In this message we shall consider further the expression of the kingdom with human virtues, covering the matter of 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. 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, especially the attributes of love, light, righteousness, and holiness, and the human virtues. This is the highest standard of morality.
God’s intention in His New Testament economy is that all the believers become a reproduction of Christ, the God-man, who lived a life in which the attributes of God were expressed in the virtues of man. In order to become a reproduction of Christ, 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). 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 will be strengthened, enriched, uplifted, and filled. This is what it means to say that the expression of the kingdom is with human virtues in the highest standard of morality.
The highest standard of morality involves keeping the principles of the law (Matt. 5:17-20). In Matthew 5:17 the Lord Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” To fulfill the law here means three things: that Christ kept the law on the positive side; that through His substitutionary death on the cross Christ fulfilled the requirement of the law on the negative side; and that Christ complemented the old law by His new law, as continually expressed by the word, “But I say to you” (vv. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44).
The Lord Jesus came to keep the law on the positive side. When He lived on earth, He kept every aspect of the law. No one else has ever kept the Ten Commandments; the Lord Jesus kept them completely.
Because the Lord Jesus kept the law, He became the perfect One. His perfection qualified Him to die on the cross for us. We all have broken, transgressed, the law, but our transgressions have been dealt with through the Lord’s substitutionary death. On the cross He was our substitute, dying for us to fulfill the law’s requirement on the negative side.
Christ’s fulfilling the requirement of the law through His substitutionary death on the cross brought in the resurrection life to complement the law. The old law, with its keeping demand and punishing requirement, is over. Now, as children of the Father, we only need to fulfill the new, higher law by the resurrection life, which is the eternal life of the Father.
Christ’s substitutionary death brought in the resurrection life. When this resurrection life comes into us, it is able to do the wonderful work of completing the law. It enables us to fulfill the higher law of the kingdom. This resurrection life is much higher than our natural life, for it is actually the divine life, the eternal life, the life on the highest plane. This highest life within us can fulfill the requirements of the highest law. In this way we keep the principles of the law to have the highest standard of morality for the expression of the kingdom in the divine attributes with human virtues.
Matthew 5:20 says, “Unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” This surpassing righteousness is the condition for entering into the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens in the millennium. By keeping the highest law to the highest standard, we fulfill the condition for entering into the coming manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.