We need to review as a whole what we have spoken in the previous few messages. The general subject of this conference is God’s way in life. Many times, we think that God works by His power and authority. This concept is not spiritual, and it is from man rather than from God. God’s concept is that He has given us His life in order that this life can become all of our ways. With God there is life, and with life there is the way. Without God there is death, and death affords no way to go on. This is very clear.
How did God become our life? There is a process involved. First, God created man in His image and made in man a spirit, that man may match Him, and that He may enter into man to become man’s life and to express Himself through man. For this, God placed the created man before the tree of life, which symbolizes Himself, with the purpose that man would eat and receive Him. He did not ask man to do any work, nor did He give man any teaching. He only would have man to eat of the tree of life and to partake of God’s life. But man made the wrong choice and ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. He fell, and he failed God’s original purpose in creating him.
Then one day, God Himself became flesh. He entered into a virgin’s womb, was conceived, and remained there. When the full period of nine months was completed, He was born of this virgin, having both divinity and humanity within Him as a wonderful God-man. His name is Jesus. He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. He lived a living that was God’s, that is, a living that expressed God. However, this was not merely a living that expressed God Himself, but one where God’s life was expressed through an excellent humanity.
The four Gospels describe a person whose humanity and personality are most wonderful, excellent, and outstanding. One French philosopher once said that if the records of Jesus Christ as described in the four Gospels were fabricated, the person that fabricated the records would have been qualified to be Jesus Christ Himself. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said many things, such as, “I am the way and the reality and the life’’ (14:6), and, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’’ (8:12). Although these words are simple, they bear a lofty tone and are mysterious and profound beyond all measure. During the six thousand years of human history, there were many sages and saints, but no one else could speak with such a tone. Furthermore, none of them could do anything about the problem of sin. Confucius could only say that “there is nowhere to plead when one sins against heaven.’’ But Christ is different. His forerunner, John the Baptist, spoke of Him, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’’ (John 1:29). Although the sins of the world are numerous and grave, He is able to remove them all. Wonderful words like these are found frequently in the four Gospels. All these prove that He is the true One. He is God and also man. His living is the living of a God-man.
In the end, He went to the cross to accomplish the all- inclusive death and to solve all the problems in the universe related to man. The first problem to solve is sin. The second is the lust within man. The third is the world. The fourth is the devil, Satan. The fifth, which is also the greatest, is death itself. All these things have been solved for us through the Lord’s death. Then, He resurrected from death and was transfigured to become the life-giving Spirit, which is the Spirit of life. This Spirit of life is simply the Triune God. He is Jehovah of the Old Testament; He is also Jesus of the New Testament. He is Christ, and He is our Savior. He is also the life that we have received and that is now in our spirit. As to His greatness, He is so great that He fills the whole universe. As to His smallness, He is so small that He can live inside of us.
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