The Mystery of Human Life
1. God’s Plan
| God desires to express Himself through man (Rom. 8:29). For this purpose, He created man in His own image (Gen. 1:26). Just as a glove is made in the image of a hand to contain a hand, so also man is made in the image of God to contain God. By receiving God as his content, man can express God (2 Cor. 4:7). |
2. Man
| To fulfill His plan, God made man as a vessel (Rom. 9:21-24). This vessel has three parts: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thes. 5:23). The body contacts and receives the things of the physical realm. The soul, the mental faculty, contacts and receives the things of the psychological realm. And the human spirit, the innermost part of man, was made to contact and receive God Himself (John 4:24). Man was created not merely to contain food in his stomach, or to contain knowledge in his mind, but to contain God in his spirit (Eph. 5:18). |
3. Man’s Fall
| But before man could receive God as life into his spirit, sin entered into him (Rom. 5:12). Sin deadened his spirit (Eph. 2:1), made him an enemy of God in his mind (Col. 1:21), and transmuted his body into sinful flesh (Gen. 6:3; Rom. 6:12). Thus, sin damaged all three parts of man, alienating him from God. In this condition, man could not receive God.). |
4. Christ’s Redemption for God’s Dispensing
| Nevertheless, man’s fall did not deter God from fulfilling His original plan. In order to accomplish His plan, God first became a man called Jesus Christ (John 1:1,John 1:14). Then Christ died on the cross to redeem man (Eph. 1:7), thus taking away his sin (John 1:29) and bringing him back to God (Eph. 2:13). Finally, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) so that He could dispense His unsearchably rich life into man’s spirit (John 20:22; John 3:6) |
5. Man’s Regeneration
| Since Christ has become the life-giving Spirit, man can now receive God’s life into his spirit. The Bible calls this regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3). To receive this life, man needs to repent to God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21; Acts 16:31). |
To be regenerated, simply come to the Lord with an open and honest heart and say to Him:
“Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
I need You.
Thank You for dying for me.
Lord Jesus, forgive me.
Cleanse me from all my sins.
I believe You rose from the dead.
I receive You right now as my Savior and life.
Come into me! Fill me with Your life!
Lord Jesus, I give myself to You for Your purpose.”
6. God’s Full Salvation
| After regeneration, a believer needs to be baptized (Mark 16:16). Then God begins the lifelong process of gradually spreading Himself as life from the believer’s spirit into his soul (Eph. 3:17). This process, called transformation (Rom. 12:2), requires human cooperation (Phil. 2:12). The believer cooperates by allowing the Lord to spread into his soul until all his desires, thoughts, and decisions become one with those of Christ. Finally, at Christ’s return, God will fully saturate the believer’s body with His life. This is called glorification (Phil. 3:21). Thus, instead of being empty and damaged in each part, this man is filled and saturated with the life of God. |
This is God’s full salvation! Such a man now expresses God, fulfilling God’s plan!
Gospel Tracts
Freed from the Fear of Death
Most of us don’t like to think about death, let alone talk about it. It’s a frightening subject. But at one time or another we’ve all been touched by death, suffering the loss of a relative, friend, neighbor, or someone else in our lives…READ MORE
The Big Question
A professor at a world-renowned American university regularly inquired at the beginning of his course, “If you could ask God one question, what would it be?” Students routinely answered that they’d ask for money or material things. But on one occasion a student responded, ask God, “What’s the purpose of my life?” This was right after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S…READ MORE
Is Jesus in Your “Boat”?
John 6:16–21 is an account of an event that happened two thousand years ago, yet we can all relate to it today.
The night was dark. Jesus’ disciples were alone in the middle of a rolling sea. The wind was blowing, the waves were tossing their boat, and there was no land in sight. For all their arduous rowing, they had advanced only three or four miles. To reach the destination seemed humanly impossible…READ MORE