When the divine seed entered into human soil, the issue was a person who is the mingling of divinity with humanity. His name is both Jesus and Emmanuel. “She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:21, 23). On the one hand, as a man, He is Jesus. But on the other hand, as God, He is Emmanuel, God with us.
Now we may realize what a wonderful person Jesus is! I simply do not have the utterance of what is within me, but I look to the Lord that He will reveal something to all who are reading this message. Our Jesus is such a wonderful person! This wonderful person is the mingling of divinity with humanity.
After Jesus as such a wonderful person had dwelt with His disciples for a period of time, He asked a question: “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” They answered, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Then He asked, “But whom say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:13-16).
This is the problem among men today. Who is Jesus? However, even to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is not so unveiling. We all have received help from Peter’s word. Little did we know that Jesus is the branching out of divinity and the fruit of humanity that comes from the branching of divinity. We did not realize so clearly that this Jesus is the divine seed sown into us as human soil, and that we must be so subjectively one with Him. We must go on to see more of this wonderful Jesus.
After Matthew 16, Jesus goes on to reveal more concerning Himself in chapter eighteen. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). In Matthew 1, the Lord’s name is not only Jesus, but also Emmanuel, God with us. Now in Matthew 18, He promises that whenever we meet, He is in the midst. But how is He in the midst? We must realize that He is in our midst not in an objective way, but in a very subjective way. He is within us. When I come in, Jesus comes in. When you come in, He comes in. When we all come in, Jesus comes in. When we say, “Amen,” He is amening within us and within our amen. If Jesus is not within us, and therefore not in our midst, why do we come together? We have no other reason. Jesus is here! Jesus is within us, and therefore, He is in our midst. We all come together with Jesus. When we come, He comes. That is why His name is Emmanuel, God with us.
Our Jesus is such a person! He is God with us. The Bible is not mainly a book for teaching and instruction, showing us how to do this and that. The Bible is a portrait showing us such a wonderful person. He is the branching out of God and the fruit of human soil. He is so subjective to us, because He has sown Himself into us, and now He is growing up within us. He is branching God into us, and He is also branching God out from us. Eventually, in this way, He will build the church as the temple of God. He sets up God’s kingdom, and He bears the priesthood and the kingship. Hallelujah! He does it not by teaching or outward correction and adjustment, but altogether by the inward sowing, the inward branching, the inward growing, and the inward bearing of fruit. It is always inward. This is why, when we come together, He is in our midst.
The first chapter of Matthew says that His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. In the middle of the book (18:20), He says that He will always be in our midst. Then at the end, He says that He will be with us forever. “And lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the completion of the age” (Matt. 28:20, Gk.). He is not only with us today, but all the days. He is with us until the completion of this age. But even the completion of this age is not the completion of His presence. He is with us now in this way. In the next age He will be with us in another wonderful way. His being with us could never be terminated. Hallelujah! This is because He is Emmanuel, God with us.
For God to be with us does not mean that we are sitting around Him, and He is among us in our midst. Emmanuel means that this divine seed has been sown into us. Divinity Himself has been sown into us. Divinity is the seed, and humanity is the soil. This divinity must then be wrought into the human soil, and some of the element of the human soil must be brought into the divine element. Eventually we will see that what is brought forth by this mingling of divinity with humanity is the church.