The Son lived as the tabernacle of God, as the temple of God (John 1:14a; 2:21). He was God’s dwelling place. Every Christian’s life must be like this. When we live, we must live as God’s dwelling. We must live in a way that people can see God dwelling in our living. Our daily life should be God’s tabernacle. When we work at school or in the office people should be able to see God in our daily life.
The Son was also coinhering with the Father. Coinhering simply means indwelling one another. The Father dwells in the Son, and the Son dwells in the Father (John 14:10a, 11a; 17:21). When the Son was living on this earth, His living was a mutual abiding. He was abiding in the Father and the Father was abiding in Him.
The Son was one with the Father (John 10:30; 17:22). The Son, when He was living on this earth, lived a life that showed people that He and the Father were one. We all must live a life that shows people we and Christ are one. We must be one with Jesus.
In the Son’s living He had the Father with Him, so He told us He was never alone (John 8:29; 16:32). He had the Father with Him all the time. We also should live a life in which the Lord is with us all the time.
The Son lived because of the Father (John 6:57). He did not live His own life, but the Father’s life. We also can live a life that is not ourselves, but Christ. We should live a life that is not us, but Christ. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). We all can live because of Christ (John 6:57b). The Lord Jesus was the Son living the Father; now we should live Christ (Phil. 1:21a).
The Son was also anointed by the Father with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18a). Whatever the Son does, He does it with the Father by the Spirit. When the Father anointed the Son, the Father did not go back to the heavens. The Father remained with the Son all the time, and He anointed the Son with the Spirit. Then one day the Son said the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him and that He was sent to proclaim the glad tidings (Luke 4:18a). He proclaimed the glad tidings with the Father and by the Spirit.
We must see a vision concerning the Triune God embodied in Man, a Man who lived the life of the Triune God. The incarnation was the dispensing of the Triune God into humanity, and the Son’s living was the result of such a dispensing. The Man Jesus was a model confirming to us that the dispensing of the Triune God into humanity works! In human history there was at least one Person who was the result of God’s dispensing and who lived a life of the divine nature mingled with the life of the human nature.
When I was younger I wondered why our God needed to become a Man to live on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. For thirty years He lived in a carpenter’s home. Seemingly He did not do anything; He just lived there. To me there was no need of that. We need a Savior, and a Redeemer, but why did our Lord need to live on this earth for thirty years, seemingly doing nothing? Even the Lord Jesus’ work for three and a half years did not involve much; He traveled mainly in Palestine, a narrow strip of land about three hundred miles from north to south and about one hundred miles from east to west. Eventually He only gathered one hundred twenty (Acts 1:15). Among these one hundred twenty there was not one with a doctor’s degree. Most were unlearned, some were fishermen, and then there were a group of women, one of whom was possessed by seven demons. Seemingly, Jesus did not do much in the way of work. Actually, He did something quite significant. He lived a life which is a model, a pattern, of the Christian life and the church life. This shows that God does not treasure that much what we do. God treasures His dispensing and how much of the divine dispensing has been imparted into our being. Jesus was altogether the aggregate of the divine dispensing, the embodiment of the divine dispensing. He lived a life as a Man saturated with the Triune God. His living was the expression of the divine dispensing. He lived in Nazareth for thirty years doing no work because His burden and His intention was not to work, but to live a life that was the result of the divine dispensing. In every page of the four Gospels we can see a picture of the divine dispensing lived out by this Man Jesus.