Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:9; 1:10; Gen. 1:26, 28; John 1:1, 12-14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:16, 29
Ⅰ
The eternal God in His eternity had a "dream" according to the desire of His heart, and He made a plan, which in the New Testament is called God's economy—Eph. 1:4-5, 9-10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4:
A
God becoming man and man becoming God is the economy of God—Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:16, 29.
B
The eternal economy of God is God's eternal intention with His heart's desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature so that they might be the same as He is for His fullness, His expression—2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-19.
C
God's eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:9; 1:10.
D
At the end of this age, we are teaching and preaching the truth that God became a man in order to make man God, the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead; it is a great blessing to hear this truth—John 1:12-14.
Ⅱ
God created us for the accomplishment of His economy, with the intention that we would become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for His expression—Rev. 4:11; Eph. 1:4-5; John 1:12-13:
A
God has a heart's desire and a purpose; that is, God wants to make Himself man and to make man God so that the two—God and man—might be the same in life, nature, and expression—vv. 1, 12-14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; 8:16, 29.
B
God created the universe, making His heart's desire—man—the center; this heart's desire is nothing less than one who is the same kind as God is, one who would reproduce and fill the whole earth—Gen. 1:26, 28.
C
God created man in His image and according to His likeness (v. 26); therefore, man was not created according to his own kind but according to God's kind:
１
God did not create mankind; rather, He created man according to God's kind—v. 26.
２
From God's point of view, the word mankind is a negative term, for there should be no mankind, only the man created by God as God's kind.
３
After the fall, man separated himself from God and became mankind.
D
Eventually, God became a man, the God-man Jesus, and this God-man, through His death and resurrection, reproduced Himself—John 12:24; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10-11:
１
God became a man in order to have a mass reproduction of Himself and therefore produce a new kind; this new kind is neither God's kind nor mankind—it is God-man kind—Rom. 8:16, 29; Heb. 2:10-11.
２
As believers in Christ, we are God-man kind, God-men—John 1:12-13.
３
What God wants today is a large group of God-men; this group of God is the one new man, the corporate God-man bearing the image of God for the expression of God—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11.
Ⅲ
In Christ God and man have become one entity, the God-man—Luke 1:35; John 1:14; Matt. 1:18, 20-23:
A
Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the divine essence and born of the human essence, He was born a God-man; hence, for His being as the God-man He had two essences—the divine essence and the human essence—v. 18.
B
The conception of the Holy Spirit in a human virgin constituted a mingling of the divine nature with the human nature, producing the God-man, the One who is both the complete God and a perfect man—Luke 1:35.
C
As a perfect man and the complete God, the God-man has the human nature with its virtues to contain God and express Him with the divine attributes.
Ⅳ
Initially, the Bible speaks of the God-man; today this God-man has become the God-men—Rom. 1:3-4; 8:16, 29; Heb. 2:10-11:
A
The Lord Jesus, the first God-man, is the prototype for the producing of the many God (1 Pet. 2:21); the many God are His reproduction.
B
God became man (Rom. 8:3) to have a mass reproduction of Himself and thereby to produce a new kind (v. 29; Heb. 2:10); this new kind is God-man kind.
C
The Lord Jesus, the God-man, was a grain of wheat falling into the ground in order to produce many grains as His reproduction—John 12:24:
１
The first grain—the first God-man—was the prototype, and the many grains—the many God-men—produced by this one grain through death and resurrection are the reproduction of the first God-man.
２
The many grains, as the many God-men, are the reproduction of God:
ａ
Such a reproduction makes God happy because they look like Him, speak like Him, and live like Him—1 John 3:2; 4:17b; 2:6.
ｂ
God is in this reproduction; His reproduction has His life, His nature, and His constitution.
３
God sent His Son to be a man and to live a God-man life by the divine life; this kind of living issues in a universal great man who is exactly the same as He is—a corporate man living a God-man life by the divine life—John 6:57.
D
We need to see that we are God-men, born of God, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God—1:12-13:
１
As children of God, we are God-men; we are the same as the One of whom we are born—1 John 3:1; 5:1.
２
Since we have been born of God, we may say, and even we should say, that we are God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
３
To think of ourselves as God-men, knowing and realizing who we are, revolutionizes us in our daily experience—2:20; 3:1-2; 5:13, 20.
４
We are not merely Christians or believers in Christ—we are God-men, Godman kind, the reproduction of God; this is the highest point of God's gospel—John 12:24; Rom. 8:16, 29; Heb. 2:10-11.