Bible Verses for Reference:
“And he said, I beseech you, show me your glory. And he said, … You can not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live” (Exo 33:18-20).
“And the LORD came down on mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and
the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And
the LORD said to Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through to the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish” (Exo 19:20-21).
“Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spoke to him” (Jhn 12:28-29).
Relevant Words of God:
God’s saving of man is not done directly through the means of the
Spirit or as the Spirit, for His Spirit can neither be touched nor seen
by man, and cannot be approached by man. If He tried to save man
directly in the manner of the Spirit, man would be unable to receive His
salvation. And if not for God putting on the outward form of a created
man, they would be unable to receive this salvation. For man can in no
way approach Him, much like how none could go near the cloud of Jehovah.
Only by becoming a man of creation, that is, putting His word into the
flesh He will become, can He personally work the word into all who
follow Him. Only then can man hear for himself His word, see His word,
and receive His word, then through this be fully saved. If God did not
become flesh, no fleshly man would receive such great salvation, nor
would a single man be saved. If the Spirit of God worked directly among
man, man would be smitten or completely carried away captive by Satan
because man is unable to associate with God.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
If God does not become flesh, He remains the Spirit both invisible
and intangible to man. Man is a creature of flesh, and man and God
belong to two different worlds and are different in nature. The Spirit
of God is incompatible with man of flesh, and no relations can be
established between them; moreover, man cannot become a spirit. As such,
the Spirit of God must become one of the creatures and do His original
work. God can both ascend to the highest place and humble Himself by
becoming a man of creation, doing work and living among man, but man
cannot ascend to the highest place and become a spirit and much less can
he descend to the lowest place. Therefore, God must become flesh to
carry out His work. Much as with the first incarnation, only the flesh
of God incarnate
could redeem man through His crucifixion, whereas it was not possible
for the Spirit of God to be crucified as a sin offering for man. God
could directly become flesh to serve as a sin offering for man, but man
could not directly ascend to heaven to take the sin offering that God
had prepared for them. As such, God must journey to and fro between
heaven and earth, rather than letting man ascend to heaven to take this
salvation, for man had fallen and could not ascend to heaven, much less
obtain the sin offering. Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus
to come among men and personally do the work that simply could not be
accomplished by man. Every time that God became flesh, it was absolutely
necessary to do so. If any of the stages could have been carried out
directly by the Spirit of God, He would not have endured the indignities
of being incarnated.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
So if this work were done by the Spirit—if God did not become flesh,
and instead the Spirit spoke directly through thunder so that man had no
way to have contact with Him, would man know His disposition? If only
the Spirit did the work, then man would have no way of knowing His
disposition. People can only behold God’s disposition with their own
eyes when He becomes flesh, when the Word appears in the flesh, and He
expresses His entire disposition through the flesh. God truly lives
among man. He is tangible; man can truly engage with His disposition and
what He has and is; only in this way can man truly know Him.
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Though God’s work in the flesh involves many unimaginable
difficulties, the effects that it ultimately achieves far exceed those
of the work done directly by the Spirit. The work of the flesh entails
much hardship, and the flesh cannot possess the same great identity as
the Spirit, cannot carry out the same supernatural deeds as the Spirit,
much less can He possess the same authority as the Spirit. Yet the
substance of the work done by this unremarkable flesh is far superior to
that of the work done directly by the Spirit, and this flesh Himself is
the answer to all of man’s needs. For those to be saved, the use value
of the Spirit is far inferior to that of the flesh: The work of the
Spirit is able to cover the entire universe, across all mountains,
rivers, lakes, and oceans, yet the work of the flesh more effectively
relates to every person with whom He has contact. What’s more, God’s
flesh with tangible form can better be understood and trusted by man,
and can further deepen man’s knowledge of God, and can leave upon man a
more profound impression of the actual deeds of God. The work of the
Spirit is shrouded in mystery, it is difficult for mortal beings to
fathom, and even harder for them to see, and so they can only rely on
hollow imaginings. The work of the flesh, however, is normal, and based
on reality, and possessed of rich wisdom, and is a fact that can be
beheld by the physical eye of man; man can personally experience the
wisdom of the work of God, and has no need to employ his bountiful
imagination. This is the accuracy and real value of the work of God in
the flesh. The Spirit can only do things that are invisible to man and
difficult for him to imagine, for example the enlightenment of the
Spirit, the moving of the Spirit, and the guidance of the Spirit, but
for man who has a mind, these do not provide any clear meaning. They
