Living a Life of the Highest Standard of Morality as the Reproduction of Christ

Matt. 5:48 You therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.As the reality of the meal offering for us to eat and become a reproduction of, Christ lived a life that was the mingling of the divine attributes and the human virtues, a life of the highest standard of morality.

He was not just a good, moral, ethical, right, and just person, but He lived by the life of God and the divine attributes were manifested and expressed in His human virtues. Even from His conception, Christ had the divine essence, for He was conceived of the Holy Spirit as the mingling of the divine and human essence.

Then, after He was born, the Lord lived a normal human life, becoming strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him (Luke 2:40). He was the first God-man, a man mingled with God, a man in whom the divine life and the human life were mingled.

He as the complete God had the divine life with the divine nature, the divine essence, and the divine attributes, and He as the perfect man had the human life with the human nature, the human essence, and the human virtues. This is wonderful and yet so mysterious.

He lived a God-man life on earth for the satisfaction of the Father and for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. The divine essence was added to the human essence, thus producing a God-man with two natures – divinity and humanity.

The Lord Jesus is the Man-Savior, a genuine man and a complete God. He is not a phantom but a genuine man, a man with the real human nature and the perfect human virtues for the qualification to be man’s Savior.

Because He is a genuine man living the highest standard of morality, Christ is qualified to be our Savior. He is also the complete God with the true divine nature and the excellent divine attributes to empower and ensure His ability to save man.

If He was only man but not God, His ability to save would not transcend time and space. But because He is both a genuine man and a complete God, He is fully qualified to be our Savior, and His salvation is eternally effective.

At any point in time we can open to the Lord, call on His name, and be saved. We can apply the blood that was shed on the cross by faith today, since Christ is both man and God, and as God He has the power and ability to save.

Hallelujah for our Man-Savior who is both qualified to save us and He is able to save us to the uttermost, throughout all time an eternity!

As such a One, He is qualified to be the meal offering for God’s food and satisfaction, and for our enjoyment and supply. As we eat Christ as the meal offering, we become His reproduction as the meal offering for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.

Christ Lived a Life that was the Mingling of the Divine Attributes and the Human Virtues – this is the Highest Standard of Morality

Christ expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, by which He attracted and captivated people, not by living His human life in the flesh but by living His divine life in resurrection. When He was on earth, the Man-Savior lived a life that was the mingling of the divine attributes and the human virtues – this is the highest standard of morality (Luke 2:40, 52).

We are all familiar with the matter of morality, but what is this highest standard of morality? Is it just high morality, good morals, great ethics, and being right? The highest standard of morality is an exceptional living which cannot be compared to the common level of morality; it is not just to be good, moral, ethical, and kind, but higher than this.

Christ expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, by which He attracted and captivated people (see Matt. 4:18-22; 19:13-15; Mark 16:7; Luke 8:1-3).

Christ didn’t live His human life in the flesh but lived His divine life in resurrection, and the bountiful God was richly expressed through His virtues, and He lived the highest standard of morality.

Although He lived His human life in the flesh, Christ didn’t live by His human life but He lived by the divine life in resurrection; this is why He was so attractive. There was nothing outwardly about Christ that was attractive; He was a man of sorrows, but He lived a life of the highest standard of morality, and others just followed Him and were drawn to Him.

There was something about this carpenter’s son – who didn’t have a glorious countenance but was a man of sorrows, something indescribably attractive about Him, that people followed Him.

The divine nature with its attributes was expressed in the Lord’s human nature with its virtues; thus, the living of the Lord Jesus was humanly divine and divinely human (see Luke 1:26-35; 2:7-16, 34-35, 40, 52).

In His ministry, Christ as the Man-Savior expressed His divine attributes through His human virtues (see Luke 7:1-17, 36-50; 10:25-37; 15:11-32; 23:42-43).

Jesus’ love is human love filled, strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by and with the divine love. This wonderful love is a composition, a mingling, of the divine love with the human love. This love was the living of the Man-Savior, the living of the God-man. It was this kind of living that qualified the Lord Jesus to be our Man-Savior. He saved sinners by such a human-divine living, by a living that was humanly divine and divinely human....His living was the dynamic power by which He saved pitiful sinners. Witness Lee, Life-study of Luke, pp. 493-494In the cases of the centurion who had a sick servant, the sinful woman who came and broke the alabaster flask and anointed his head and feet, and even on the cross when one of the robbers rebuked and the other took His side, the Lord Jesus lived a life of the highest standard of morality by expressing the divine attributes in His human virtues.

