Outline
Ⅰ
The desire of God's heart is that "the reality…in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21), the actual condition of the God-man living of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, would be duplicated in the many members of Christ's Body by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ, the highest peak in God's economy, for a new revival (vv. 20-24):
A
The four Gospels show the pattern of the life that God desires, the mold of the life that can satisfy God and fulfill His purpose; Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was one with God; this is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus; to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus is to be molded into the pattern of Christ, to be conformed to the image of Christ—Rom. 8:28-29; Eph. 4:20-21.
B
We are being perfected by the Lord to be God-men, living the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man—Matt. 11:29a; 17:5b; 1 Pet. 2:21:
１
In His life on earth He set up a pattern, as revealed in the four Gospels; then He was crucified and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit so that He might enter into us to be our life; we learn from Him according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection—1 Cor. 15:45b; Col. 3:4.
２
Our Christian life is a life in Christ and also a life of Christ in us; we are in Christ as the mold, and He is in us as our life; in this way we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus; this reality is the reality of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:17; 12:2a; Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:10.
C
As we love the Lord, contact Him, and pray to Him, we automatically live Him according to the mold, the form, the pattern, 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—Matt. 11:29; Rom. 8:29.
D
When we live in the mingled spirit, we are learning Christ according to the reality in Jesus by the Spirit of reality; we learn from Him as our model so that His biography becomes our history; the living of the Body of Christ as the new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus revealed in the Gospels—Gal. 6:17-18; Rom. 1:1, 9; Eph. 4:20-24; Phil. 2:5; Matt. 11:29; 1 Pet. 2:21.
E
The purpose of God in sending the Lord Jesus to be a man was for Him to live a God-man life by the divine life; when we eat Him, we live because of Him to become a universal great man who is exactly the same as He is—a man living a God-man life by the divine life—Lam. 3:22-24, 55-56; Rev. 2:4, 7; John 6:57, 63; Jer. 15:16; Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.John 6:57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
The reality in Jesus is the real situation of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In the godless walk of the Gentiles, the fallen people, there is vanity. But in the godly life of Jesus, there is truth, reality. Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God. God was in His living, and He was one with God. This is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus. We, the believers, who are regenerated with Christ as our life and are taught in Him, learn from Him as the reality is in Jesus. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 382-383)
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…This expression of God is the shining of light; hence, it is the truth, the reality. This life of Jesus according to reality is the pattern in which God has placed us. In this pattern we have learned Christ as the reality is in Jesus. This means that we have learned Christ according to the reality shown in the Gospels, that is, according to the life of the Lord Jesus, which was wholly according to God’s reality, 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, reality. The essence of the pattern set up by the Lord Jesus is reality. This means that the essence of the life of Jesus is reality. We have learned Christ as the reality is in Jesus.The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, but we believers live a life as the reality is in Jesus [cf. Eph. 4:17, 21]. When the Lord Jesus was living on earth, He never walked in vanity. Rather, He always walked in reality, in truth, that is, in the shining of the divine light. This means that the Lord Jesus lived and walked in the expression of God. We have learned Christ according to this very reality that is in Jesus. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 383)
The reality of the Body of Christ is the living of a God-man life by a group of God-redeemed people together with the God-man Christ…He used those thirty-three and a half years to live out the model of a God-man living. After His death and resurrection He produced many brothers who, with Him as the oldest Brother, become the one great man in the universe. What is this great, universal man? This is a God-man, one who is God yet man and man yet God. First, He lived on the earth to live out a model…He definitely was a man on the earth. He hungered, He thirsted, He slept, and He even wept and was tired and weary…However, as a man, He lived not by the human life but by the divine life within Him. He lived, yet He did not live alone. He lived not by His own life but by the divine life. He told us clearly that He spoke and did things not by Himself but by the One who sent Him (John 5:19; 8:28)…God sent Him to be a man and to live a God-man life by the divine life [cf. 6:57]. This kind of living issues in a universal great man that is exactly the same as He is—a man living a God-man life by the divine life.
He lived on earth as a man, but He did not live by His human life; rather, He lived by God as His life…During His thirty-three and a half years on earth, every day He lived a life by God, a life in which He rejected and denied Himself. This kind of life is a life lived under the cross by the resurrection life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” pp. 85-88)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 4