only provide a moving, or a broad meaning, and cannot give an
instruction with words. The work of God in the flesh, however, is
greatly different: It has accurate guidance of words, has clear will,
and has clear required goals. And so man does not need to grope around,
or employ his imagination, much less make guesses. This is the clarity
of the work in the flesh, and its great difference from the work of the
Spirit. The work of the Spirit is only suitable for a limited scope, and
cannot replace the work of the flesh. The work of the flesh gives man
far more exact and necessary goals and far more real, valuable knowledge
than the work of the Spirit. The work that is of greatest value to
corrupt man is that which provides accurate words, clear goals to
pursue, and which can be seen and touched. Only realistic work and
timely guidance are suited to man’s tastes, and only real work can save
man from his corrupt and depraved disposition. This can only be achieved
by the incarnate God; only the incarnate God can save man from his
formerly corrupt and depraved disposition. Although the Spirit is the
inherent substance of God, work such as this can only be done by His
flesh. If the Spirit worked single-handedly, then it would not be
possible for His work to be effective—this is a plain truth.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
For everyone who seeks the truth
and longs for the appearance of God, the Spirit’s work can only provide
moving or revelation, and a sense of wondrousness that it is
inexplicable and unimaginable, and a sense that it is great,
transcendent, and admirable, yet also unattainable and unobtainable to
all. Man and the Spirit of God can only look upon each other from afar,
as if there is a great distance between them, and they can never be
alike, as if separated by an invisible divide. In fact, this is an
illusion given to man by the Spirit, which is because the Spirit and man
are not of the same kind, and the Spirit and man shall never coexist in
the same world, and because the Spirit possesses nothing of man. So man
does not have need of the Spirit, for the Spirit cannot directly do the
work most needed by man. The work of the flesh offers man real
objectives to pursue, clear words, and a sense that He is real and
normal, that He is humble and ordinary. Although man may fear Him, for
most people He is easy to relate to: Man can behold His face, and hear
His voice, and does not need to look at Him from afar. This flesh feels
approachable to man, not distant, or unfathomable, but visible and
touchable, for this flesh is in the same world as man.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
When God had not become flesh, people did not understand much of what
He said because it came out of complete divinity. The perspective and
context of what He said was invisible and unreachable to mankind; it was
expressed from a spiritual realm that people could not see. For people
who lived in the flesh, they could not pass through the spiritual realm.
But after God became flesh, He spoke to mankind from the perspective of
humanity, and He came out of and surpassed the scope of the spiritual
realm. He could express His divine disposition, will, and attitude,
through things humans could imagine and things they saw and encountered
in their lives, and using methods that humans could accept, in a
language they could understand, and knowledge they could grasp, to allow
mankind to understand and to know God, to comprehend His intention and
His required standards within the scope of their capacity, to the degree
that they were able. This was the method and principle of God’s work in
humanity. Even though God’s ways and His principles of working in the
flesh were mostly achieved by or through humanity, it truly did achieve
results that could not be achieved by working directly in divinity.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
This was the advantage of God becoming flesh: He could take advantage
of mankind’s knowledge and use human language to speak to people, to
express His will. He explained or “translated” to man His profound,
divine language that people struggled to understand in human language,
in a human way. This helped people understand His will and know what He
wanted to do. He could also have conversations with people from the
human perspective, using human language, and communicate with people in a
way they understood. He could even speak and work using human language
and knowledge so that people could feel God’s kindness and closeness, so
that they could see His heart.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
The work done by the Spirit is implied and unfathomable, and it is
fearful and unapproachable to man; the Spirit is not suited to directly
doing the work of salvation, and is not suited to directly providing
life to man. Most suitable for man is to transform the work of the
Spirit into an approach that is close to man, which is to say, what is
most suitable for man is for God to become an ordinary, normal person to
do His work. This requires God to be incarnated to replace the work of
the Spirit, and for man, there is no more suitable way for God to work.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
If the Spirit of God directly spoke to man, they would all submit to
the voice, falling down without words of revelation, much like how Paul
fell to the ground amid the light as he journeyed to Damascus. If God
continued to work in this way, man would never be able to know his own
corruption through judgment by the word and attain salvation. Only
through becoming flesh can He personally deliver His words to the ears
of all so that all who have ears can hear His words and receive His work
of judgment by the word. Only such is the result achieved by His word,
rather than the emergence of the Spirit frightening man into submission.
