And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.
And His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover.
And when He was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of the feast;
and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and His parents knew it not.
But supposing Him to be in the company, they went a day’s journey; and they sought for Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance:
and when they found Him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for Him.
And it came to pass, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions:
and all that heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.
And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Behold, Thy father and I sought Thee sorrowing.
And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? Knew ye not that I must be in My Father’s house?
And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them.
And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He was subject unto them: and His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and He entered, as His custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.
And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him.
And He began to say unto them, Today hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank You for the privilege of gathering together in the name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise and thank You for Your precious promise: “Where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
So, Lord, we know and believe that You are here with us. We ask that You will open our inner ears, our inner eyes, and our hearts, that we may see You; when we hear You, we may understand You.
O Lord, grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, that we may really know who You are; and knowing You is eternal life. We commit this time into Your hands. Anoint all of us with Your Holy Spirit. Quicken Your Word to us; make it living and real to us. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory. Amen.
We have been fellowshipping together on the reality of Christ. We must know the Lord Jesus, not only historically, but also in the Spirit. We must know Him objectively as the truth, and we must know Him subjectively as our experience.
This is the way to know the Lord, and to know Him is really everything to us. We mentioned previously that, in order to know the Lord Jesus, we must know Him in eternity past, because He is the beginning.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
All things received their being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being. This is our Lord Jesus. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the One who created all things.
As we find in Colossians, all things were created in Him. He designed everything, gave character to everything, and made everything. All things were created by Him and for Him; and we are for Him.
It is the purpose of our heavenly Father that He should have the preeminence, the first place, in all things. In the fullness of time, God will sum up all things in Christ.
In order that this purpose of God may be fulfilled, He came as the Lamb of God. Scripture tells us that He was the Lamb of God, slain even before the foundation of the world. As the Lamb of God, He was the One who brought about the fulfilment of God’s purpose.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to see the Lord Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Seeing this should draw worship and adoration from us.
We mentioned last night that the Lord Jesus was not only in eternity past. Even though He was born only about two thousand years ago, prophecies went before Him. From Genesis to Malachi, God spoke through the prophets in many parts and in many ways; whatever they spoke, they spoke of that one Person, the Lord Jesus.
He is the seed of the woman who shall come to crush the head of the serpent and defeat His enemies completely. He is the Son of Abraham, who is to inherit all things that the Father has. He is the Son of David, who shall come and build His house with living stones—not physical stones, but living stones such as we are—that God may dwell among men.
He is the Messiah, the promised One, the Christ, who shall come to deliver us and bring God’s kingdom upon this earth. If we want to know the Lord Jesus, we have to know Him in prophecy.
Then we begin to see His life upon this earth. Last night, we began with His birth—His incarnation. The birth of our Lord Jesus is most wonderful, not only because He was born of a virgin. The Spirit of God overshadowed the womb of the virgin Mary, and the One brought forth was the holy One of God.
But if we know the meaning of incarnation, then we really see the wonder of the birth of our Lord Jesus. He was the Word, and the Word became flesh.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The very fact that Christ was born proves to the world how God loves us. Why was it necessary for God to become a man? Because, as God, He never dies; He cannot die.
After He became a man, He was able to die for us. As men partake of flesh and blood, He likewise took part in flesh and blood. In coming down to become a man, He emptied Himself of His majesty, glory, honour, and position, that He might die on the cross in our stead. It is marvellous love.
This morning, we would like to continue with the life of our Lord Jesus. In the four Gospels, the life of our Lord Jesus is recorded. Very roughly, His life may be divided into three periods:
Of the first and second periods, very little is mentioned. Nothing is recorded in the Gospel according to Mark and the Gospel according to John concerning the growth of the life of our Lord Jesus.
Mark presents Christ to us as the bondservant of God, the servant of the Lord. As a servant, no one is interested in how He grew up or matured. All that matters is that He serves. That is why nothing is mentioned in Mark about the growth of the life of our Lord Jesus; Mark begins with His service.
In the Gospel according to John, again, nothing is mentioned about the growth of the life of our Lord Jesus on earth. John presents Christ as the Son of God, and God never grows. He is perfect, complete, always and eternally. That is why nothing is recorded in John concerning His childhood.
