The title of this message is “The Man-Savior’s God-man Living.” Have you ever considered this matter? Have you ever realized that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, His living was a God-man living? His living was not merely that of a man; rather, His living was the living of a God-man.
In order to save us, God had to live in a man for thirty-three and a half years. Have you ever thought about this? In creating the universe God used only six days, and on the seventh day He rested. Why, then, did God need to live on earth in a man for so many years in order to save us? Not only did the Lord become a man; He lived on earth as a man for thirty-three and a half years.
Shortly after I was saved, I began to consider God’s way of saving us. I said to myself, “God is almighty. If He wanted to, He could save us by snatching us out of hell and bringing us to heaven. Why did He become a man and live on earth?”
The Lord’s human living was genuine. Genuine human living is found not with the upper class but with the middle and lower classes. The Lord Jesus did not live His human life as part of the upper class of society. Instead, He was a member of a poor family and worked as a carpenter, living in the lower class of society. Even though He was a royal descendant of the family of David, He was born into a poor family and lived among the lower class for thirty years. At the age of thirty, He came forth to minister and ministered for three and a half years.
Since God is almighty, why did He not save us in the same way He created the universe? In His creation, God simply had to speak, and a certain matter came into being. For example, He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Gen. 1:3). Concerning creation, Psalm 33:9 says, “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Since God created the heavens and the earth in this way, why was it necessary for Him to live on earth for thirty-three and a half years in order to save us?
Another question we have concerns the application of Christ’s redemption. The Man-Savior accomplished redemption more than nineteen hundred years ago. Why did He not immediately apply this accomplished redemption to all His chosen people and thereby not give the enemy the opportunity to do so many evil things?
Consider the situation from the time Christ accomplished redemption until now. Yes, Christianity has spread throughout the world, but actually there is little life. It seems that during the past nineteen centuries God has not accomplished very much. God has been working throughout the years, but there has been a great deal of opposition and attack. Satan, God’s enemy, has attacked God’s chosen people again and again. Why does this happen? Why did the Lord not apply His redemption immediately? If He did this, there might not be the need even for the millennium. After the application of redemption, everything would become new. There would be a new heaven, a new earth, and the New Jerusalem, where all God’s redeemed ones would be.
Have you ever considered matters such as these? Have you ever wondered why there is such a gap between the accomplishment of redemption and the application of redemption? I can testify that I have been thinking about these things for more than fifty years.