When a leprous man came to Him and said, Lord, if you are willing, cleanse me; the Lord didn’t just cleanse him by His word, but He stretched out His hand, touched him, and said, I am willing: be cleansed (see Luke 5:12-16).

This man was sick for many years, people ran from him, and here was One who not only was willing to heal him but did was not expected of Him: He touched the sick man, was full of compassion and love for him, and healed him.

Christ’s human virtues were enriched by His divine attributes, and He lived a life of the highest standard of morality. God’s bountiful attributes such as His love, light, holiness, and righteousness were lived out in the man Jesus, and God’s attributes became Jesus’ virtues.

It was this kind of living that qualified the Lord Jesus to be our Man-Savior; He saves us, the sinners, by His divine-human living, by a living that is humanly divine and divinely human. His living is the dynamic power by which He saves us.

Thank You Lord for coming to live a life that was the mingling of the divine attributes and the human virtues, a life of the highest standard of morality. Thank You for coming as the first God-man to have such a wonderful God-man living in which the bountiful God with His rich attributes was expressed and manifested in a man with His human virtues. Oh Lord, we want to not just appreciate You but eat You, eat Your human living, and be filled with You as such a One who is the reality of the meal offering.

Living a Life of the Highest Standard of Morality as the Reproduction of Christ

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil.The gospel of Luke is so wonderful and bountiful – here we see not just Christ the Savior coming to die for us, but a Man-Savior who expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues.

Whether He spoke, traveled, did things, or did nothing, Christ simply expressed God in His human living by not living His human life in the flesh but by living His divine life in resurrection, thus living a life of the highest standard of morality.

As revealed in the Gospel of Luke, the Lord Jesus had the highest standard of morality (see Luke 1:31-32, 35, 68-69, 78-79), which is the standard of life required by God – a life in which the divine attributes are expressed in the human virtues.

The Lord Jesus said, You therefore shall be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). This means that our living today has to be the duplication of the living of the Lord Jesus, a living of the highest standard of morality, a living in which the divine attributes are expressed in our human virtues.

The highest standard of morality is the living of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Man-Savior whose life was a composition of God with the divine attributes and man with the human virtues.

God’s intention in His New Testament economy is that we all the believers in Christ would become a reproduction of Christ, the God-man, having the highest standard of morality – a life in which we express Christ in all the human virtues created by God for man.

This means that we need to not only appreciate what the Lord Jesus is and has done, but eat Jesus, be well nourished by enjoying Him in His word, and we will become a duplication, a reproduction, of Jesus on earth.

The highest standard of morality is the standard of life required by God. It is the living of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose life was a composition of God with the divine attributes and man with the human virtues. He lived such a life on earth in which the attributes of God were expressed in the virtues of man. God’s intention in His New Testament economy is that all the believers in Christ would become a reproduction of Christ, the God-man, in order to express Him in all the human virtues created by God for man. With the divine attributes of the God-man these virtues are strengthened, enriched, uplifted, and filled. Truth Lessons — Level Four, vol. 3, p. 89We need to not only be good, right, moral, legitimate, and ethical, but live a life beyond what is moral, legitimate, or expected, and live a life of the highest standard of morality like the Lord Jesus.

When others hate us, we should love them; when others persecute us, we should pray for them; when others need us, we should more than care for them (see Luke 6:35; 7:36-50). God is expressed in the living that is according to the highest standard of morality (Luke 5:12-16).

He was expressed in the human life of Jesus on earth, and He wants this One to be reproduced in our daily life. In His economy God desires to reproduce Christ in us so that we may be those who express the bountiful God in His rich attributes through our human virtues, thus living the same kind of life that Jesus lived when on earth.

This doesn’t mean that we should do our best to imitate Jesus and ask ourselves, What would Jesus do in this situation…? Rather, we need to eat Jesus, open to Him, drink His humanity by exercising our spirit to contact Him and pray over His word, and He will be infused into us, with the spontaneous result that we will live Jesus.

Lord Jesus, make us those who live a life of the highest standard of morality, a life in which the divine attributes are expressed in our human virtues. Oh Lord, we cannot live such a life in and by ourselves, and we don’t want to seek to improve ourselves or outwardly imitate You. We come to You, Lord, as the first God-man, and we want to eat You, be filled with You, and be saturated with You, so that spontaneously we may live the same kind of life as You did. Live in us, Lord, and express God in us today!

