Just as incarnation brings God into man to live a human life with the flavor of God, so death and resurrection bring man into God to live God’s life with the existence of man. In this way, God is in man, man is in God, and both God and man share one living.
Therefore, on the one hand, while we need to have our own personality, on the other hand we all have to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to bring our personality into God. We have no need to imitate other people. In the past several thousands of years there have not been two saints who were the same. Many Christians want to imitate Madame Guyon in her piety and spirituality, but Madame Guyon was Madame Guyon, and no one can look like her by imitation. God has no intention to nullify us, and we have no way to imitate others. The sixty-six books in the Bible were written by more than forty people. Even though all the books are the Word of God, the Pentateuch has the flavor of Moses, the book of Isaiah has the flavor of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah has the flavor of Jeremiah, and the book of Daniel has the flavor of Daniel. It was impossible for one to imitate the other.
We should be spiritually influenced by others, but we should not imitate them. No one can utterly put himself aside and imitate others. We should not even imitate the Lord Jesus. The Lord wants us to deny ourselves and to enter into Him. He does not want us to live in ourselves. If there were no man in the universe, God would feel the emptiness the most. If there were no man in the universe, God’s work would equal zero. Hence, what God is after is that all of us who are different would enter into Him and mingle with Him. God has no intention to nullify us. Therefore, the more a person is in resurrection, the more human he will be. The more a person is in resurrection, the more he will have humanity and the stronger his humanity will be.
In death and resurrection, it is not that man is nullified or done away with. Rather, when man reaches the realm of resurrection he looks more human, is more human, and has more human flavor, having human thoughts, emotions, and will. However, all of these are mingled with God. Formerly all of these did not have the element of God, but now they all are mingled with God. May God have mercy on us to show us that spiritual reality is not the nullification of ourselves. Rather, spiritual reality is man plus God so that man may live God’s life in God. Though it is God’s life, it is full of human flavor. Just as God came to be a man to live a human life that was full of God’s flavor without nullifying the human flavor, similarly, we also should be full of humanity while we are living God’s life. Our humanity should not be nullified. Instead, we should be more human and even be men above all men.