Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (2)
Message Six
The Son of Man and the Humanity of Jesus for God’s Building
Scripture Reading: Ezek. 1:5, 26; 40:3, 5, 8; 41:16; John 1:51; Phil. 2:5-8
I. Ezekiel is a book full of humanity—Ezek. 1:5, 26; 40:3, 5, 8; 41:16; 43:2, 6:
A. In the book of Ezekiel the term son of man is used more than ninety times; this indicates how much God desires to have a man.
B. The number six, used to describe parts of the holy temple, signifies man, who was created on the sixth day—40:5, 8.
C. The One on the throne looks like a man, yet with Him there is the appearance of the glory of Jehovah, indicating that the One sitting on the throne is both God and man—1:26, 28:
1. This is Jesus Christ, the God-man, the mingling of God and man—Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20-21.
2. He was the complete God, and He was incarnated to be a man—John 1:1, 14.
3. Having the nature of man, He lived, died, resurrected, and ascended as a man, and now as the One on the throne, He is still the Son of Man—6:62; Acts 7:56.
4. Since the ascension of the Lord Jesus there has been a man on the throne, and in the millennium and in the new heaven and new earth there will still be a man on the throne—Matt. 19:28; Rev. 22:1, 3.
D. The four living creatures, who are reckoned as one entity, are the corporate expression of the man on the throne, indicating that God’s central thought and arrangement are related to man—Ezek. 1:5, 26; Gen. 1:26; Psa. 8:4-8.
II. The Son of Man is for the building of the house of God—John 1:51; Ezek. 1:26; 40:3; 43:2, 6:
A. In His incarnation Christ is the Son of Man—Matt. 16:13:
1. On the divine side, the Lord Jesus is the Son of God; on the human side, He is the Son of Man—John 1:18, 51.
2. In order to accomplish God’s purpose, it was necessary for Christ to be a man; without man, God’s purpose cannot be carried out on earth.
B. The Lord Jesus became a God-man, but He also became the man-God, the God in humanity, the God who is the Son of Man—5:27; 8:28.
C. The Son of God is for life, and the Son of Man is for building—3:15; 1:51:
1. If He were not the Son of Man, He could not be the essence of the building of God—vv. 14, 51.
2. For building God’s habitation on earth among man, He is the Son of Man; God’s building needs His humanity—v. 51.
3. After we have received eternal life by believing into the Son of God, we need to realize that this Jesus who is the Son of God is also the Son of Man; His divinity is life to us, but His humanity is for the building of God—3:13-15; 1:51.
D. “You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”—v. 51:
1. This is the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:11-22.
2. Christ as the Son of Man, with His humanity, is the ladder set up on the earth and leading to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven for the house of God, Bethel.
3. Wherever Christ is in His humanity, there is the gate of heaven and there is Bethel, the building of God’s house with transformed persons—vv. 17-18; John 1:42, 51.
III. For God’s building we need the humanity of Jesus—Ezek. 1:5, 26; 41:16; 2 Cor. 4:10-11; Phil. 2:5-8; Rom. 1:4; 8:29; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:5-6, 21-22:
A. The humanity of Jesus is His human life in resurrection—Phil. 2:7-8; John 11:25:
1. The main vision of Jesus in the Gospels is that He lived a life that was human but in resurrection.
2. Jesus lived in His humanity, but He did not live a life of His humanity; rather, His living was a humanity in resurrection—John 5:19, 30.
B. The wood in the holy building of God revealed in Ezekiel signifies the uplifted, divinely enriched humanity of Jesus—41:16.
C. For God’s building we need to be human not by our natural humanity but by the humanity of Jesus—Phil. 2:5-8:
1. We were created as man, but we were corrupted, poisoned, and damaged by the fall; therefore, we need the Lord’s redemption—Titus 2:14; Eph. 1:7:
a. Through Christ’s redemption we are brought back to the proper humanity—an uplifted, resurrected humanity—1 Pet. 1:18; Col. 1:14:
1) What Christ terminated on the cross was our old man, our fallen humanity, yet the God-created humanity remained to be resurrected—Rom. 6:6; Gen. 1:26; Col. 2:13; Eph. 2:5-6.
2) In Christ’s resurrection God regenerated our redeemed, God-created humanity, and the divine element uplifted the regenerated humanity—1 Pet. 1:3; John 20:17.
3) After being regenerated to be a new man, we still have our humanity, but it is a resurrected, regenerated humanity—Eph. 4:24.
b. The humanity that we now have for God’s building is the uplifted, resurrected humanity of Jesus—Rom. 1:4; 8:29; Eph. 2:5-6, 21-22.
2. The more spiritual we become, the more human we will be; the more we have Christ as our life, the more we will have the humanity of Jesus—Col. 3:4; Phil. 2:5-8.
D. For God’s building we need to be the most human of people, those who are “Jesusly” human—2 Cor. 4:10-11:
1. We need to have the highest human life, a life lived out according to the eternal life given to us by God—1 Tim. 6:12.
2. In the forty days between His resurrection and ascension, the Lord Jesus trained His disciples to live a divinely human life—Acts 1:3:
a. He trained them to know that He had become them, that He had entered into them, and that He had brought them into Him.
b. This kind of training was to help the disciples realize that they were mingled with the Triune God, that they were no longer merely human but divinely human, even “Jesusly” human.
c. They were no longer merely men but God-men, divine men, with the Triune God as their intrinsic essence to become their divine being—Eph. 3:14-17.
d. They could now live a life in which they were one with the processed and consummated Triune God—2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 6:17; 15:45b.
E. In order to have the humanity of Jesus for God’s building, we need to experience the Spirit of Jesus—Acts 16:7:
1. The Spirit of Jesus is a particular expression concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross.
2. In the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well—Phil. 2:5-8.
3. The uplifted, resurrected human nature of Jesus is in the Spirit of Jesus—Rom. 1:4; Acts 16:7.
4. The virtues of lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering, which are required for keeping the oneness of the Spirit, are included in the Spirit of Jesus—Eph. 4:2.
5. In resurrection Christ, who was the only begotten Son of God in His divinity, was born of God in His humanity to be the firstborn Son of God—Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29; 1:4:
a. His humanity was “sonized,” made divine; this “sonizing” in resurrection sanctified, uplifted, and transformed Christ’s humanity, which He put on in incarnation—v. 4.
b. Now such an uplifted humanity is in the Spirit of Jesus and can become our experience so that we may become “Jesusly” human, having the humanity of Jesus for God’s building—Phil. 2:5-8; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16.