Only through such practical and extraordinary work can the old
disposition of man, hidden deep within for many years, be fully revealed
so that man may recognize it and have it changed. This is the practical
work of God incarnate; He speaks and executes judgment in a practical
manner to achieve the results of judgment upon man by the word. This is
the authority of God incarnate and the significance of God’s
incarnation. … He becomes flesh because the flesh can also possess
authority, and He is capable of carrying out work among man in a
practical manner, which is visible and tangible to man. Such work is
much more realistic than any work directly done by the Spirit of God who
possesses all authority, and its results are apparent as well. This is
because His incarnate flesh can speak and do work in a practical way;
the outward form of His flesh holds no authority and can be approached
by man. His substance carries authority, but His authority is visible to
none. When He speaks and works, man is unable to detect the existence
of His authority; this is even more favorable to His actual work. And
all of such work can achieve results. Even though no man realizes that
He holds authority or sees that He cannot be offended or sees His wrath,
through His veiled authority and wrath and public speech, He achieves
the intended results of His words. In other words, through His tone of
voice, sternness of speech, and all the wisdom of His words, man is
utterly convinced. In this way, man submits to the word of God
incarnate, who seemingly has no authority, thereby attaining His aim of
salvation for man. This is another significance of His incarnation: to
speak more realistically and allow the reality of His words to have an
effect upon man so that they witness the power of the word of God. So
this work, if not done through incarnation, would not achieve the
slightest results and would not be able to fully save sinners.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Because the one who is judged is man, man who is of the flesh and has
been corrupted, and it is not the spirit of Satan that is judged
directly, the work of judgment is not carried out in the spiritual
world, but among man. No one is more suitable, and qualified, than God
in the flesh for the work of judging the corruption of man’s flesh. If
judgment were carried out directly by the Spirit of God, then it would
not be all-embracing. Furthermore, such work would be difficult for man
to accept, for the Spirit is unable to come face-to-face with man, and
because of this, the effects would not be immediate, much less would man
be able to behold the unoffendable disposition of God more clearly.
Satan can only be fully defeated if God in the flesh judges the
corruption of mankind. … If this work were done by the Spirit of God,
then it would not be victory over Satan. The Spirit is inherently more
exalted than mortal beings, and the Spirit of God is inherently holy,
and triumphant over the flesh. If the Spirit did this work directly, He
would not be able to judge all of man’s disobedience, and could not
reveal all of man’s unrighteousness. For the work of judgment is also
carried out through man’s conceptions of God, and man has never had any
conceptions of the Spirit, and so the Spirit is incapable of better
revealing the unrighteousness of man, much less of completely disclosing
such unrighteousness. The incarnate God is the enemy of all those who
do not know Him. Through judging man’s conceptions and opposition to
Him, He discloses all the disobedience of mankind. The effects of His
work in the flesh are more apparent than those of the work of the
Spirit. And so, the judgment of all mankind is not carried out directly
by the Spirit, but is the work of the incarnate God. God in the flesh
can be seen and touched by man, and God in the flesh can completely
conquer man. In his relationship with God in the flesh, man progresses
from opposition to obedience, from persecution to acceptance, from
conception to knowledge, and from rejection to love. These are the
effects of the work of the incarnate God. Man is only saved through the
acceptance of His judgment, only gradually comes to know Him through the
words of His mouth, is conquered by Him during his opposition to Him,
and receives the life supply from Him during the acceptance of His
chastisement. All of this work is the work of God in the flesh, and not
the work of God in His identity as the Spirit.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Yet there is one truth that you do not know: The corrupt disposition
and rebellion and resistance of man are exposed when he sees Christ, and
the rebellion and resistance exposed on such occasion are more absolute
and complete than on any other. It is because Christ is the Son of man
and possesses normal humanity that man neither honors nor respects Him.
