THREE ASPECTS OF CHRIST
From all the revelations in the Scriptures, we can see that there are three great aspects of Christ. These three great aspects are easy to remember. The first aspect is that Christ is God. To be sure, as God, He is all-inclusive and infinite. The second aspect is that Christ is man. Christ is God, yet He is also man. You may ask what is all-inclusive about man. Even a large man may weigh only two hundred and fifty pounds. Even after you have graduated from a university or have obtained a doctorate degree, your stature has not increased by much. Man is neither all-inclusive nor infinite. A man may be strong, but can he work vigorously for twenty-four hours a day? After working vigorously for only four hours, he may collapse. Man is not infinite; rather, man is finite. However, as a man, Christ is infinite. Christ is infinite not only as God but also as a man. Perhaps we never dreamed that there is a man in human history who is both infinite and all-inclusive.
The final aspect is that Christ is the Redeemer. He is God, He is man, and He is our Redeemer. The title Redeemer in Chinese is literally the “saving-redeeming Lord.” Hence, it includes three things: saving, redeeming, and Lord. Never consider that saving and redeeming are the same thing. Saving is one thing, and redeeming is another thing. He saves, He redeems, and He is the Lord. He has saved and redeemed us; consequently, He truly is our Lord.
Christians are familiar with the term Redeemer, but they do not know why this term is used. How can Christ save us, and how can He redeem us? Moreover, why do we need to be saved and redeemed? Many of you are young ones who may have been saved for only three or five years. The church in Taipei has a history of thirty-five years, and I am eighty years old this year. When we first established the church here, the parents of some of you, the younger ones, were not yet married. I am very glad to see that in the church today many young brothers and sisters love the Lord very much. In my service to the Lord for over fifty years, I feel that particularly in these last two to three years, both in the West and in the East, the condition of the ones who love the Lord is unprecedented; there are many who love Him. Recently I stayed for six days in Tokyo, Japan. I saw in the meetings that over eighty percent were young people. I also stayed in Seoul, South Korea for six days. I saw that almost a thousand people attended the meetings, and the majority were young people. I was very joyful to see so many young people loving the Lord. That is why I have a heavy burden to fellowship with you, without reservation, everything that I have dug out from the Bible and everything that I have enjoyed and experienced in these few decades.
After I seriously prayed and sought the Lord in His presence concerning the general subject and the outlines for these messages, the Lord told me that I should speak about His all-inclusiveness and unlimitedness. Therefore, the general subject of these messages is the all-inclusiveness and unlimitedness of Christ. The burden for these messages can be summarized by the following five statements: 1) In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 2) The riches of Christ are unsearchable; 3) His breadth, length, height, and depth are boundless; 4) He is the One who fills all in all; and 5) He gives the Spirit without measure. The Spirit is the realization and transfiguration of Christ. Thus, Christ gives the Spirit, who is Himself, without measure. He is all-inclusive and unlimited, and now He has been transfigured to become the Spirit to reach us and dispense Himself into us without measure.
We need to remember these three crucial points: He is God; He is man; and He is the Redeemer, the saving-redeeming Lord. There have been many great people in history, including thinkers, statesmen, philosophers, and others. Although everyone has the boldness to say that he is a man, can you find one who dared to say that he was God? As human beings, we are finite, yet Christ as a man is infinite. Moreover, who throughout history dared to say that he could save and redeem us and that he was the Lord? It is very interesting that when people accept nearly any religion, they almost never say that they believe in the founder of their religion as the Lord. Only the gospel preaching of Christianity tells people that to believe in Christ is to believe in Him as Lord. This is because Christ is Lord. There is no other Lord who saves in this universe; only He is Lord. Let us shout over and over that Christ is God, man, and the saving-redeeming Lord! Is it not wonderful to believe in the Lord? Are you not happy to believe in Him? Have you been deceived, or did you suffer a loss to believe in Him? No, you did not. You must say, “This is a real bargain!” Our believing in Jesus is truly a bargain. If today you spend one dollar to buy a diamond that is worth ten million dollars, is that not a bargain? However, to believe in Jesus is so much more of a bargain than this. Who is Jesus? He is God, man, and the Redeemer. Is it not wonderful that we can receive Him simply by calling on Him? Once you confess your sins and believe in Jesus, you can receive Him. Whom do you receive? You receive Christ as God, man, and the saving-redeeming Lord.
(The All-Inclusiveness and Unlimitedness of Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
