Christ is truly a wonderful One. Isaiah 9:6 says that His name is called Wonderful Counselor. What He is, is all-inclusive; it is difficult to explore and impossible to comprehend with our limited mind all that Christ is. One summer in Taipei I studied, together with the saints, the subject of what Christ is. We tried to find out from the sixty-six books of the Bible how many items there are concerning what the Lord Jesus is. It was easy to find nearly three hundred items. These items include His being God and man, the Redeemer and the Savior, life and resurrection, the Body and the new man, the Priest and the Prophet, the King and the Counselor, power and wisdom, righteousness and sanctification, and so on. In that period of time we did not begin to exhaust our study, because what He is, which is wonderful and rich, is simply beyond counting; three hundred items do not make up the complete list.
In this book we will use five messages to fellowship concerning the wonderful being of Christ. First, He is God and man; second, He is the Redeemer and the Savior; third, He is life and resurrection; fourth, He is the life-giving Spirit; and fifth, He is everything to the church, the new man. Christ is truly rich. He is both God and man; He is the Redeemer and the Savior; He is life and resurrection; He is the life-giving Spirit; and He is everything to the church, the new man. Christ is the Head of the church, the life and content of the church, and even more, the foundation and testimony of the church. Such an all-inclusive, wonderful, and rich Christ can meet our every need with what He is. Whether male or female, young or old, honored or despised, everyone needs Jesus. He can satisfy our thirst deep within and meet all our needs.
The statement “Christ is both God and man” is plain in words but profound in implications. We may understand that Christ is God. According to the human concept, however, since Christ is God, how can He also be man? This is not easy to understand. For two thousand years in Christian theology there has been a branch of study called Christology, which specializes in the study of the person of Christ and the discussion of what He is. Throughout the centuries there has been a great deal of debate concerning His being both God and man. However, the Bible explicitly says that Christ is both God and man. All of His wonderful being is focused on this very point.
In the history of religious mankind there have been many terms related to God, such as polytheism, monotheism, and the belief of one god by choice, that is, by selecting one god among the many gods as the object of worship. This tells us that within man there is the need for God. Whether what he has found is right or wrong, every man wants God. We all know that the God whom we worship is the Lord who created the heavens, the earth, and the universe. The heavens, the earth, and all things did not come through evolution; they were created by God. Why did God create the heavens, the earth, and all things? The primary purpose is for His expression. God Himself cannot be fathomed, His eternal power cannot be comprehended, and all His divine characteristics cannot be determined. However, we see in Romans 1:20 that His eternal power and divine characteristics can be perceived through the things that He made, so that men would be without excuse.
All those who study medicine and physics acknowledge that the more they study and explore, the more they have to bow their heads, saying that there is indeed a Creator, a sovereign Master, in the universe. If you observe the movements of the stars or planets and the laws of creation, you cannot but confess that there is indeed an almighty One who has designed all these. The different scientific inventions throughout the ages are simply discoveries of the laws or principles set by this almighty One in the universe. Today we all know that the distance between the sun and the earth is just right; it is neither too far nor too near. If the earth were a little closer to the sun, the living things on earth would be scorched; if the earth were a little farther away, they would be frozen to death. Furthermore, there are innumerable planets and stars revolving in their respective orbits without colliding into one another. Who has designed them? Who regulates them? Undoubtedly, this is God’s work.
Five hundred years ago prior to Columbus’s voyage, all people, whether in the east or in the west, considered the earth to be a flat square. This was because human beings could not imagine in their minds that the earth was round and that it is constantly revolving. However, later on the facts proved that the earth is round and that it also rotates continuously. Actually, the Bible had already revealed this point. Isaiah 40:22 says, “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth.” Earth here is the same Hebrew word as earth in Genesis 1:1. Isaiah used the word earth instead of globe because at that time the word globe did not exist. Job 26:7 also says, “He hangs the earth upon nothing.” Today we all know that the earth is truly hanging in space. All these prove that the universe, the heavens, and the earth were created by God.