In Matthew and Luke, we find that after He was born, on the eighth day He was circumcised according to the law of Moses, and His name was given to Him: Jesus. Actually, that name was given before He was born, because the angel told Mary and Joseph that the Child who was to be born should be called Jesus.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for it is He that shall save His people from their sins.
On the eighth day He was circumcised and named. On the fortieth day, according to the law of Moses, they went to Jerusalem for the ceremony of purification. As the firstborn, He was offered to God.
When the Baby was offered to God, Simeon came in, took the Baby in his hands, blessed the Lord, and said that he had seen the salvation of the Lord and could now depart in peace.
After the purification, they most likely returned to Bethlehem and lived there perhaps two years, or less than two years. When the wise men from the east saw the star, they travelled to Jerusalem. In those days travel took a long time, especially by camel.
They inquired, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” Herod was troubled. He gathered the chief priests and scribes and asked where the King would be born. How familiar they were with the Old Testament! They knew the letter, and immediately told him that Christ should be born in Bethlehem.
Herod told the wise men to find Him, worship Him, and return to tell him where He was. But they went to Bethlehem and found Him, not in a manger, but in a house—probably a house Joseph had rented. There they saw Jesus and worshipped Him.
They were warned by God not to return to Herod, but to depart another way. When Herod discovered that the wise men had not returned, he ordered that all male children under two years of age in Bethlehem and its surrounding area should be slain.
Before this happened, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, “Take the Child and flee into Egypt.” They stayed there until Herod died. When they returned from Egypt, Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father as king; therefore, he did not dare to return to Bethlehem. God led him instead to Nazareth, and there Jesus grew up, that Scripture might be fulfilled.
There is one verse in the Old Testament that almost sums up the childhood of our Lord Jesus. It is Isaiah 53:2.
For He grew up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of a dry ground.
The growing up of our Lord Jesus can be described in this way: He grew up before God as a tender plant, and at the same time He grew up as a root out of dry ground.
Nazareth was an out-of-the-way place, somewhere in the hill country. Nazareth had a certain reputation. In John 1, when Philip found Nathanael and said, “We have found the Messiah; He is Jesus of Nazareth,” Nathanael answered, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
Later, when Nicodemus tried to put in a good word for the Lord Jesus, the Pharisees said, “Search, and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.” Galilee was dry ground.
Our Lord Jesus in His childhood was raised up as a root out of dry ground. He lived in a rough country, among the hills, in what seemed the most unlikely environment. Yet at the same time, He grew up before God as a tender plant.
Luke 2:40 says:
And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.
Although our Lord Jesus was God, when He came to be a man, He grew from infancy into childhood. He was helpless as a child, innocent as a child, and He knew childhood by experience.
That is why the Lord Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” Unless you are converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. And if you offend a child, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung about your neck and be sunk in the sea.
Our Lord Jesus knew childhood. He had experience as a child. He grew up as a child and lived a very normal life as a child, even though He was God.
When a child grows up, how much he needs the care of his parents. Parents provide the environment for the child. Joseph, being a carpenter in that faraway country place, could not supply the child Jesus with luxury, but he did supply Him with the necessities of life.
Dear brothers and sisters, as parents, you know that you need to provide the best environment for the growth of your children. But often we think the best environment includes only material and physical things.
Parents in this country give physical and material things to their children and think that, by providing these things, they have given the best environment for them to grow. Yet they neglect moral and spiritual provision.
Joseph and Mary were not able to provide much materially or physically for the child Jesus. They could provide only the necessities of life. Yet Joseph and Mary did a good work with the child. They brought Him up in the discipline and nourishment of the Lord.
They provided for Him a spiritual and moral environment. The child Jesus knew the Scriptures. The child Jesus knew God. Though He was God, He was also a child. His parents taught Him, disciplined Him, and brought Him up in the fear of the Lord.
That is why the Bible says that the child waxed strong—that is physical development; that He was filled with wisdom—that is mental development; and that God’s grace was upon Him—that is spiritual development. The child was well developed in every way.
If God entrusts you with children, it is a sacred trust. You must provide the best environment you can, but do not forget that moral and spiritual provision is more important than physical and material provision.
Provide the necessities of life, that they may not lack anything; but also provide the best spiritual and moral environment that God enables you to give them. Then your children will grow strong physically, be filled with wisdom, and the grace of God will be upon them.
