THE GOD-MAN LIVING

MESSAGE TWO

UNDER THE ORGANIC FEEDING AND SHEPHERDING OF CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Scripture Reading: John 11:25; 14:6; 10:10b-11, 14, 16; 21:15-17; Eph. 4:11-13; 1 Pet. 5:4; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25, 2; 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:13-14; 1 Thes. 2:7; Eph. 5:29; Col. 1:28; Eph. 6:17; 1 Cor. 12:11; Eph. 4:4; 1 Pet. 5:2; Acts 20:28

OUTLINE

1. The Gospel of John, as the gospel of life, unveils to us that Christ is not only life (11:25; 14:6) for Him to be life to us that through Him we may be regenerated by God, but also a good Shepherd (10:10b-11, 14, 16) who feeds and shepherds us as His flock.
2. After their spiritual birth, as newborn babes, the believers need the feeding and the shepherding of Christ, as He charged Peter, His first apostle, to take care of the believers as His lambs and sheep by feeding and shepherding them—John 21:15-17.
3. In the church life Christ as the Head distributes His gifts to the mature ones, among whom are the shepherds, for the perfecting of the saints and the building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:11-12.
4. Christ, who is the believers’ Redeemer, Savior, and life, becomes the Chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4) and the great Shepherd (Heb. 13:20), who shepherds His believers as their Overseer (1 Pet. 2:25).
5. Shepherding includes feeding, especially in taking care of the newborn ones, and for the feeding of the newborn ones, milk is the best (1 Pet. 2:2; 1 Cor. 3:2a; Heb. 5:13); the apostle Paul likened himself to such a nursing mother (1 Thes. 2:7).
6. Both the feeding and the shepherding are for the God-men’s growth in the divine life of God for their daily salvation—1 Pet. 2:2b.
7. The shepherds’ feeding is not only for the growth unto the believers’ daily salvation but also unto their maturity in the divine life which is needed for the God-men to be built up in the Body of Christ—Heb. 5:14; Eph. 4:12-13.
8. Christ as the Head of the Body nourishes and cherishes us (Eph. 5:29). Christ’s shepherding includes nourishing and cherishing; nourishing is to feed us, and cherishing is to comfort us, to soothe us, to nurture us with tender love, and to foster us with tender care. All of this is to help us grow in the divine life that we may be full-grown and matured in it (Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:13).
9. Christ’s feeding is for the believers’ growth in the divine life, and the God-men’s growth in the divine life is for the manifestation of their functions in the Body of Christ.
10. The believers’ growth in the divine life is by feeding on the word of God, which is also the Spirit of God (Eph. 6:17), and the manifestation of the believers’ functions in the Body of Christ is also by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11); hence, the feeding of Christ is related eventually to the Spirit who is altogether for the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4) to consummate the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy.
11. Such feeding and shepherding of Christ should be the responsibility of the elders for the churches (1 Pet. 5:2; Acts 20:28) and the great part of the function of our today’s vital groups.

In the previous message we pointed out that even from eternity God fell in love with man. God’s good pleasure is to be one with man, to make Himself a man, and to make man Himself in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. In order to accomplish His good pleasure, God created three important things for man. First, He created man in His image, making man His xerox copy; second, He created man with a human spirit; and third, He put eternity in man’s heart. The word for eternity may also be translated “the ages.” The Amplified Bible gives a marvelous translation of this word in Ecclesiastes 3:11 by saying that eternity in man’s heart indicates a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy.

After His creation of man, God put man in front of the tree of life, but the way to the tree of life was closed due to man’s fall. The crucified Christ later became the reopened way for man to contact God as the tree of life. When man receives the life of God, he is regenerated. Regeneration is to bring forth the children of God. Shepherding is to take care of the children by feeding them. After shepherding comes dispositional sanctification and renewing, transformation and building, and conformation unto the image of the firstborn Son of God and glorification. These are the eight items of God’s organic salvation.

God’s organic salvation is His salvation by His life. The line of the inner life started with Madame Guyon and other mystics. William Law improved these mystical writings, and later Andrew Murray used William Law’s writings. Mrs. Penn-Lewis, who received help from Andrew Murray’s writings, went on to see the subjective death of Christ. Following her, T. Austin-Sparks saw the principles of life in resurrection. But all of these saints in the line of the inner life never considered the Lord’s shepherding a part of the Lord’s organic salvation.

The shepherding work is to feed. Feeding is the business of a nursing mother. After parents beget children, they have to feed them so that they can live. Feeding is a part of God’s organic salvation. In the God-man living we are firstly born of God through regeneration. Then we are under the organic feeding and shepherding of Christ as the good Shepherd. After our birth we need feeding to progress in life.

Shepherding and feeding are a part of the God-man living. The God-men are just the believers. In this message I use believers and God-men interchangeably. In the New Testament we cannot find the term God-men, but a synonym for God-men is the children of God. (The children of God is used ten times in the New Testament.) John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” The children of God are the God-men.

We saw in message one that the children of God belong to the species of God. A species is a kingdom. There are the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and the God kingdom. John 3 says that when we are born of God, we see and enter into the kingdom of God (vv. 3, 5). The word kingdom here refers to the organic realm, the species, not to the governmental realm. The Lord told Nicodemus that unless he was regenerated he would not be able to see, or understand, the kingdom of God. Who can understand the kingdom of lions if he is not a lion? If you are born of a lion to be a small lion, right away you see, understand, the kingdom of lions. To see is to intrinsically understand.

Once we are born into the kingdom of God to be the children of God, the God-men, we need the feeding. We should not think that every God-man is full-grown. The God-men begin their spiritual lives as babes. But regardless of our spiritual maturity, we all need the organic feeding and shepherding of Christ.