1. The meaning of incarnation is that God appears
in the flesh, and He comes to work among man of His creation in the
image of a flesh. So, for God to be incarnated, He must first be flesh,
flesh with normal humanity; this, at the very least, must be true. In
fact, the implication of God’s incarnation is that God lives and works
in the flesh, God in His very essence becomes flesh, becomes a man.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
2. God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that
can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive
about this, for He possesses the substance of God, and possesses God’s
disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. Those
who call themselves Christ, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds.
Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but instead, the
particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His
work among man. This flesh is not one that can be replaced by just any
man, but one that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express
the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with
life. Sooner or later, those fake Christs will all fall, for although
they claim to be Christ, they possess none of the substance of Christ.
And so I say that the authenticity of Christ cannot be defined by man,
but is answered and decided by God Himself.
from “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
3. The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh
donned by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of
the flesh. This difference is because Christ is not of flesh and blood
but is the incarnation of the Spirit. He has both a normal humanity and a
complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal
humanity sustains all His normal activities in the flesh, while His
divinity carries out the work of God Himself. Be it His humanity or
divinity, both submit to the will of the heavenly Father. The substance
of Christ is the Spirit, that is, the divinity. Therefore, His substance
is that of God Himself; this substance will not interrupt His own work,
and He could not possibly do anything that destroys His own work, nor
would He ever utter any words that go against His own will.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
4. Because He is a man with the essence of God, He is above
any of created humans, above any man who can perform God’s work. And so,
among all those with a human shell like His, among all those who
possess humanity, only He is the incarnate God Himself—all others are
created humans. Though they all have humanity, created humans are
nothing but human, while God incarnate is different: In His flesh He not
only has humanity but more importantly has divinity. His humanity can
be seen in the outer appearance of His flesh and in His everyday life,
but His divinity is difficult to perceive. Because His divinity is
expressed only when He has humanity, and is not as supernatural as
people imagine it to be, it is extremely difficult for people to see.
Even today it is most difficult for people to fathom the true essence of
the incarnate God. In fact, even after I have spoken about it at such
length, I expect it is still a mystery to most of you. This issue is
very simple: Since God becomes flesh, His essence is a combination of
humanity and divinity. This combination is called God Himself, God
Himself on earth.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
5. The words spoken by God’s incarnate flesh are the direct
expression of the Spirit and express the work that has been done by the
Spirit. The flesh has not experienced or seen it, but still expresses
His being because the substance of the flesh is the Spirit, and He
expresses the work of the Spirit. Even though the flesh is unable to
reach it, it is the work already done by the Spirit. After incarnation,
through the expression of the flesh, He enables people to know God’s
being and allows people to see God’s disposition and the work that He
has done.
from “God’s Work and Man’s Work” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
6. Given that God becomes flesh, He realizes His substance
within His flesh, such that His flesh is sufficient to undertake His
work. Therefore, all the work of God’s Spirit is replaced by the work of
Christ during the time of incarnation, and at the core of all work
throughout the time of incarnation is the work of Christ. It cannot be
commingled with work from any other age. And since God becomes flesh, He
works in the identity of His flesh; since He comes in the flesh, He
then finishes in the flesh the work that He ought to do. Be it the
Spirit of God or be it Christ, both are God Himself, and He does the
work that He ought to do and performs the ministry that He ought to
perform.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
7. As God works in the flesh, He never loses sight of the duty
that a man in the flesh ought to fulfill; He is able to worship God in
heaven with a true heart. He has the substance of God, and His identity
is that of God Himself. It is only that He has come to earth and become a
created being, with the exterior shell of a created being, and now
possessed of a humanity that He did not have before; He is able to
worship God in heaven. This is the being of God Himself and is
inimitable to man. His identity is God Himself. It is from the
perspective of the flesh that He worships God; therefore, the words
“Christ worships God in heaven” are not in error. What He asks of man is
precisely His own being; He has already achieved all that He asks of
man prior to asking such of them. He would never make demands of others
while He Himself gets free from them, for this all constitutes His
being.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
8. God Himself has no elements of disobedience; His substance
is good. He is the expression of all beauty and goodness, as well as all
love. Even in the flesh, God does not do any that disobeys God the
Father. Even at the expense of sacrificing His life, He would be
whole-heartedly willing and make no other choice. God has no elements of
self-rightness and self-importance, or those of conceit and arrogance;
He has no elements of crookedness. All that disobeys God comes from
Satan; Satan is the source of all ugliness and wickedness. The reason
that man has qualities alike those of Satan is because man has been
corrupted and worked on by Satan. Christ has not been corrupted by
Satan, hence He has only the characteristics of God and none of those of
Satan. No matter how arduous the work or weak the flesh, God, while He
lives in the flesh, will never do anything that interrupts the work of
God Himself, much less forsake the will of God the Father in
disobedience. He would rather suffer pains of the flesh than go against
the will of God the Father; it is just as Jesus said in prayer, “Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I
will, but as You will.” Man will choose, but Christ would not. Though He
has the identity of God Himself, He still seeks the will of God the
Father, and fulfills what is entrusted to Him by God the Father, from
the perspective of the flesh. This is something that is unattainable to
man.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
9. The substance of God itself wields authority, but He is
able to fully submit to the authority that comes from Him. Be it the
work of the Spirit or the work of the flesh, neither conflicts with the
other. The Spirit of God is the authority over all creation. The flesh
with the substance of God is also possessed of authority, but God in the
flesh can do all the work that obeys the will of the heavenly Father.
