As believers in Christ, we are in the process of being deified to become the New Jerusalem, fully expressing God for eternity!
There is an amazing thought in the Bible concerning God’s desire to be one with man; His desire is to become man so that man would become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, so that God and man would be fully one in every possible way.
We see this from the very beginning of the Bible: in Gen. 1 God created all things according to their kind, and when He was about to create man, He had a council among the Godhead and said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (Gen. 1:26).
So man was not created according to man’s kind, neither did man evolve from any animal; rather, man was created according to God’s kind, and God Himself made man in His image and according to His likeness, and He breathed into man the breath of life. Wow!
We need to realize that right now all the human beings on earth bear God’s image and likeness, and they all need to have God’s life within them so that they would express God!
The whole Bible shows us this mysterious yet wonderful matter that God becomes man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead; there’s a wonderful and even amazing resemblance of God and man in their image and likeness.
When God appeared to Abraham and spoke to him as to a friend, He didn’t appear as a mighty angel or any other creature but as a man; somehow before Christ came to be God incarnated, God became a man and talked to Abraham face to face.
Then later the Angel of God, a man of God, Jehovah Himself, appeared to Manoah and his wife to let them know that they were about to have a son, Samson; He appeared to them as a man.
Then Daniel saw a vision of Christ as the Son of Man; He saw the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, and to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom so that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. When Daniel saw God, he saw Him as a Son of Man.
Then, when Christ came, He didn’t come as the mighty God neither was He embodied as any other amazing creature; rather, He came as a man.
The Word of God became flesh and came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, not having the sin of the flesh.
Again and again in the word of God we see this thought of the resemblance of God and man, for man is made in the image of God, God comes to man to be a man, and even after His resurrection and ascension, Christ is still the Son of Man.
God’s intention is not only to save man from sin and eternal perdition; His intention is to be one with man and make man fully one with Him so that God and man, man and God, would be a mutual dwelling place for eternity, the New Jerusalem. According to His intention, we are being deified today to become the same as He is. Wow!
When Stephen was being stoned to death, he saw the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. In Matt. 26:64 the Lord said that He will return as the Son of Man.
God didn’t just put on humanity to come save us and rescue us from sin and hell; He became a man because He wants man to be regenerated, transformed, and glorified, so that man would be fully one with God for eternity. Wow!
We are to be Conformed to the Image of Christ by being Regenerated, Transformed and Transfigured
In Rom. 8:29 Paul tells us that those whom God foreknew (that is, we the believers), He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.
On one hand Christ is God becoming man, the Word becoming flesh, to unite and mingle the Triune God with man; He is the Son of Man and will forever be the God-man, never putting aside His humanity.
On the other hand we, human beings, can become sons of God through regeneration. When we believe into the Lord Jesus, when we call on His name and receive Him as our Lord and Savior, we are given the authority to become children of God, born of God (John 1:12-13).
Actually, in His resurrection Christ became the Firstborn Son of God, and He regenerated all the believers in Christ as the many sons of God; now we are not just men but God-men, even a new kind – the “God-man kind”.
We have been predestinated before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of Christ, the Firstborn Son of God.
Through His death and resurrection, the only begotten Son of God became the Firstborn Son of God among many brothers, and we were regenerated to be God’s family, Jesus’ many brothers, the God-man kind.
After regeneration there’s a process of transformation going on, for when we turn our heart to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and we all can behold and reflect like a mirror the glory of the Lord to be transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:17-18). Hallelujah!
We are being transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2); through this transformation work, we have the image of Christ.
So we need to daily give ourselves to the Lord to be transformed by the renewing of our mind; we need to turn our heart to Him, allow Him to remove any veils, and behold Him face to face so that we may reflect Him until we have the same image as Christ.
Phil. 2:15 speaks of our being blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom we shine as luminaries in the world.
Christ is the light of the world, and we as His many brothers with the divine life and nature shine as luminaries in the world.
If our father is a man, then we are men; if our father is God, we are sons of God, God-men.
We have been born of God Himself, He is our Father, and we have His life and nature; today we’re in the process of being deified to be even as Christ is.
Even as Christ was the light of the world, so we as sons of God are light in this world, the same as He is.
One day, the Lord Jesus Christ will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself (Phil. 3:21). Wow!
He is not only regenerating our spirit to fill it with life and make it life; He is not only transforming our soul and conforming us to His image to cause us to bear His image in His glory; He will also transfigure our body to conform it to the body of His glory so that we may fully express Him in our entire tripartite being! Hallelujah!
The day will come when even this vile body, the body of humiliation, will be conformed to the body of His glory. Oh, what a hope of glory we have!
We need to thank God for His full salvation, for He is saving us to be the same as He is in every part of our being – spirit, soul, and body – from the center – our spirit – to circumference – our body! Hallelujah!
When Christ is manifested, we will be like Him for we will see Him even as He is (1 John 3:2)! Wow!