What is wisdom? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom is different from knowledge. You send your children to school to learn knowledge, but do not neglect the wisdom they need.
Where does wisdom come from? The fear of the Lord and the love of Christ—that is wisdom. Every parent should stand before the Lord to bring their children into the fear and love of God. Then the grace of God will be upon them.
The child Jesus grew normally, as any child, but He knew the grace of God. Grace was upon Him. He knew grace in His early days. Do not think that your children are too young to know Christ or too young to know grace. The grace of God can be upon them even before they reach maturity.
When Jesus was twelve, it was a critical moment. According to Jewish tradition at that time, when a Jewish boy reached twelve years of age, he was made a son of the law. That is to say, he became a responsible member of the synagogue.
He could ask questions and answer questions. He was to be responsible as an individual before God. So, when Christ was twelve years old, His parents took Him to Jerusalem.
According to the law of Moses, all the males among the children of Israel were to go to Jerusalem three times a year to worship God and offer sacrifice. His parents went to Jerusalem year after year, but on this twelfth year they took the boy Jesus to Jerusalem as one becoming a son of the law.
After the feast was over, they returned to their various places. After a whole day’s journey, in the evening, they could not find the boy Jesus. They travelled in groups, probably with the adults travelling together and the young people travelling together. Joseph and Mary thought that He must be with the other boys and girls of His age.
But toward evening, when the family should be together, they could not find Him. They were distressed, so they went back. After three days, they found the boy in the temple.
Perhaps it took them three days because they never thought the boy Jesus would be in the temple. They may have searched every corner of Jerusalem before they finally came to the temple and found Him there—listening, asking questions, and answering questions.
As a son of the law, He had the right to ask questions and answer questions. He was exercising that right, and all who heard His questions and answers were amazed and astonished.
I wonder whether He answered all His own questions, because perhaps no one could answer the questions He asked. The elderly priests and scribes could not answer Him. He asked the questions, answered them, and they were astonished. That is understanding.
This is something we do not understand and cannot explain. In this boy Jesus, there was God. He is God, yet He is also man. Divinity and humanity were joined together in this one life.
On the one hand, He received instruction from His parents. Yet, on the other hand, there was a consciousness always within Him that He was one with God. We cannot explain it; it is a mystery. But it is true, because He is truly God and truly man.
Probably, when He reached the age of twelve and was made a son of the law, this inward consciousness was sealed. He knew that He must be occupied with His Father’s business. He was sent into the world to do a work; therefore, He stayed behind in the temple.
When His mother saw Him, she was distressed and said, “Child, why hast Thou done this to us? Do You not know that we are so distressed?” The boy Jesus said, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be occupied with My Father’s business?”
They did not understand. But notice: He went down with them, came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.
He fully knew in His inward consciousness that He was sent by the Father to do the work of redemption. He was sure of that; He stayed behind for that purpose. Yet, when His parents found Him and did not understand, He did not say, “I know what I came for. You return; I will stay here.” No. He went back with them to Nazareth and was subject to them.
Even though He had the assurance of that inward consciousness and knew that He was sent by the heavenly Father, from the human standpoint He was still a minor, a dependent. So He went down with them and was subject to them. How wonderful that is.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we can apply this principle to ourselves in a broad sense, when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are born again. We are born of the Spirit. Within us there is the life of God; there is Christ; there is eternal life.
We who are born of the Spirit and have this life from above have a consciousness. This consciousness should be developed. It should grow, and we should know that we are children of God.
Outwardly, you may be no different from anybody else. If you are a teenager, you are a teenager; if you are grown, you are grown. Yet you are different from everybody else in the world, because there is the life of God in you.
Are you conscious that you are a child of God? Are you conscious that you are different? Are you conscious that there is a purpose in your life? Are you conscious that God has foreknown and predestined you to be conformed to the image of His Son?
If there is eternal life in you, there must be that consciousness. If there is no consciousness, then you do not have life. But this consciousness must grow. It should increase as days go by.
Just as the consciousness within the child Jesus grew until it was sealed when He was twelve, so our consciousness before God may grow to the point where we consecrate ourselves to God.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
When the consciousness that you belong to God and belong to Christ grows within you, it will grow to a point where you have to present your body as a living sacrifice. You cannot live for yourself any longer. You must live for Him and for His will.