This cannot be attained or conceived by any man. God Himself is
authority, but His flesh can submit to His authority. This is the inner
meaning of the words: “Christ obeys the will of God the Father.”
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
10. The work and expression of Christ determines His
substance. He is able to complete with a true heart that which has been
entrusted to Him. He is able to worship God in heaven with a true heart,
and with a true heart seek the will of God the Father. This is all
determined by His substance. And so too is His natural revelation
determined by His substance; the reason His natural revelation is so
called is because His expression is not an imitation, or the result of
education by man, or the result of many years of cultivation by man. He
did not learn it or adorn Himself with it; rather, it is inherent within
Him.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
11. God becomes flesh only to complete the work of the flesh,
not simply to allow all men to see Him. Rather, He lets His work affirm
His identity, and allows what He reveals to attest to His substance. His
substance is not baseless; His identity was not seized by His hand; it
is determined by His work and His substance.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
12. Although the appearance of God incarnate is exactly the
same as a human, He learns human knowledge and speaks human language,
and sometimes He even expresses His ideas through mankind’s means or
expressions, the way He sees humans, the essence of things, and the way
corrupt people see mankind and the essence of things are absolutely not
the same. His perspective and the height at which He stands is something
unattainable for a corrupt person. This is because God is truth, the
flesh that He wears also possesses the essence of God, and His thoughts
and that which is expressed by His humanity are also the truth. … No
matter how ordinary, how normal, how lowly God’s incarnate flesh is, or
even how much people look down on Him, His thoughts and His attitude
toward mankind are things that no man could possess, and no man could
imitate. He will always observe mankind from the perspective of
divinity, from the height of His position as the Creator. He will always
see mankind through the essence and the mindset of God. He absolutely
cannot see mankind from the height of an average person, and from the
perspective of a corrupt person. When people look at mankind, they look
with human vision, and they use things such as human knowledge and human
rules and theories as a measure. This is within the scope of what
people can see with their eyes; it’s within the scope that corrupt
people can achieve. When God looks at mankind, He looks with divine
vision, and He uses His essence and what He has and is as a measure.
This scope includes things that people cannot see, and this is where God
incarnate and corrupt humans are entirely different. This difference is
determined by humans’ and God’s different essences, and it is these
different essences that determine their identities and positions as well
as the perspective and height from which they see things.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
13. The divinity of Christ is above all men, therefore He is
the highest authority of all created beings. This authority is His
divinity, that is, the disposition and being of God Himself, which
determines His identity. Therefore, no matter how normal His humanity,
it is undeniable that He has the identity of God Himself; no matter from
which standpoint He speaks and howsoever He obeys the will of God, it
cannot be said that He is not God Himself.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
14. The flesh worn by the Spirit of God is God’s own flesh.
The Spirit of God is supreme; He is almighty, holy, and righteous. So
likewise, His flesh is also supreme, almighty, holy, and righteous.
Flesh such as that is only able to do that which is righteous and
beneficial to mankind, that which is holy, glorious, and mighty, and is
incapable of doing anything that violates the truth or morality and
justice, much less anything that betrays God’s Spirit.
from “A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
15. Because God is holy and pure, and real and actual, His
flesh comes from the Spirit. This is definite, and beyond doubt. Not
only being able to bear testimony to God Himself, but also being able to
completely carry out God’s will: this is one side of God’s substance.