It is because God lives in the flesh that the rebellion of man is
brought to light thoroughly and vividly. So I say that the coming of
Christ has unearthed all the rebellion of mankind and has thrown the
nature of mankind into sharp relief. This is called “luring a tiger down
the mountain” and “luring a wolf out of the cave.”
from “Those Incompatible With Christ Are Surely Opponents of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The conceptions of man are laid bare when the incarnate God
officially does His work, because the normality and reality of the
incarnate God is the antithesis of the vague and supernatural God in
man’s imagination. The original conceptions of man can only be revealed
through their contrast to the incarnate God. Without the comparison to
the incarnate God, the conceptions of man could not be revealed; in
other words, without the contrast of reality the vague things could not
be revealed. No one is capable of using words to do this work, and no
one is capable of articulating this work using words. Only God Himself
can do His own work, and no one else can do this work on His behalf. No
matter how rich the language of man is, he is incapable of articulating
the reality and normality of God. Man can only know God more
practically, and can only see Him more clearly, if God personally works
among man and completely shows forth His image and His being. This
effect cannot be achieved by any fleshly man. Of course, God’s Spirit is
also incapable of achieving this effect. God can save corrupt man from
the influence of Satan, but this work cannot be directly accomplished by
the Spirit of God; rather, it can only be done by the flesh God’s
Spirit wears, by God’s incarnate flesh.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The best thing about His work in the flesh is that He can leave
accurate words and exhortations, and His accurate will for mankind to
those who follow Him, so that afterward His followers can more
accurately and more concretely pass on all of His work in the flesh and
His will for the whole of mankind to those who accept this way. Only the
work of God in the flesh among man truly accomplishes the fact of God’s
being and living together with man. Only this work fulfills man’s
desire to behold the face of God, witness the work of God, and hear the
personal word of God. The incarnate God brings to an end the age when
only the back of Jehovah appeared to mankind, and also concludes the age
of mankind’s belief in the vague God. In particular, the work of the
last incarnate God brings all mankind into an age that is more
realistic, more practical, and more pleasant. He not only concludes the
age of law and doctrine; more importantly, He reveals to mankind a God
who is real and normal, who is righteous and holy, who unlocks the work
of the management plan and demonstrates the mysteries and destination of
mankind, who created mankind and brings to an end the management work,
and who has remained hidden for thousands of years. He brings the age of
vagueness to a complete end, He concludes the age in which the whole of
mankind wished to seek God’s face but was unable to, He ends the age in
which the whole of mankind served Satan, and leads the whole of mankind
all the way into a completely new era. All this is the outcome of the
work of God in the flesh instead of God’s Spirit. When God works in His
flesh, those who follow Him no longer seek and grope after those vague
and ambiguous things, and cease to guess at the will of the vague God.
When God spreads His work in the flesh, those who follow Him shall pass
on the work that He has done in the flesh to all denominations and
sects, and they shall communicate all of His words to the ears of the
whole of mankind. All that is heard by those who receive His gospel
shall be the facts of His work, shall be things personally seen and
heard by man, and shall be facts and not hearsay. These facts are the
evidence with which He spreads the work, and are also the tools that He
uses in spreading the work. Without the existence of facts, His gospel
would not spread across all countries and to all places; without facts
but only with man’s imaginations, He would never be able to do the work
of conquering the entire universe. The Spirit is impalpable to man, and
invisible to man, and the work of the Spirit is incapable of leaving any
further evidence or facts of God’s work for man. Man shall never behold
the real face of God, and shall always believe in a vague God that does
not exist. Man shall never behold the face of God, nor will man ever
hear words personally spoken by God. Man’s imaginings are, after all,
empty, and cannot replace the true face of God; the inherent disposition
of God, and the work of God Himself cannot be impersonated by man. The
invisible God in heaven and His work can only be brought to earth by God
incarnate who personally does His work among man. This is the most
ideal way in which God appears to man, in which man sees God and comes
to know the true face of God, and it cannot be achieved by a
non-incarnate God.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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