Has that consciousness grown to that point in your life? One day, we realise that we are not our own; we are His. One day, we realise that God has a purpose, and we are to serve His will. Because of that, we cannot hold ourselves back. We present our bodies as a living sacrifice and say, “Lord, we want to be occupied with You, with Your business.”
Yet, even though that consciousness may be sealed in a moment and you know that you are called to serve God’s will, you cannot neglect your relationships, duties, and responsibilities toward other people.
Before God’s time comes, when you are wholly free to serve God as He wants you to serve Him, there are human relationships, duties, and responsibilities that you have to fulfil. Being a child of God does not mean that you can neglect these responsibilities.
Here we find that our Lord Jesus went back and was subject to His parents. For the young ones, thank God that He has saved you, put His life in you, caused that consciousness to grow in you, and enabled you to present your body as a living sacrifice.
But even though all these things are true, God has His time. Before the hour comes, while you are still dependent, return home and be subject to your parents.
Perhaps you are older. The Bible says to be subject to the authorities God has placed over you. Even though you are children of God and are to serve God, you cannot neglect your family. There are responsibilities and relationships that must be maintained—maintained in Christ.
We need to live a balanced life. For this reason, Jesus advanced in wisdom, stature, and favour with God.
From twelve years old to thirty years old, during the period of maturing, our Lord Jesus lived a private, hidden life. He was trained to be a carpenter. The Bible calls Him “the carpenter.” He was a good carpenter.
Here we find balance—well balanced. If you are still in school and are a child of God, glorify God in your studies. Be a good student. Whatever your hands find to do, whatever environment provides for you to learn, learn it well—learn the best—for the glory of God.
From birth to twelve years old, the order is bodily growth first, then wisdom and grace. But from twelve to thirty, wisdom comes first. In other words, we grow mentally as well as in stature and favour with God.
Nothing is recorded during that period from twelve to thirty. We only know that He went back in subjection, learned a trade, and became a good carpenter. His life was completely hidden from the eyes of men.
Yet we know that during that hidden period, He advanced in wisdom, stature, and favour with God. After He reached thirty, there came the great division: He came into public ministry.
There is a vast contrast between the years from twelve to thirty and the years from thirty until He died, a little after thirty-three years of age. The first years were a hidden life. Nobody knew it, yet God knew.
There, in secret, He communed with God. There He lived a life with God. The root went deeper and deeper and became stronger and stronger. Then everything prepared during those years of preparation came into the open.
During those thirty years, He lived the life of a man, growing up stage by stage and learning everything, just as we do. The power was hidden. No miracle is recorded; no wonder is recorded. He lived a normal life like anybody else, yet there was something hidden, secret, and deep.
After those thirty years, when He came forth, the power, wisdom, and might of God were manifested in fullness. What a great contrast.
Dear brothers and sisters, even though it may not be exactly the same in our experience, the principle is the same. Before God can manifest you publicly to be of service to the Lord, in whatever capacity it may be, there needs to be a period of hidden, secret life with the Lord.
The problem today is that we are in such haste. We are so impatient. In this country, everything has to be instant; and among God’s people, it often seems to be the same. The moment you are saved, you think you are already fully grown and ready to come out and serve.
Brothers and sisters, where are the hidden years? Where is that secret life with God, getting rooted and grounded in Christ? These years are not wasted. Even though nothing is recorded, they are not wasted, because without those years you would not find the three years.
John wrote toward the end of his Gospel that he recorded some things the Lord Jesus did, but these were only a few illustrations. If all that He did were written, even the world could not contain the books that would be written.
Our Lord Jesus worked publicly for only a little over three years, and yet how much He did and accomplished! If everything He did were written down, not even the Library of Congress, nor all the libraries in the world, could contain the books. Think of that.
The secret was those thirty hidden years. If we are conscious that we are children of God and that God has called us to serve His purpose, how we need deep roots—hidden, unseen, but not wasted. When the time comes, everything will come forth.
Another reason the Lord Jesus may have remained until He was thirty is that, after He returned home at twelve, the name of Joseph was soon dropped from the record. Probably Joseph died, and, being the eldest child, the Lord Jesus had to take responsibility for the family.