That the flesh comes from the Spirit with an image means that the flesh
with which the Spirit clothes Himself is essentially different to the
flesh of man, and this difference primarily lies in their spirit. What
the Spirit with an image refers to is how, as a result of being covered
by normal humanity, the divinity is able to work normally within, which
is not the least bit supernatural, and is not limited by humanity. The
“image of the Spirit” refers to complete divinity, and is not limited by
humanity. As such, God’s inherent disposition and true image can be
completely lived out in the incarnate flesh, which is not only normal
and stable, but with majesty and wrath.
from “Interpretation of the Ninth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
16. His incarnate life and work can be divided into two
stages. First is the life He lives before performing His ministry. He
lives in an ordinary human family, in utterly normal humanity, obeying
the normal morals and laws of human life, with normal human needs (food,
clothing, shelter, sleep), normal human weaknesses, and normal human
emotions. In other words, during this first stage He lives in
non-divine, completely normal humanity, engaging in all the normal human
activities. The second stage is the life He lives after beginning to
perform His ministry. He still dwells in the ordinary humanity with a
normal human shell, showing no outward sign of the supernatural. Yet He
lives purely for the sake of His ministry, and during this time His
normal humanity exists entirely in service of the normal work of His
divinity; for by then His normal humanity has matured to the point of
being able to perform His ministry. So the second stage of His life is
to perform His ministry in His normal humanity, is a life both of normal
humanity and of complete divinity.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
17. The significance of incarnation is that an ordinary,
normal man performs the work of God Himself; that is, that God performs
His divine work in humanity and thereby vanquishes Satan. Incarnation
means that God’s Spirit becomes a flesh, that is, God becomes flesh; the
work that He does in the flesh is the work of the Spirit, which is
realized in the flesh, expressed by the flesh. No one except God’s flesh
can fulfill the ministry of the incarnate God; that is, only God’s
incarnate flesh, this normal humanity—and no one else—can express the
divine work. If, during His first coming, God had not had the normal
humanity before the age of twenty-nine—if as soon as He was born He
could work miracles, if as soon as He learned to speak He could speak
the language of heaven, if the moment He first set foot upon the earth
He could apprehend all worldly matters, discern every person’s thoughts
and intentions—then He could not have been called a normal man, and His
flesh could not have been called human flesh. If this had been the case
with Christ, then the meaning and the essence of God’s incarnation would
have been lost. That He possessed normal humanity proves that He was
God incarnated in the flesh; the fact that He underwent a normal human
growth process further demonstrates that He was a normal flesh; and
moreover, His work is sufficient proof that He was God’s Word, God’s
Spirit, becoming flesh. God becomes flesh because of the needs of the
work; in other words, this stage of work needs to be done in the flesh,
done in normal humanity. This is the prerequisite for “the Word becoming
flesh,” for “the Word appearing in the flesh,” and is the true story
behind God’s two incarnations.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
18. All throughout the thirty-three and a half years that
Jesus lived on earth, He retained His normal humanity, but because of
His work during His three-and-a-half-year ministry, people thought that
He was very transcendent, that He was much more supernatural than
before. In actuality, Jesus’ normal humanity remained unchanged before
and after He began His ministry; His humanity was the same throughout,
but because of the difference before and after He began His ministry,
two different views emerged concerning His flesh. No matter what people
thought, God incarnate retained His original, normal humanity the entire
time, for since God was incarnated, He lived in the flesh, the flesh
that had normal humanity. Regardless of whether He was performing His
ministry or not, the normal humanity of His flesh could not be erased,
for humanity is the basic essence of flesh.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
19. His humanity exists for the sake of His corporeal essence;
there can be no flesh without humanity, and a person without humanity
is not a human being. In this way, the humanity of God’s flesh is an
intrinsic property of God’s incarnate flesh. To say that “when God
becomes flesh He is entirely divine, is not at all human,” is a
blasphemy, because this is an impossible stance to take, one that
violates the principle of incarnation. Even after He begins to perform
His ministry, His divinity still inhabits the human outer shell when He
does His work; it is just that at the time, His humanity serves the sole
purpose of allowing His divinity to perform the work in the normal
flesh. So the agent of the work is the divinity inhabiting His humanity.