References and Hymns on this Topic
  • Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, msgs. 16-17, 25-26, 34-35, 62-63 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 5, Eating Christ as the Meal Offering to Become the Reproduction of Christ for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose.
  • Hymns on this topic:
    # Flesh He became, the first God-man, / His pleasure that I God may be: / In life and nature I’m God’s kind, / Though Godhead’s His exclusively. / His attributes my virtues are; / His glorious image shines through me. (Song on, What miracle! What mystery!)
    # Christ is a genuine man, / The perfect and finest man, / Obedient, serving, no appearance of evil, / The finest personality, / Divinity expressed through humanity. / Christ is the pattern for our human living. / His perfect life is filling us. / Christ is the pattern for our human living, / The fine and balanced humanity of Jesus! (Song on, Christ is a genuine man)
    # Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / In all things Thy will be done; / I but a transparent vessel / To make visible the Son. (Hymns #403)
About aGodMan

A God-man is a normal believer in Christ; the author of this article is one who is learning to be a normal Christian, a daily enjoyer of Christ, a living and functioning member in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, make us such ones for the building up of the Body of Christ!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Gabriela C.
Gabriela C.
6 years ago

Amen eating Jesus is the way to maintain our church life…

Darlyn F.
Darlyn F.
6 years ago

Amen…eating Jesus through His word by pray reading we will become His duplication…praise the Lord…

Didier K.
Didier K.
6 years ago

Amen … O Lord Jesus! You are the One! The reality of the meal offering, for God’s food and satisfaction, and for our enjoyment and rich supply, as the riches of all Christ to us. Lord, we come and richly eat of You as the meal offering, that we might live because of You (John 6:57). …

Feed us Lord Jesus, give us to drink.
Satisfy all of our hunger, quench all of our thirst.
Flood us with joy and be the strength of our life.
Feed us Lord Jesus, give us to drink.

O Lord Jesus! We love You O Lord our Savior God! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord Jesus! Praise the Lord! Amen.

Sandra B.
Sandra B.
6 years ago

Amen we love you Lord Jesus ,because You first loved us…. We have no love of our own all the love is Yours

Clive B.
Clive B.
6 years ago

Amen, by eating Jesus daily, not just daily but exercising our spirit to receive this one we have the attributes of love ,light, humility, wisdom, righteousness and holiness what a marvellous and Glorious Person we have in Jesus, O hallelujah, may He continue to kiss us. We the Shulammite bride.

Joseph F.
Joseph F.
6 years ago

Amen brother. 🙂

Moh S.
Moh S.
6 years ago

Amen!

Reproduction in God’s economy is by life not by organisation. Wheat has “life” within. The Lord came through incarnation to be a grain of wheat to die and be reproduced as many grains. We do not live Christ by imitation, that’s like having flour with no oil, dry with no enjoyment. Rather we contact the Lord with our spirit enjoying the Spirit in the word to receive life from the Word. We live by what we receive from the Lord as our supply.

O Lord supply us more today. Keep us enjoying You!

Keven B.
Keven B.
6 years ago

Let’s not be concerned subjectively with our condition, the Lord already knows how rotten we are. But be concerned with our eating Christ as the meal offering to be reconstituted with Him! What a promise we have from God this morning! Hallelujah brother.

See Matt 5:48 and footnote 1 in the RcV Bible, which says,

“For the kingdom people to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect means that they are perfect in His love. They are the Father’s children, having the Father’s divine life and divine nature. Hence, they can be perfect as their Father is. The demand of the new law of the kingdom is much higher than the requirement of the law of the old dispensation. This higher demand can be met only by the Father’s divine life, not by the natural life. The kingdom of the heavens is the highest demand, and the divine life of the Father is the highest supply to meet that demand. First, the gospel presents in the Gospel of Matthew the kingdom of the heavens as the highest demand, and last, it affords us in the Gospel of John the divine life of the heavenly Father as the highest supply, by which we can have the highest living of the kingdom of the heavens. The demand of the new law of the kingdom in chs. 5–7 is actually the expression of the new life, the divine life, which is within the regenerated kingdom people. This demand opens up the inner being of the regenerated people, showing them that they are able to attain to such a high level and to have such a high living.”

Juliet C.
Juliet C.
6 years ago

主に感謝します! アーメン
[Thank you Lord! Amen.]

brother L.
brother L.
6 years ago

The Gospel of Luke also reveals that in the Man-Savior we have the mingling of the divine attributes with the human virtues to produce the highest standard of morality. Throughout this Gospel we see in the Man-Savior, who is also the God-man, the complete God and a perfect man, the mingling of the divine attributes with the human virtues. As the complete God, He has the divine nature with the divine attributes, and as a perfect man, He has the human nature with the human virtues. Therefore, in His Person we see the divine nature with its attributes and the human nature with its virtues for the living of a life in the highest standard of morality. (Life-study of Luke, p. 228, by Witness Lee)