Message 2 Christ as the Son of Man

EngageMessage 2 Christ as the Son of Man, the Second Man, and the Last Adam Fulfilling God’s Intention in Creating Man

This message has great theological significance. The title of the message shows how God’s intention to create man is fulfilled. What is God’s intention in creating man? Gen. 1:26 says: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” In Day 2 there is a paragraph and it says: “God designed man to be one with Him. Because God designed man this way, He created man in His image and after His likeness. Image refers to the inward being, and likeness, to the outward appearance. Actually, God created man in His own image with the intention that man would be His duplication.” How man becomes God’s duplication? God’s design is to put man before the tree of life. By eating the fruit of the tree of life, which is the essence of God’s life, man may have the essence of God, and the attributes of God inwardly, then he can express God outwardly. But Satan came in to frustrate God’s plan, instead of the tree of life, he lures man to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan spoiled the entire God’s intention of creation. Adam, as the first man, became the “old man”, the “old creation” as its synonym. In time, God called Abraham to come out of Babylon, and he followed God in faith and God promised him his seeds will be multiplied as the stars in the heaven and the sands in the sea shore. The former refers to the New Testament believers and the latter the Israelites who are the chosen people of God. The history shows man continues to fall and Israel was also rebellious against God and eventually dispersed throughout the world. During the Old Testament period God operated in physical realm, the spiritual reality was completely hidden until God became a man in time, the second man in God’s eyes.

The Spirit of God fell upon virgin Mary who conceived the essence of God in her womb. Jesus was born as a perfect man but with the complete essence of God, full of His attributes. All the events prior to Jesus as shadows or signs signify the spiritual reality after Jesus came into being. In the Gospels we see the description of Jesus’ living as a human, he did not live by His human soul, but completely according to the Father’s will. Not only he bears the image of God, but also he expresses God. His human virtues are fully saturated with God’s attributes, love, light, holiness, and righteousness. He is a Godman who is complete fulfilment of God’s original design for the human race. The last Adam, the second man, and the “new man” is the prototype of exactly what God designs in the creation.

When the Lord began His ministry, He was baptized in the water, and then the heaven opens, the economic Spirit fell upon Him. His baptism signifies that He has accepted God’s commission that He will die to terminate the old creation (the old man), then resurrect to germinate the new creation (the new man). That pleases God and “a voice came out o f heaven: You are My Son, the Beloved, in You I have found My delight.” At the end of His ministry of preaching the gospel to the world, He died on the cross to bear man’s sin and terminate the old man. He was then resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit. When He appeared to the disciples and breathed into them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit, a new era of grace and of mystical realm began. As we believe into Him, our spirit is regenerated by the Spirit who indwells us and mingles with our spirit. He began to occupy our spirit and permeate to our soul: mind, emotion, and will. The essence of God began to deposit into us as soon as we turn to our spirit. However, when we do not exercise and remain in our spirit, we turn to the old man, the old creation. This is mystical, the new creation and old creation co-exists. The spiritual reality which was typified in the Old Testament is now being fulfilled. In this period of grace and mystery we are gradually transformed and conformed to the image of God according to the prototype of the Godman Jesus, and this process will be completed after the Millennium in the New Jerusalem. Those who matures early as overcomers will be raptured by the Lord when He comes and enjoy with Him in the heaven the universal Wedding. Those who are not mature when He comes will be perfected in the darkness during the Millennium and eventually all will be fully transformed and the old creation is completely terminated. Praise the Lord we are still in the process of transformation. Everyday we need to open our being to fellowship with Him, to feed on His word as the tree of life, to enjoy Him in all environments, and to follow Him as He leads. As we turn to and exercise our spirit, we may live a life that He lived on earth. We need to live a Godman living not by our natural efforts, but by the mingle spirit and thus be transformed and conformed to His image. Amen.

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