It is His divinity, not His humanity, at work, yet it is a divinity
hidden within His humanity; His work is in essence done by His complete
divinity, not by His humanity. But the performer of the work is His
flesh. One could say that He is a man and also is God, for God becomes a
God living in the flesh, with a human shell and a human essence but
also the essence of God.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
20. When God worked in humanity, many of His methods, words,
and truths were all expressed in a human way. But at the same time God’s
disposition, what He has and is, and His will were expressed for people
to know and understand them. What they knew and understood was exactly
His essence and what He has and is, which represent the inherent
identity and status of God Himself. That is to say, the Son of man in
the flesh expressed the inherent disposition and essence of God Himself
to the greatest extent possible and as accurately as possible. Not only
was the Son of man’s humanity not a hindrance or a barrier to man’s
communication and interaction with God in heaven, but it was actually
the only channel and the only bridge for mankind to connect to the Lord
of creation.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
21. God’s appearance in the flesh means that all of the work
and words of the Spirit of God are done through His normal humanity, and
through His incarnate flesh. In other words, God’s Spirit both directs
His human work and carries out the work of divinity in the flesh, and in
God incarnate you can see both God’s work in humanity and completely
divine work; this is the real significance of the practical God’s
appearance in the flesh. If you can see this clearly, you will be able
to connect all of the different parts of God, and will cease to place
too much of a premium on His work in divinity, and to be too dismissive
of His work in humanity, and you will not go to extremes, nor take any
detours. Overall, the meaning of the practical God is that the work of
His humanity and of His divinity, as directed by the Spirit, is
expressed through His flesh, so that people can see that He is vivid and
lifelike, and real and actual.
from “You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
22. The incarnate Son of man expressed God’s divinity through
His humanity and conveyed the will of God to mankind. And through the
expression of God’s will and disposition, He also revealed to people the
God that cannot be seen or touched in the spiritual realm. What people
saw was God Himself, tangible and with flesh and bones. So the incarnate
Son of man made things such as God’s own identity, status, image,
disposition, and what He has and is concrete and humanized. Even though
the external appearance of the Son of man had some limitations regarding
the image of God, His essence and what He has and is were entirely able
to represent God’s own identity and status—there were merely some
differences in the form of expression. No matter whether it’s the Son of
man’s humanity or His divinity, we cannot deny that He represented
God’s own identity and status. During this time, however, God worked
through the flesh, spoke from the perspective of the flesh, and stood in
front of mankind with the identity and status of the Son of man, and
this gave people the opportunity to encounter and experience the true
words and work of God among mankind. It also allowed people insight into
His divinity and His greatness in the midst of humility, as well as to
gain a preliminary understanding and a preliminary definition of the
authenticity and the reality of God.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
23. When God comes to the earth, He only does the work of
divinity. This is the heavenly Spirit’s commission to the incarnate God.
He comes only to go everywhere and speak, to utter His voice in
different methods and from different perspectives. He primarily holds
supplying man and teaching man as His goals and working principle. He
does not concern Himself with such things as interpersonal relationships
or the details of people’s lives. His main ministry is to speak for the
Spirit. When God’s Spirit appears in the flesh tangibly, He only
provides for man’s life and releases the truth. He does not get involved
in man’s work, that is, He does not participate in the work of
humanity.
from “The Essential Difference Between the Incarnate God and People Used by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
24. 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.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
25. When God became flesh, when He appeared in the form of a
man, He used a very appropriate metaphor to express the voice of His
heart in humanity. This voice represented God’s own voice and the work
He wanted to do in that age. It also represented an attitude that God
had toward people in the Age of Grace. Looking from the perspective of
God’s attitude toward people, He compared each person to a sheep. If a
sheep is lost, He will do whatever it takes to find it. This represents a
principle of God’s work among mankind this time in the flesh. God used
this parable to describe His resolve and attitude in that work. 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
26. He comes to the earth not to live a normal human life. He
does not first establish a normal human life and then begin working.