Perhaps for this reason He stayed at home until He was thirty, when His brothers and sisters had grown up and the family responsibilities had been fulfilled. Then He was free to come out. That may have been the human reason, and there is a principle there too.
When He was thirty, the call of God came to Him, and He began His public ministry. His public ministry began with His baptism.
God sent John the Baptist six months ahead of Him, preaching repentance and baptising people with water as a sign of repentance. Many came to John, confessed their sins, and were baptised in preparation for the Messiah who was to come.
Then the Lord Jesus came to be baptised by John. Why? During the past thirty years, He had lived such a perfect life with God that there was nothing for Him to repent of. Yet He came to John to be baptised, as a symbol of repentance.
No wonder John did not want to baptise Him. But the Lord said, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
God was calling the nation to repentance to prepare the way of the Lord. Whoever responded to God needed to be baptised in order to be prepared. That was the way of righteousness.
Even though the Lord Jesus had nothing to repent of for Himself and did not need to be baptised, at the very beginning of His ministry, through baptism, He identified Himself with us sinners.
In incarnation, He identified Himself with us as men; He became a man just as we are. But in baptism, He identified Himself with us as sinners.
He is God—the perfect One, the holy One. Even after He became man, He lived a perfect life for thirty years, perfect in every way, balanced—God and man in one. Yet He was willing to be identified with us sinners.
In baptism, He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit to God as a sacrifice. That was the beginning of His ministry.
After He was baptised, while He was praying, the heavens were opened. The heavens had been closed to mankind because of the sin of man. But when Christ offered Himself in baptism, the heavens were opened.
The Spirit of God descended upon Him and abode upon Him as a dove. Why did the Spirit come upon Him as a dove? Because the dove was the sacrifice of the poor. When one was too poor to offer a bullock or a lamb, he was allowed to offer a dove.
Here we find our Lord Jesus offering Himself as the sacrifice of the poor. Then the voice from heaven said:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
In other words, His offering of Himself through the eternal Spirit to God was accepted by the Father. That was the beginning of His ministry.
Dear brothers and sisters, we all have a ministry. Our ministries may be different, but as members of the body of Christ, we all have a function to fulfil. We all have a ministry to fulfil.
But before we can begin our ministry, we must offer ourselves and minister to God first. We must first minister to God; then we can minister to men.
For the sake of time, I will not dwell on the temptation. Immediately after His baptism, the Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to meet the tempter. Why? Because He offered Himself to do the work of redemption, and He had to meet the enemy.
Who can take the goods out of the house of the strong man unless he first binds the strong man? In order to deliver us, He had to enter into the strong man’s house and bind him. Therefore, before His public ministry, our Lord Jesus had to go into the wilderness to encounter the enemy.
How different was this scene from the Garden of Eden. The garden was the showroom of God’s creation. Everything was beautiful; the environment was perfect; it was a garden of pleasure. Yet man was tempted and fell.
But the Spirit of God led the Lord Jesus into the wilderness, a scene representing the ruin upon the earth because of man’s sin. Everything spoke of barrenness and death. Yet in that environment, our Lord Jesus overcame the enemy.
Do not think that, for forty days, He fasted and did nothing. No. Through those forty days He was tempted. The conflict was so intense that He could not think of eating.
There was severe and intense conflict with the devil during those forty days. The three temptations recorded are only the summing up, the consummation, of all the temptations during that time.
Thank God, our Lord Jesus overcame. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. Praise the Lord: He overcame the enemy and came forth in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Those three and a half years—what a ministry! We can sum up His ministry with what we read at the beginning. He came to Nazareth, entered the synagogue, took up the book of Isaiah, and read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
This sums up the work of Christ on earth. What a life He lived. He lived among His disciples; He lived before the world. He could challenge the world and say, “Which of you convicteth Me of sin?” It was a perfect life.
If you want to sum up the beauty of His life, consider Galatians 5 and the fruit of the Spirit. That is Christ. What a life, and what a ministry.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if we only read history, if we only read about such a beautiful life and nothing more, we miss the point.
The life of our Lord Jesus on earth was a perfect life, a most holy life, a most righteous life—a life of love, kindness, grace, discipline, meekness, humility, power, strength, victory, and glory.
