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When you look in the manger you see God starting over
with Adam; not just a baby but Emmanuel. Do you know what
Emmanuel means? It means “God with us”. This is man as
God intended man to be. God is back in the man! He’s the
God-man. The Lord Jesus is God with us!
So, now God says, “Let me show you what it looks like
to be a man as I planned man to be.” Man had lost his
connection, his union with God. God sent His Son to live as a
man, as God intended man to be. I want to show you what that
looks like from the lips of Jesus; His own testimony. This is
what it looked like when Christ lived as God intended man to
live.

I want to start with John 17:22&23, “And the glory
which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may
be one, just as We are One; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they
may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou
didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love
Me.” When He prayed that prayer, He was only hours from
going to the cross. He’s thanking His Father for the provision
that He had to live on earth. He describes it by saying, “You
gave me glory. The glory you gave Me, I give them.” What
glory is that? It’s not His essential glory. In eternity, He is God.
He was glorified. The Father didn’t give Him that. He’s had
that glory; He’s God.
Let me illustrate this. Revelation 21:23, “And the city
has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the
glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” Why
doesn’t heaven need the light of the sun and of the moon? It’s
because Christ went back to heaven and got the glory that He
used to have. Let me ask this question, when Jesus lived on the
earth, did we need the sun and the moon? The answer is yes
because He set aside the manifestation of that glory.

But there is another glory which enabled Him to live
like a man. John 17:21 explains what that glory is, “...that they
may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee,
that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that
Thou didst send Me.” The same truth is in John 17:23, “I in