Rather, as long as He is born into a normal human family, He is able to
do divine work. He does not pull in even a bit of man’s ideas; He is not
fleshly, and He certainly does not adopt the ways of society or get
involved in man’s thoughts or notions, much less connect with man’s
philosophies of human conduct. This is the work that God incarnate wants
to do and the practical significance of His incarnation.
from “The Essential Difference Between the Incarnate God and People Used by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
27. The flesh of God incarnate too was knowledgeable and had
no lack of intellect, but His humanity was particularly normal. He was
an ordinary man, and the naked eye could not discern any special
humanity about Him or detect anything in His humanity unlike that of
others. He was not at all supernatural or unique, and He did not possess
any higher education, knowledge, or theory. The life He spoke of and
the path He led were not gained through theory, through knowledge,
through life experience, or through family upbringing. Rather, they were
the direct work of the Spirit and of the incarnate flesh.
from “The Difference Between the Ministry of the Incarnate God and the Duty of Man” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
28. The humanity of God incarnate exists to maintain the
normal divine work in the flesh; His normal human thinking sustains His
normal humanity and all His normal corporeal activities. One could say
that His normal human thinking exists in order to sustain all the work
of God in the flesh. If this flesh did not possess a normal human mind,
then God could not work in the flesh, and what He needs to do in the
flesh could never be accomplished. Though the incarnate God possesses a
normal human mind, His work is not adulterated by human thought; He
undertakes the work in the humanity with a normal mind, under the
precondition that He possesses the humanity with a mind, not by the
exercise of normal human thought. No matter how lofty the thoughts of
His flesh are, His work does not bear the stamp of logic or thinking. In
other words, His work is not conceived by the mind of His flesh, but is
a direct expression of the divine work in His humanity. All of His work
is the ministry He needs to fulfill, and none of it is conceived by His
brain.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
29. The humanity of Christ is governed by His divinity. Though
He is in the flesh, His humanity is not entirely like that of a man of
the flesh. He has His own unique character, and this too is governed by
His divinity. His divinity has no weakness; the weakness of Christ
refers to that of His humanity. To a certain degree, this weakness
constrains His divinity, but such limits are within a certain scope and
time, and are not boundless. When it comes time to carry out the work of
His divinity, it is done regardless of His humanity.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
30. The humanity of Christ is entirely directed by His
divinity. Aside from the normal life of His humanity, all other actions
of His humanity are influenced, affected and directed by His divinity.
Though Christ has a humanity, it does not disrupt the work of His
divinity. This is precisely because the humanity of Christ is directed
by His divinity; though His humanity is not mature in His conduct before
others, it does not affect the normal work of His divinity. When I say
that His humanity has not been corrupted, I mean that the humanity of
Christ can be directly directed by His divinity, and that He is
possessed of a higher sense than that of the ordinary man. His humanity
is most suited to being directed by the divinity in His work; His
humanity is ablest to express the work of the divinity, as well as
ablest to submit to such work.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
31. He comes to earth with the primary objective of carrying
out work; it is imperative to be possessed of a normal humanity to carry
out work on earth; otherwise, however great the power of His divinity,
its original function cannot be put to good use. Though His humanity is
of great importance, it is not His substance. His substance is the
divinity; therefore, the moment He begins to perform His ministry on
earth is the moment He begins to express the being of His divinity. His
humanity is solely to sustain the normal life of His flesh so that His
divinity can carry out work as normal in the flesh; it is the divinity
that directs His work entirely.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
32. God is a Spirit and can do the work of salvation, as can
God become man. Anyway, God Himself does His own work; He neither
interrupts nor interferes, much less carries out work that is mutually
conflicting, for the substance of the work done by the Spirit and the
flesh are alike. Be it the Spirit or the flesh, both work to fulfill one
will and to manage the same work. Though the Spirit and the flesh have
two disparate qualities, their substances are the same; both have the
substance of God Himself, and the identity of God Himself.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
33. His work in humanity is directed by the Spirit, and in
order to satisfy people’s fleshly needs, to facilitate their engagement
with Him, to allow them to behold the reality and normality of God, and
to allow them to see that the Spirit of God has come in the flesh, and
is among man, lives together with man, and engages with man. His work in
divinity is in order to provide the life of people, and guide people in
everything from the positive side, changing people’s dispositions and
allowing them to truly behold the Spirit’s appearance in the flesh.
from “You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
34. The Spirit of God’s work in humanity has transitional
phases. By making humanity perfect, He enables His humanity to receive
the direction of the Spirit, after which His humanity is able to provide
and shepherd the churches. This is one expression of God’s normal work.