His life is a declaration—not merely a decoration—of what God is. It is also a demonstration of the kind of man God is seeking.
On the one hand, He declares the Father. No one has ever seen the Father, but by seeing Him—His life and His work—we see the Father. There is no defect in any way: He is the full declaration of the Father. We know the Father when we know the Son.
But more than that, the life of our Lord Jesus is a demonstration. He demonstrates to the world the kind of man God wants. God wants man, but what kind of man does God want? God wants a man like the man Jesus—a God-man.
If His life were only a declaration and demonstration, and nothing more, it would not bring us to God. We could see God from afar off, but we would be afraid of Him and flee from His face. Why? Because His life would be a condemnation to us.
Who can go to the Father? Who can ascend the holy hill? Who can enter into the holy tabernacle of God? The one who is clean of hands and pure in heart.
There is a Man who has gone to the Father. He has the right to stand before God because He is perfect. But can we? We cannot. His whole life would be condemnation instead of salvation if that were all there was.
When the Lord went up the mountain to be transfigured, Moses and Elijah came and spoke with Him concerning His departure. As far as He Himself was concerned, He could have gone from the Mount of Transfiguration directly to heaven.
But that would have been the end for all of us—no salvation. For love, He came down from the mountain. He would not depart from the Mount of Transfiguration by way of glory; rather, He departed by way of Calvary’s cross. It was for our sake.
His life is more than a demonstration. He not only demonstrated to us the kind of man God seeks, but His life is also a fellowship. He not only lived it; He gave it to all of us.
This is glory: the life once lived in such perfection is the life given to all who believe in Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know that you who believe in Him have His life? Do you know that he that hath the Son hath life? Do you know that He lives in you—Christ in you, the hope of glory?
Our problem is, how shall we live? Now we are Christians; now we believe. But how shall we live to please God? How we struggle, strive, and try! Yet, no matter how we try, we cannot.
What is the secret? Paul said:
For to me to live is Christ.
We need not only to read the life of Christ; we also need to see that Christ lives in us. Even in me, there He is. He lives in me. He is my life, and He will live His life all over again on earth in me, in you, in every one of us.
When He lives through us, He will live in the same way as He lived before. This is the gospel. This is the meaning of the life of Christ.
Paul said:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
In John 6, the Lord Jesus said:
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father; so he that eateth Me, he also shall live because of Me.
If only God would open our eyes to see that we no longer need to live by ourselves, because it is Christ who lives in us.
The same is true concerning ministry and work. In John 14, the Lord Jesus said:
He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.
Of course, there is one work that we can never do: the work of redemption. On the cross, He died in our stead. There He completed the work of redemption, and He did it all by Himself. You and I cannot have any part in it. All we do is receive what He has done. It is finished, and we receive it. Thank God for that.
That is a unique work which nobody else can do. Yet the Lord said that the works He did, we shall do also. What are these works?
To put it simply, they are the works described in Luke 4: preaching glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming deliverance to those in captivity, opening the eyes of the blind, setting the oppressed free, and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord.
That is why the book of Acts is a continuation of the doing and teaching of the Lord Jesus. But how is it done? He does it in us. He does it through us.
The Head is now in heaven, but He is still doing and teaching through His body. He is teaching and doing in His body. He does it.
Why are they greater works? One commentator says that He sows and we reap, and the harvest is always greater than the sowing.
He is the vine; we are the branches. The fruit is borne on the branches, but it is the life of the vine that produces it.
Dear brothers and sisters, if you see the life of Christ, you can see that it is more than history. It is living today. He lives in you; He lives in me. He works in you; He works in me, that God’s work may be done. This is the gospel.
Our heavenly Father, how we thank You, knowing that You have sent Your Son into this world to live a life that declares Your perfection, that by seeing Him we may see You.
We praise and thank You that, in the life of our Lord Jesus, the man You are seeking is demonstrated to us. We now know what kind of man You are after.
Lord, we thank and praise You that You come not only as a declaration and a demonstration, but You come as a fellowship. You share Your life with us. You live in us to live and to do the work, the will of the Father, in and through us.
We ask, O Lord, that by Your Holy Spirit this may be very real, very living, and very practical to all of us, that it may be done to Your praise and glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.