GOD-MAN

1. The significance of the title God-man
1. Jesus as the incarnated God (John 1:1, 14) is the first God-man. God is living through Him. He was God manifested in the flesh (I Tim. 3:16). The title God-man indicates clearly that Jesus is a man, yet He lives God.
2. Today, all redeemed and regenerated believers are God-men. Christ as the first God-man is the model and His believers as His mass production are the duplications. This means that we are men, yet we live God and express God. We are men, yet it is God who lives in us. God-men’s living is men living God.
3. To be merely a good man is far away from God’s good pleasure. We need to see that we are God-men, born of God, and belonging to God’s species.
4. We must live a life according to the high peak of God’s divine revelation. Our practice is not to live the life of any kind of natural man, good or bad. Our practice is to live a life of a God-man. A God-man is a man who is regenerated and transformed to be one with God, taking God as his life, his person and his everything.
2. The children of God being gods
1. Dog begets dog; lion begets lion; and man begets man. What is begotten is always the same with the begetter. Because we are born of God (John 1:13), we must be gods in life and nature although not in the Godhead. The sons must be the same as their father in life and in nature (I John 1:13). Eventually, when Christ comes, He will make us fully the same as God in life and in nature (I John 3:2).
2. However, none of us is or can be God in His Godhead as an object of worship. In a family, only the father has the fatherhood. As in the human family there is only one father with many children. The father is human, and the children are also human, but there is only one father. In the same way God is our unique father; only He has the divine fatherhood. But we as His children are the same as He is in life and nature.
3. Deification - Becoming God in life and nature but not in the Godhead
1. God in eternity past was God only, but in incarnation He was made man. He made Himself man that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
2. We need to see that we have been born of God, we are the sons of God. You are whatever you have been born of. If you have been born Filipino, you are Filipino and if you have been born Chinese, you are Chinese. Since we are born of God and are sons of God, we may say and even we should say that we are God in life and nature for expression to express Him.
3. God created everything according to its kind. Man, however, was created according to God’s kind because he was created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26). Later, we men were born of God, not only bearing God’s image but also having God’s life and nature. Thus, we become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. This is what the sonship means.
4. God makes us like Him by imparting His life and nature into us. Second Peter 1:4 says, that we have become "partakers of the divine nature." John 1:12-13 says that we were born, regenerated, by God with His life. As God’s children we are "baby gods", having God’s life and nature but not His Godhead. The Godhead is unique; He is the only One who should be worshipped.
5. We have been born of God and today, having God’s life and nature, we are partially like Him. One day, when He comes, we will be wholly and entirely be like Him.
4. Deification in the view of the early church
1. Perhaps what comes to mind most commonly when people hear the term deification is the practice among the ancient pagan religions of elevating men to the status of gods. In the ancient pagan religions men become gods by mere declaration. The process was called "apotheosis" in Greek and "consecratio" in Latin, and generally occurred after the death of the emperors. Formerly, he was respected as an emperor; later he was worshipped as a god, but essentially he was still a man. There was no change in life and nature. The man himself does not change at all, but his status is uplifted, and by this he gains the worship of the people. This contrasts with what the Bible says about God’s redeemed, regenerated and transformed people who not only gain the status of being the sons of God but also possess God’s life and God’s nature, however not for the people to worship but for God’s expression.
2. In the early church Christians opposed the deification of men in the widely held pagan sense, but they did not oppose a proper understanding of deification:
1. Paul says that God alone has immortality (I Tim. 6:16), but he also says that the mortal man must put on immortality (I Cor. 15:53). This means that the mortal man will become immortal like the immortal God.
2. Peter also implies in Second Peter 1:4 that we too can be said divine being partakers of the divine nature. Furthermore, Revelation 15:4 tells us that "God alone is holy" but Peter tells us that we shall be as holy as God is holy (I Pet. 1:15-16).
3. Justin Martyr, a second-century apologist, is one of the earliest witnesses to explicitly teach that man may become God in God’s salvation. He uses Psalm 82:6 to support this teaching: "I have said you are gods; and all of you are children of the Most high". He strongly taught that the children of God are gods.
4. The expression "God became a man in order that man may become God" was spoken by Athanasius in the fourth century. His word became a famous word in church history. In addition to Psalm 82:6 he used John 10:34 which says, "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods?" Indeed men can be become gods in God’s complete salvation!
5. The ultimate consummation of God becoming man that man might become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead:
1. At the end of the Bible there is a marvelous couple. The Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God (consummated through the process of incarnation, human living, death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit), marries the bride as the consummation of the processed tripartite man (consummated through the processed of regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation and glorification to become the Bride of Christ) - Rev. 22:17.
2. This is the ultimate consummation of God becoming a man that man might become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, so that God and man can be an eternal couple, a pair of lovers of the same kind, mingled together as one entity for the full expression of the Triune God in this universe. This is the highest truth. This is the highest gospel.