When Christ is manifested, we believers in Christ will be like Him wholly, perfectly, and absolutely, for He has been taking us through a process of regeneration, transformation, and glorification to make us the same as He is in life, nature, and expression, but not in the Godhead, so that our entire tripartite being would express God in oneness with God!
Thank You Father God for predestinating us to be conformed to the image of Christ so that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers! Hallelujah, we have been regenerated with the divine life so that we may be sons of God, part of the God-man kind, to express God! We turn our heart to You, Lord, and we want to behold You so that we may reflect You; transform us into Your glorious image little by little, day by day! We open to Your inner transforming work. Thank You for making us luminaries in this world, those who shine forth Christ as the light of life, so that even as You were in this world as light, so we also are light in the world. Hallelujah, we believe that You will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of Your glory! Amen, Lord, when Christ our life is manifested, we will be like Him wholly, perfectly, and absolutely, for we will see Him even as He is!
We are in the Process of being Deified to become the New Jerusalem and bear the same Appearance as God!
God’s full salvation, His eternal economy, consummates in the New Jerusalem, which is a corporate God-man, the consummation of God becoming man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
In Rev. 4:3 we are told that God sitting on the throne was like a jasper stone; His appearance is like jasper. Then, according to Rev. 21, the New Jerusalem’s light is like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone (v. 11); the building work of its wall is jasper, and the first foundation of the wall is also jasper (vv. 18-19).
Through the process of God’s full salvation, based on His redemption, we believers in Christ are made part of the New Jerusalem.
We are becoming the New Jerusalem today, and this New Jerusalem has us as its constitution! Eventually, God and man, man and God, all have the appearance of jasper; thus, the conclusion and consummation of the Bible is the New Jerusalem – divinity mingled with humanity! Amen!
Divinity becomes the dwelling place of humanity, and humanity becomes the home of divinity.
This is what we call “incorporation” – God in Christ as the Spirit is in us as His dwelling place, and He will be our dwelling place – this is the New Jerusalem, the full mingling of divinity and humanity.
In this city the glory of God is manifeste in man brightly and splendidly! Amen!
Today we are in the process of being deified to become the New Jerusalem and to bear the same appearance as God – jasper (Rev. 22:11, 23).
In this age of despair and hopelessness, with so many things going on right now, we are people of great hope, the hope of glory! Amen!
We are in the process of being deified, and we can cooperate with God to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ day by day so that we may become the New Jerusalem, bearing the same appearance of God!
At the end of this age, we are teaching and preaching the truth that God became man in order to make man God, that is, to make man the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead; it is such a blessing for us to hear this truth and speak this truth to others! Amen!
This is the top truth in the Bible.
We need to lift our eyes from all the noise and clamour and debates in today’s society, stop trying to figure out who is right and who is wrong, and realize that all these things will not remain for eternity.
But this truth, this top truth concerning the deification of man, will stand for eternity!
Let us not be drawn to discussions or debates, let us not be involved in worldly things, for we have a higher destiny and we hold a higher and greater truth, which is that we are being made the same as God in life and nature, that is, we are being deified!
This is what the Bible tells us that God desires to have. When man at the end of this age hear this truth, this is the real gospel of today.
Eventually, the God-men will be the victors, the overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem! Hallelujah!
Having a God-man living in all the details of our daily life will bring in a new revival that has never been seen in history, and this will end this age (see Psa. 48:2 and footnote 1 in the Recovery Version Bible).
All believers are in the process of being deified in God’s full salvation; we are all in the process of becoming God-men in full, the victors and overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem.
Now that we know this high peak truth, we need to live our daily life in all its details as God-men.
If we realize we are God-men, believers in Christ in the process of being deified to become the New Jerusalem, we will be revolutionised in our daily life!
We need to make a resolution that we will live out this truth, we will walk in this truth, and we will have our daily life living the life of a real God-man to bring in a new revival that will end this age!
Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming a man so that You may make God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for God to have a corporate expression in humanity for eternity. What a high truth this is, and how we treasure the fact that we’re made in the image of God to resemble God and be filled with God until we become the same as God in every possible way! Hallelujah, our destiny as children of God is to become the New Jerusalem, the consummation of the mingling of divinity with humanity for the glory of God to be manifested in man for eternity! Thank You Lord for such a glorious destiny. May we cooperate with You in the process of being deified until we become the New Jerusalem for Your glorious, bright, and splendid expression in humanity for eternity!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, pp. 88-89, 27-28 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 6, The Principle of Being One with God as Revealed in the Book of Jeremiah.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Lo, the central thought of God / Is that He be one with man; / He to man is everything / That He might fulfill His plan. / ’Tis the city God hath built, / ’Tis the dwelling God requires, / ’Tis the new Jerusalem / Which fulfills His heart’s desires. (Hymns #972)
– 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, that all His divine / Attributes may be expressed in human virtues. (Song on, God’s eternal economy)
– From the fruit of daily living, New Jerusalem we’ll see, / It’s the ultimate in mingling—it’s divine humanity. / And what joy that we can share it all, and share it corporately. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
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