LIFE-STUDY OF JOB

MESSAGE TWENTY-FOUR

MAN MOVING IN GOD'S MOVE
AND GOD MOVING IN MAN'S MOVE

Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:21-23; John 1:1, 14; Acts 16:6-10; Rev. 22:17

In this message I would like to give a further word on God's move, in particular on man moving in God's move and God moving in man's move.

THE PRINCIPLE OF GOD'S MOVE ON EARTH

The New Testament, a record of God's move, shows us that God can never move apart from man. In the beginning of the New Testament, God moved into man, gained man, and became a man (Matt. 1:21-23; John 1:1, 14). He moved not only as God and not merely as man; He moved as the God-man. This was the reason that in the four Gospels the high priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Roman officials did not know who Jesus was. They could not determine whether His activities were the activities of God or the activities of a man. He was a mystery, for He was God, yet man; He was man, yet God.

Athanasius, one of the early church fathers, said concerning Christ, "He was made man that we might be made God," and "The Word was made flesh...that we, partaking of His Spirit, might be deified." This is the principle of God's move on earth. God's move is in man and through man. God's move is to deify man, making man God in life and in nature but not, of course, in the Godhead.

In the four Gospels Christ was just one person, but on the day of Pentecost, after His death, resurrection, ascension, and descension, He was enlarged and expanded from one person into thousands of persons (Acts 2:41). A large group of people began to move in the divine move. In the four Gospels God moved in man's move, but in Acts man moved in God's move. God and man moved together. The chief priests, the elders, the scribes, and the Roman officials did not understand what had happened to Peter and John, because they knew them only as Galilean fishermen (4:13). Nevertheless, they had to admit that what these men did was divine (4:16). When they moved, God moved. Eventually, Gamaliel, a great rabbi, advised the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jews, concerning the apostles, saying, "Withdraw from these men and leave them alone; for should this counsel or this work be of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest you be found to be even fighters against God" (5:38-39).