CHERISHING PEOPLE IN THE HUMANITY OF JESUS (1)
In this chapter we do not want to stress the Lord’s cherishing us but our cherishing others. The model of Jesus as the Son of Man cherishing people needs to be reproduced in us so that we also will cherish others in His humanity.
When we go out to contact people, we must be persons living a human life in resurrection. In John 11:25 the Lord told Martha, “I am the resurrection.” Martha complained to the Lord that if He had come sooner, her brother would not have died. But the Lord revealed that resurrection is not a matter of time but a matter of His person, because He is the resurrection.
The main vision of Jesus in the four Gospels, especially in the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—is that He lived a life that was human but in resurrection. Jesus was not a man living a natural life. He always put His humanity aside. He was in His humanity, yet He did not live a life of His humanity. Every day while He was on the earth, Jesus was in the flesh, but that flesh was in resurrection. Apparently, He was a Nazarene, a natural Galilean. He was in that flesh. But His living was in a humanity in resurrection.
Some people are charming, attractive, and cherishing in their natural humanity by birth. When such a person walks into a room, the atmosphere changes. A charming person must be very warm, not cold. Those who are charming in their natural humanity, however, are not real. Actually, they are performers, like actors in a theater. When you get close to a charming man, you will find out that he actually is not that charming. He was born with a mask. When the mask is taken away, he is different. To cherish people in our natural humanity is not genuine. This is why we must cherish people in the humanity of Jesus. The Lord’s charming and cherishing are not natural but are by His resurrection life in humanity.
In the new creation we are exactly the same as Jesus. We were reborn, regenerated, not with Adam’s life but with Christ’s life… The crucified Christ was quickened, made alive, and we were made alive with Him… Actually, regeneration itself is resurrection. Regeneration made us God’s new creation ( 2 Cor. 5:17 ).
Regeneration is resurrection, but do we live like a regenerated, resurrected, person? Do we live in resurrection or in our natural life? We have to admit that most of our daily living still remains in the natural life, not in resurrection. To be in resurrection means to be in Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God.
God did not create Adam in resurrection but in the natural realm. God’s placing Adam in front of the tree of life indicates that Adam needed another life. This life is Christ. The New Testament shows that Christ is the real tree of life ( John 15:1 ; 14:6 ; Rev. 2:7 ). Eventually, in the New Testament age, many of the descendants of Adam partook of the tree of life. This is the life of God, the life of Christ, the life of resurrection. Today we should live a life in this resurrection. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 10, pp. 137-144)
The church in Zamboanga 