«　WEEK 2　DAY 4　»

　　John 5:19 …The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

　　4:34 Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

　　In John 5:30 the Lord Jesus said, “I can do nothing from Myself; as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” In John 6:38 He went on to say, “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” In these verses we see that the Lord Jesus did not do or seek His own will.

　　In a very real sense, our will represents our whole being. Yes, in one sense our being is represented by our mind. The mind, however, represents our being only in thought; the will represents our being, or our soul, in its doings. You may have thought about many things, but how many of those things have you done? Perhaps out of a hundred matters we have thought, only two have been accomplished. The point we are making here is that our mind represents our being in thought, and our will represents our being in action, in deeds.

　　The fact that the Lord Jesus did not seek or do His own will indicates that while He was living as a man, He was not living by His own mind, will, and emotion. This means that He was not living by His own life. Here “life” equals our being, and our being is composed of our mind, will, and emotion. The Man-Savior, the God-man, lived as a man, but He did not live by His own mind, will, and emotion. (Life-study of Luke, pp. 523-524)

　　The Lord Jesus had a genuine man's living by God's mind, will, and emotion—to express God in God's attributes. The Lord did not seek His own will but God's will. He came not to do His own will but to do God's will. This means that He came to live as a man not by man's life, but by God's life. He lived by God's mind, will, and emotion to express God in God's attributes. These attributes are contained in and mingled with His human virtues.

　　The Lord Jesus lived a genuine human life, yet in His life we see the divine element and also certain divine factors. This life did not express man; it expressed God. This is the God-man's life and living.

　　In the living of the Lord Jesus, man's mind, will, and emotion became the organs to contain God's life. We may compare these organs to the fingers of a glove. Just as the fingers of a glove contain the real fingers, so the Man-Savior's mind, will, and emotion contain God's life. The five fingers of a glove are not real fingers but contain the five fingers of a human hand. In a similar way, the Lord's mind, will, and emotion are organs containing God's mind, will, and emotion. This was His God-man living.

　　If He had lived on earth only a short time, there would have been only a momentary expression of the divine attributes in His living. Such a brief expression could be compared to a rainbow, which appears for a while and then vanishes. The Man-Savior lived a full human life for thirty-three and a half years. During those years He was proved to be without defect or imperfection. He did not fail in any way. His virtues were an image for an expression of God's attributes. Therefore, God was expressed in His living.

　　The Lord's God-man living constituted His qualification to be the Man-Savior. At the same time, this living constituted a prototype to His believers…. This prototype is for the “mass production,” the reproduction, of the God-man in the believers. In a factory, a great deal of time may be spent to produce a prototype. Once the prototype has been produced, it is then used for mass production. In a similar way, the Man-Savior's God-man living constituted Him a prototype so that He may now be reproduced in us. Praise the Lord for the prototype and for the mass production! (Life-study of Luke, pp. 524-526)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Luke, msg. 61