Thus, if you can see clearly the principles of God’s work in humanity,
then you will be unlikely to have conceptions about God’s work in
humanity. Regardless of anything else, the Spirit of God cannot be
wrong. He is right, and without error; He would not do anything
incorrectly. Divine work is the direct expression of the will of God,
without the interference of humanity. It does not undergo perfection,
but comes directly from the Spirit. And yet, that He can work in
divinity is because of His normal humanity; it is not in the least bit
supernatural, and appears to be carried out by a normal person; God came
from heaven to earth primarily in order to express the words of God
through the flesh, to complete the work of the Spirit of God using the
flesh.
from “You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
35. Whatever the age or place in which God is incarnated, the
principles for His work in the flesh remain unchanging. He cannot become
flesh yet transcend the flesh to work; moreover, He cannot become flesh
yet not work within the normal humanity of the flesh. Otherwise, the
significance of God’s incarnation would dissolve into nothing, and the
Word become flesh would become entirely meaningless. Moreover, only the
Father in heaven (the Spirit) knows of God’s incarnation, and none
other, not even the flesh Himself or the messengers of heaven. As such,
God’s work in the flesh is even more normal and better able to
demonstrate that indeed the Word becomes flesh; the flesh means an
ordinary and normal man.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
36. When God became flesh, He brought along with that a stage
of His work—He brought along the specific work and the disposition He
wanted to express in this age. In that period, everything that the Son
of man did revolved around the work that God wanted to carry out in this
age. He would do no more and no less. Every single thing He said and
every type of work that He carried out was all related to this age.
Regardless of whether He expressed it in a human way with human language
or through divine language—no matter which way, or from which
perspective—His goal was to help people understand what He wanted to do,
what His will was, and what His requirements of people were. He might
use various means from different perspectives to help people understand
and know His will, understand His work of saving mankind.
from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III” in Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh
37. And it is as a complete flesh that the second incarnate
God performs the conquering work and defeats Satan. Only a flesh that is
completely normal and real can perform the conquering work in its
entirety and make a forceful testimony. That is to say, the work of[a]
conquering man is made effective through the reality and normality of
God in the flesh, not through supernatural miracles and revelations. The
ministry of this incarnate God is to speak, and thereby to conquer and
perfect man; in other words, the work of the Spirit realized in the
flesh, the flesh’s duty, is to speak and thereby conquer, reveal,
perfect, and eliminate man completely.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
38. God becomes flesh expressly for the purpose of ushering in
a new age, and, of course, when He ushers in a new age, He has
concluded the former age at the same time. God is the Beginning and the
End; it is He Himself who sets His work in motion and so it must be He
Himself who concludes the former age. That is the proof that He defeats
Satan and conquers the world. Each time He Himself works among man, it
is the beginning of a new battle. Without the beginning of new work,
there would naturally be no conclusion of the old. And no conclusion of
the old is proof that the battle with Satan has yet to come to a close.
Only if God Himself comes and carries out new work among man can man
fully break free of the domain of Satan and gain a new life and new
beginning. Otherwise, man shall forever live in the old age and forever
live under the old influence of Satan.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
39. God became flesh because the object of His work is not the
spirit of Satan, or any incorporeal thing, but man, who is of the flesh
and has been corrupted by Satan. It is precisely because the flesh of
man has been corrupted that God has made fleshly man the object of His
work; moreover, because man is the object of corruption, He has made man
the only object of His work throughout all the stages of His salvation
work. Man is a mortal being, is of flesh and blood, and God is the only
One who can save man. In this way, God must become a flesh that
possesses the same attributes as man in order to do His work, so that
His work might achieve better effects. God must become flesh to do His
work precisely because man is of the flesh, and incapable of overcoming
sin or divesting himself of the flesh.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
40. The flesh of man has been corrupted by Satan, and most
deeply blinded, and profoundly harmed. The most fundamental reason why
God works personally in the flesh is because the object of His salvation
is man, who is of the flesh, and because Satan also uses the flesh of
man to disturb the work of God. The battle with Satan is actually the
work of conquering man, and at the same time, man is also the object of
God’s salvation. In this way, the work of God incarnate is essential.
