As we considered in the previous Note, when the divine life and nature is imparted into humanity, whether in Christ Himself or in us, it does not produce a new kind of nature. Instead, the divine nature with its virtues is expressed in and through the human nature. (See “An Uplifted Soul” • 3.)

A footnote Witness Lee has in his Recovery Version of the Bible, dealing with the incarnation of Christ, explains this in a very good way. He states, concerning Christ:

He was a sinless God-man, the complete God and the perfect man, having two natures, the divine nature and the human nature. Although His two natures were mingled to produce a God-man, the individual characteristics of the two natures remained distinct; the two natures did not intermix to form a third nature. Rather, the divine nature existed in the human nature and was expressed through the human nature.
— John 1:14, Footnote #2

Once again, the picture of the tabernacle in the Old Testament can be very helpful in understanding this. Both the ark and the boards were made of the same two materials, wood and gold, signifying the human and divine natures, respectively. However, the wood and the gold were not mixed together to form some kind of weird wood-gold substance that was neither truly wood nor truly gold; rather, the wood was overlaid with the gold. The two materials each retained their distinct characteristics, so that it was clear what was wood and what was gold. Indeed, the distinct characteristics of both were needed for God to have the tabernacle as His dwelling place in the Old Testament.

In the same way, when the divine nature is imparted into us, we still retain our humanity, even though our humanity is now permeated with divinity; as Witness Less states above, “the individual characteristics of the two natures remain distinct.” In this way, the divine nature truly is expressed through our human nature, and our human nature is uplifted with the divine nature.

This is God’s desire for us, and how He gains His New Testament dwelling place, the church, in humanity today.

What a wonderful purpose God has for our lives!

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— 7 October 2023 —