In this chapter we would like to continue our fellowship concerning the second emphasis in the Lord’s recovery-Christ. In particular, we want to see more concerning the biography of Christ. Then we will go on to see the truth concerning the third emphasis in the Lord’s recovery-the Spirit.
According to what is revealed in the Scriptures, Christ is the centrality and universality of God in His move, especially for the completion of His redemption to produce the church. As the centrality and universality of God, Christ must have the preeminence, the first place (Col. 1:18b). He is the most preeminent One in the whole universe. In God’s creation, in God’s redemption, in the church, and in the believers, Christ has the preeminence, the very first place.
Ephesians 1 also tells us that God has given Christ to be the Head over all things to the church (v. 22b). The preposition to indicates a kind of transmission. Whatever Christ is, is transmitted to the church. Whatever Christ, the Head, has attained and obtained is transmitted to the church, His Body. In this transmission, we enjoy the fullness of the Godhead and His headship.
Christ was God, and one day He became a man in incarnation. Incarnation is God coming to be a man. The almighty God became one with man according to the human principle of conception and birth. God took this way to become a man about four thousand years after He created man. Four thousand years after His creation of man, He came into the womb of a virgin named Mary. The almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, came into the womb of a virgin and stayed there for nine months. Then He came out of that womb to be a man with a name given by God’s ordination-Jesus. Jesus is the connection, the linking, of God with man.
Jesus means Jehovah the Savior. Jehovah became a man to be our Savior that we may enjoy His salvation. He is the complete God connected and mingled with the perfect man. This wonderful person is very particular. He is not merely God or merely man. He is both God and man, so He is called the God-man. Through Him God and man came together. Man was joined to God and God mingled Himself with man. This is Jesus! Many Christians do not know Jesus as such a connection, such a linking, and such a mingling of divinity with humanity. His incarnation not only made Him a man but also brought God into man. Now we can shout, “Hallelujah, God today is a man!”
After He lived thirty years in Nazareth, He came out to minister. When He came out, He was a great attraction, like a big magnet. While He was walking on the seashore of Galilee, Peter, Andrew, James, and John were drawn to Him (Matt. 4:18-22). They left their occupations and followed Him. They were attracted by the Lord as the great light in the darkness of death (v. 16) and followed Him for the establishment of the kingdom of the heavens in the light of life.
Although He was such an attraction, He did not possess any outward beauty. He was not a handsome man. Isaiah said that He had “no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, / Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him” (53:2) and that “His appearance was marred more than that of any man, / And His form more than that of the sons of men” (52:14). Even though He did not have a handsome appearance, something within Him was like a magnet. When the disciples saw Him, they were drawn, attracted. We may also say that they became “addicted” to Him. Today I can declare that I am addicted to Jesus, and many of us are the same.
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