. 2:5) and shining the word of life as luminaries reflecting His brightness (Phil. 2:15b-16a). We shall also be found in Christ (Phil. 3:9) as our surpassing righteousness in the power of His resurrection. Then we shall express Him in all the human virtues created by God for man. With the divine attributes of the God-man these virtues are strengthened, enriched, uplifted, and filled. This is what it means for the believers, through the dispensing of the processed Triune God, to have the highest standard of morality and virtues.
Home | First | Prev | Next