A GOD-MAN, NOT A GOOD MAN

A GOD-MAN, NOT A GOOD MAN by Witness Lee

When I was a young man, I did everything quickly. I spoke quickly, and I walked quickly. When you are a quick person it is much easier for you to lose your temper. When I wanted to do something quickly and another person was going slowly, I became irritated. Then I got saved when I was nineteen. My sister returned home from a seminary where she was studying. She loved the Lord and wanted to go on with the Lord. She told me that she saw many "spiritual" Christians in her seminary. She related to me that these Christians did everything slowly. They walked slowly, they opened up the Bible slowly, and they talked slowly. After hearing that testimony, I desired to be a slow person, and I began to hate my quickness. Then I began to imitate the persons who were so slow. I tried to pick up my Bible slowly, walk slowly, and even read the Bible slowly. But eventually my quickness came out again. I found out that I was not a slow person. For me to try to be a slow person was like a monkey trying to imitate a man. Eventually, the monkey will return back to being a monkey.

Then I was taught by many Christian teachers that I should be patient, humble, and kind. I was taught that I should be very virtuous. Eventually, I discovered that I could not love, I could not be humble, nor could I be patient, kind, holy, or righteous. I became very disappointed and struggled for a long time. One day I saw that man can never be holy. Only God can be holy. I saw that what God wanted was to enter into me to be my contents, to be my holiness, to be my "gold." When I saw and realized this I became greatly excited. I wanted to tell everyone that I had God in me, that God was my contents. God is my life, my holiness, my love, my slowness, and my everything. I am a vessel, a container, to contain God and to be filled with God.

In the garden of Eden there were two trees-the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). Evil always goes with good. Hatred goes with love. Pride goes with humility. This is not what God wants. God wants life. God does not want you to be a good man; God wants you to be a God-man. A God-man is an expression of God. You may be a "good man," but you can never be an expression of God if you are merely a good man. God made man in His own image for the purpose of expressing God. When we become a God-man who is filled with God, we express God.

Such a God-man, expressing God, is God's representative. He represents God and he has God's authority over all things. God created man in His own image to express Him, and God gave His dominion to man that man may reign for Him (Gen. 1:26). It is not a good man but a God-man who expresses God and represents God. God's image is for us to express God, and God's dominion is for us to represent God. We have God Himself in our spirit, and we can be filled with God and full of God to express Him and represent Him as a God-man. This is the dispensing of God Himself into us according to the divine economy.

EATING THE TREE OF LIFE

After God created man in His image with a spirit to contain Him, God put this man in front of the tree of life and charged him to be careful not to eat the wrong tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17). God wanted man to eat of the tree of life. In the Gospel of John we see that the Lord is the vine tree (15:1) and that He is the life (14:6). When we put these two matters together, we see that Jesus is the tree of life. He is the tree and He is the life, so He is the tree of life. We have to receive Him by our spirit, and we can receive Him by eating Him and drinking Him. He told us that He is the bread of life for us to eat. By eating Him we can live because of Him (6:57). Also, He is the living water for us to drink (4:14; 7:37-38).

What is it to eat Jesus and to drink of Jesus? This is God's dispensing of Himself into our being. God created man in His own image with a spirit that man might receive Him. At the time of creation, man did not have God within him. Man was just an empty container. Adam was empty without God in him, so God put him in front of the tree of life. Adam was an empty container made to contain God as life. He needed to receive God into him that God would be his life, his life supply, and his contents. In the same way God needs to be our contents, our life, and our life
supply. We should not receive the wrong tree. The Lord warned Adam that if he would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. We need to receive the right item into us, and the right thing for us to receive is the tree of life. The tree of life indicates that God wants to be our life. We have to receive Him by eating Him. If we eat of Christ as the tree of life, we are receiving Him into our being to be our life supply, and we are no longer empty. God will be our contents.

Genesis 1 and 2 give us a picture in God's creation, showing us the divine economy. Even in God's creation there is a picture of God's desire to dispense Himself into His created man. God wants to dispense Himself into us to make us God-men not good men. A Christian is not merely a good man but a God-man. We were made in God's image with a spirit to receive God into us as our life, our life supply, and as our everything to be our very content for us to be God-men.

Witness Lee

From "The Divine Economy, Part 2: God's Creation (1)."

In "The Stream," 16.3 (1996):22-24.

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