Furthermore, the Man-Savior was incarnated in order to uplift the human virtues to the highest standard, to the standard that matches God’s attributes for the expression of God. Because our virtues were damaged and deformed, they could not match God’s attributes. But the uplifted human virtues can match God’s attributes. The Man-Savior was born of the human essence with the human virtues in order to uplift these virtues to such a standard that they can match God’s attributes for His expression.
The Man-Savior’s being conceived of the divine essence with the divine attributes and being born of the human essence with the human virtues produced the highest standard of morality. This morality is for the saving power of the Man-Savior’s dynamic salvation. The result of the divine attributes filling the empty human virtues, strengthening, enriching, and sanctifying the human virtues, and expressing God in the human virtues is the highest standard of morality. The Lord Jesus refers to this morality in Matthew 5:20: “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” Here the Lord charges us to have a surpassing righteousness, which is not merely an objective righteousness, but a subjective righteousness, the indwelling Christ lived out of us as our righteousness. Of course, the Man-Savior Himself had such a surpassing righteousness, and this righteousness is the highest standard of morality.
Paul in Philippians 3:9 speaks of the highest standard of morality: “And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God based on faith.” Paul was endeavoring to be found in Christ not with his own righteousness, a human righteousness, but having the righteousness of God. This indicates that we Christians need to live a righteousness that is actually God Himself. Paul aspired to be found in Christ having such a surpassing righteousness, a righteousness of the highest standard, that is, the righteousness of God.
How can we have the righteousness of God? We can only have this righteousness by having God live in us. If God does not live in us, we cannot live Him. If we do not live God, we cannot live the righteousness of God. To live the righteousness of God, we must have God Himself living in us. This is the surpassing righteousness, the righteousness of the highest standard. The Man-Savior’s incarnation was to produce this highest standard of morality, and this morality is for the saving power of His dynamic salvation.
Due to the influence of tradition, many Christians have the wrong concept concerning the Lord’s salvation. Their concept is that our Savior, Jesus Christ, came merely to save us from hell and to bring us to heaven. This understanding of salvation is very inadequate. The Man-Savior’s way of saving us is much higher than this.
According to His way of saving us, the Man-Savior first brought God’s attributes into man’s virtues. Then He lived a life with the human virtues filled, strengthened, enriched, and sanctified by the divine attributes. In such a living there is saving power. The Lord does not save us by merely stretching out His hand to rescue us from hell. Rather, when He saves us, He comes into us as the One with the human virtues filled with the divine attributes. Such a life saves us from within and uplifts our human virtues, restoring, sanctifying, and transforming us. A person who is saved in this way will surely not go to hell. Instead, he will go to the place where God is.
However, suppose a person could actually be saved according to the natural concept of merely being rescued from hell and brought to heaven. If Christ simply stretched forth His hand to lift us out of hell into heaven, God would not be pleased. He would say to such a person, “I am not happy with what you are. Your person is offensive to Me. I don’t want you to remain here in heaven with Me.”
We need to see that the Man-Savior’s way of saving us is not superficial. In order to save us, He, the very God, came into man, bringing God’s attributes into man’s virtues. While He was on earth, He lived the life of a God-man, with the divine attributes filling His human virtues. Eventually, He died on the cross and was resurrected. In His resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Now as the life-giving Spirit He enters into us to bring God into our being and to fill our virtues with God’s attributes. In this way we are being saved day by day. We are being saved in the way of the Lord’s restoring, His transforming.