CHRIST AS THE SON OF MAN CHERISHING US AND AS THE SON OF GOD NOURISHING US (1)
The Bible is composed of both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the revelation concerning God’s economy—with God, Christ, and the all-inclusive, compound, consummated Spirit—is vague without the explanation and reality of the New Testament… The word economy is not mentioned in the Old Testament, but it is mentioned in the New Testament by the apostle Paul (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4—the same Greek word is used in 1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25). God’s New Testament economy covers only one person—the all-inclusive Christ. He has two statuses. One is the Son of God, and the other is the Son of Man. The New Testament unveils to us the very God who is the Divine Trinity.
One day at the beginning of the New Testament age, about two thousand years ago, God became a man. He came in a way to visit, to contact, His fallen creatures…Isaiah 9:6 says that a child is born to us, a Son is given to us, and His name is Mighty God and Eternal Father.
My burden is to show you that in the New Testament the first vision is that our God suddenly became a human being, and He was born as a man in the lowest status, not into a rich man’s home but into a poor man’s home… This means that He was a despised man from a despised city and a despised region. Isaiah 53 says that He was a man without any outward beauty or attraction (vv. 2-3). He was just a poor Nazarene.
Such a poor man could contact every kind of man. If He had been born as a king, few would have been able to approach Him. But He was born as a poor man, and He could and did approach every class of man, especially the poor and sick ones, such as the blind, the lepers, the sinners, and the tax collectors. He became their friend. His coming in humanity made Him a very cherishing person.
To cherish someone is to make that person happy. Sinners cannot save themselves, but Christ can take away their sins to cherish them… The Jesus who is portrayed in the four Gospels is very cherishing. He came to the world just to cherish people. All people need Him to cherish them, to make them happy, comfort them, and give them rest…Everyone needs Him, can approach Him, and can touch Him. No one who comes to Him is rejected by Him. He receives all without preference or discrimination.
In resurrection He was transfigured to become the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of the bountiful supply (1 Cor. 15:45b; Phil. 1:19). This Spirit is for nourishing. As the all-inclusive Spirit from Acts through the Epistles, Christ nourishes us…The New Testament is composed of just two sections—cherishing and nourishing. With this revelation the entire New Testament has become a new book to me. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 9, pp. 127-133)
The church in Zamboanga 