Ⅲ
We can eat Him by doing the will of the Father to satisfy the hungry and thirsty ones and by glorifying the Father on earth in living the life of a God-man for the glory of the processed Triune God—Matt. 24:45-47; Phil. 1:19-21a:
A
“I have food to eat that you do not know about… My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work”—John 4:32, 34.
B
“I have glorified You on earth, finishing the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4); to glorify God is to express God in all things (cf. Col. 1:9-11).
C
In His human living the Lord ate butter (the richest grace) and honey (the sweetest love), which gave Him the power to always choose the Father's will—Isa. 7:14-15, ASV 1901.
D
We are those who are learning Christ as “the reality is in Jesus”; the reality is in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of the Lord Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, a life in which He glorified the Father on earth to set up a pattern for His believers—Eph. 4:20-21:
１
Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God in order to glorify God; God was in His living, and He was one with God; in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit so that He might enter into us to be our life; we learn from Him (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection (Col. 3:4; 1 Pet. 2:21).
２
The Lord Jesus never did anything out of Himself (John 5:19); He did not do His own work (4:34; 17:4), He did not speak His own word (14:10, 24), He did not do His own will (5:30), and He did not seek His own glory (7:18).
３
To learn Christ is simply to be molded into the pattern of Christ, that is, to be conformed to the image of Christ; He Himself as the indwelling Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life, with all the riches of His life, reproduces Himself in us—Rom. 8:2, 28-29.
E
Isaiah 43:7 says, “Everyone who is called by My name, / Whom I have created, formed, and even made for My glory”; the highest service we can render to God is to express His glory—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 9:23.
F
First Corinthians 6:20 says, “You have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body”; this is to allow God, who dwells in us (1 John 4:13), to occupy and saturate our body and express Himself through our body as His temple (1 Cor. 6:19); 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Morning Nourishment
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.17:4 I have glorified You on earth, finishing the work which You have given Me to do.
Eph. 4:20-21 But you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus.
The reality, truth in Jesus is the real situation of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels… In the godly life of Jesus there is truth, reality. Jesus lived a life always doing things in God, with God, and for God. God was in His life, and He was one with God. This is the truth in Jesus. We, the believers, regenerated with Christ as our life and taught in Him, learn from Him as the truth is in Jesus. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 394-395)
Today’s Reading
When we believed in the Lord Jesus and were saved, God put us into Christ as the mold. This mold is the life of Jesus recorded in the four Gospels, a life absolutely according to reality, truth. Truth is the shining of light, the expression of light. Since God is light (1 John 1:5), truth is the expression of God. Every aspect of the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels is an expression of God. In everything He said and did, He expressed God. This expression of God is the shining of light; hence, it is the truth. This life of Jesus according to truth is the pattern in which God has placed us. In this pattern we have learned Christ as the truth is in Jesus. This means that we have learned Christ according to the truth shown in the Gospels, that is, according to the life of the Lord Jesus, which was wholly according to God’s truth. This life is the shining of light. The shining of the light is truth, and truth is the expression of God. Therefore, in the life of Jesus there is truth. The essence of the pattern set up by the Lord Jesus is truth. This means that the essence of the life of Jesus is truth. We have learned Christ as the truth is in Jesus.According to the record of the four Gospels, the life of the Lord Jesus was a life of truth. Truth is the shining of light. Light is the source, and truth is its expression… Because in every aspect of the Lord’s living on earth there was the shining of light, His life was a life of truth, a life of the shining of God Himself. That life of truth was the very expression of God. For this reason Paul says that we learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus. In other words, we learn Christ according to the mold of the life of Jesus. The mold of the life of Jesus is the truth.
After Christ established this mold, He passed through death and resurrection, and in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. As such a Spirit, He comes into us to be our life. When we believed in Him and were baptized, God put us into Him as the mold, just as dough is placed into a mold. By being put into the mold, we learned the mold. This means that by being put into Christ, we learn Christ. On the one hand, God put us into Christ; on the other hand, Christ has come into us to be our life. Now we may live by Him according to the mold in which we have been placed by God. When we read in the Gospels of the mold formed by the Lord Jesus, that mold spontaneously influences our living. As we love the Lord, contact Him, and pray to Him, we automatically live Him according to the mold described in the Gospels. In this way we are shaped, conformed, to the image of this mold. This is what it means to learn Christ.
Christ as the life-giving Spirit has come into our being as life. The more we love Him and contact Him, the more we live Him according to this mold. As a result, we are spontaneously conformed to the image of that mold. Therefore, with Paul we can say, “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). We live Christ in the form of His own life, in the form recorded in the Gospels. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 395, 397-398)
Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 46-47; CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament,” msg. 3