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Christ's incarnation and God-man living fulfilled God's intention in His creation of man—Gen. 1:26-27; John 1:1, 14; Luke 1:31-32, 35; 2:40, 52:
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The incarnation of Christ is closely related to God's purpose in the creation of man in His image and according to His likeness—that man would receive Him as life and express Him in His divine attributes—Gen. 1:26; 2:9; Acts 3:14a; Eph. 4:24.
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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—Luke 1:35:
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As the One who was conceived of the divine essence with the divine attributes to be the content and reality of His human virtues, Christ fills the empty human virtues—Matt. 1:18, 20.
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The divine attributes fill, strengthen, enrich, and sanctify the human virtues for the purpose of expressing God in the human virtues.
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Through His incarnation Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man—Luke 1:35; John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9.
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Christ is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly—Lev. 2:4-5.
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Christ is the God-man, a person who is the mingling of divinity with humanity—Luke 1:35; Phil. 2:5-8:
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In Him we see all the divine attributes and all the human virtues:
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Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit with the divine essence, He possesses the divine nature with the divine attributes—Matt. 1:18, 20.
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Because the Lord Jesus was born of the human virgin with the human essence, He possesses the human nature with the human virtues—Luke 1:26-35.
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Christ's human living was the living of a man who lived God to express the divine attributes in the human virtues—7:11-17; 10:25-37; 19:1-10.
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Christ expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues—7:36-50; Heb. 2:17:
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Christ expressed the divine attributes of love, light, holiness, and righteousness—Eph. 3:19; John 8:12; Acts 3:14a.
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Christ's aromatic virtues include His mercy, compassion, meekness, forbearance, lowliness, obedience, faithfulness, and truthfulness—Heb. 2:17; Matt. 9:36; 11:29; 2 Cor. 10:1; Phil. 2:8; Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 11:10.
Morning Nourishment
Heb. 2:17 Hence He should have been made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest…Luke 10:33-34 But a certain Samaritan,…when he saw him, he was moved with compassion; and he came to him and bound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on them. And placing him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him.
The Man-Savior was born of the human essence with the human virtues…to restore and recover man's virtues from the damage of man's fall….For example, the virtue of love has been damaged. A brother may love his wife very much one day, and the next day he may be unhappy with her and even think of divorcing her. This is a strong sign that his human love has been damaged.
The love a girl has for her mother is also a damaged love. A girl may be very loving toward her mother at one moment, but this love is easily broken and may suddenly change. This proves that a girl's human love for her mother is a fallen and damaged love.
The human virtues of righteousness and holiness have also been damaged by the fall. Our righteousness has so many “holes” in it that it can be compared to a beehive. Can you count how many holes you have in your righteousness? Our love, brightness, righteousness, and holiness have all been damaged.
The Man-Savior's incarnation was not only to rescue our virtues from the fall; His incarnation was also to restore and recover our virtues from the damage of the fall. Something may be rescued without being restored, or may be restored without being recovered. Our human virtues need to be rescued, restored, and recovered. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 504-505)
Today's Reading
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….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….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.
He came into His followers and made each one of them a mystery. This is the reason that, as believers, we are a mystery to our relatives and friends….Our being a mystery is altogether due to the Man-Savior, the God-man, whose divine attributes fill His human virtues to produce the highest standard of morality. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 506-507, 509)
Further Reading: Life-study of Luke, msgs. 58-60