Satan corrupted the flesh of man, and man became the embodiment of
Satan, and became the object to be defeated by God. In this way, the
work of doing battle with Satan and saving mankind occurs on earth, and
God must become human in order to do battle with Satan. This is work of
the utmost practicality.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
41. The flesh of man has been most profoundly corrupted, and
it has become something which opposes God, which even openly opposes and
denies the existence of God. This corrupt flesh is simply too
intractable, and nothing is more difficult to deal with or change than
the corrupt disposition of the flesh. Satan comes into the flesh of man
to stir up disturbance, and uses the flesh of man to disturb the work of
God, and impair the plan of God, and thus man has become Satan, and the
enemy of God. For man to be saved, he must first be conquered. It is
because of this that God rises to the challenge and comes into the flesh
to do the work He intends to do, and do battle with Satan. His aim is
the salvation of mankind, who has been corrupted, and the defeat and
annihilation of Satan, which rebels against Him. He defeats Satan
through His work of conquering man, and simultaneously saves corrupt
mankind. Thus, God solves two problems at once.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
42. When God is working in the flesh, He is actually doing
battle with Satan in the flesh. When He works in the flesh, He is doing
His work in the spiritual realm, and makes the whole of His work in the
spiritual realm real on earth. The one who is conquered is man, who is
disobedient to Him, the one who is defeated is the embodiment of Satan
(of course, this is also man), who is in enmity of Him, and the one who
is ultimately saved is also man. In this way, it is even more necessary
for Him to become a man who has the outer shell of a creature, so that
He is able to do real battle with Satan, conquering man, who is
disobedient to Him and possessed of the same outer shell as Him, and
saving man, who is of the same outer shell as Him and has been harmed by
Satan. His enemy is man, the object of His conquest is man, and the
object of His salvation is man, who was created by Him. So He must
become man, and in this way, His work becomes much easier. He is able to
defeat Satan and conquer mankind, and, moreover, is able to save
mankind.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
43. 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
44. 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.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
45. 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
46. 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.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
47. 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.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
48. 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. Among these three stages of work, two stages are carried out by
the flesh, and these two stages are the key phases of the management
work. The two incarnations are mutually complementary and perfect each
other. The first stage of God’s incarnation laid the foundation for the
second stage, and it can be said that the two incarnations of God form
one whole, and are not incompatible with each other. These two stages of
God’s work are carried out by God in His incarnate identity because
they are so important to the entire management work. It could almost be
said that, without the work of the two incarnations of God, the entire
management work would have ground to a halt, and the work of saving
mankind would be nothing but empty talk.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
49. In the three stages of God’s work, only one stage was
carried out directly by the Spirit, and the remaining two stages are
carried out by the incarnate God, and not directly by the Spirit. The
work of the law done by the Spirit did not involve changing the corrupt
disposition of man, and neither did it bear any relation to man’s
knowledge of God. The work of God’s flesh in the Age of Grace and the
Age of Kingdom, however, involves man’s corrupt disposition and his
knowledge of God, and is an important and crucial part of the work of
salvation. Therefore, corrupt mankind is more in need of the salvation
of the incarnate God, and is more in need of the direct work of the
incarnate God. Mankind needs the incarnate God to shepherd him, support
him, water him, feed him, judge and chastise him, and he needs more
grace and greater redemption from the incarnate God. Only God in the
flesh can be the confidant of man, the shepherd of man, the very present
help of man, and all of this is the necessity of incarnation today and
in times past.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
50. 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
51. 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. Being the same as man possessed of normal
humanity, God in the flesh can directly judge the unrighteousness of
man; this is the mark of His innate holiness, and of His
extraordinariness. Only God is qualified to, and in the position to
judge man, for He is possessed of the truth, and righteousness, and so
He is able to judge man. Those who are without the truth and
righteousness are not fit to judge others.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
52. 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.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
53. For all of those who live in the flesh, changing their
disposition requires goals to pursue, and knowing God requires
witnessing the real deeds and the real face of God. Both can only be
achieved by God’s incarnate flesh, and both can only be accomplished by
the normal and real flesh. This is why the incarnation is necessary, and
why it is needed by all corrupt mankind.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
54. 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
55. This is because the aim of My incarnation is chiefly to
allow all those who believe in Me to behold the deeds of My divinity in
the flesh, and to see the practical God Himself, thus dispelling the
invisible and intangible God’s place in people’s hearts. Because I eat,
clothe Myself, sleep, dwell, and act like a normal person, because I
speak and laugh as a normal person, and have the needs of a normal
person, and also possess the substance of full divinity, I am called
“the practical God.”
from “Addendum 1: The First Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
56. God’s arrival in the flesh is primarily to enable people
to see the real deeds of God, to materialize the formless Spirit in the
flesh, and allow people to see and touch Him. In this way, those who are
made complete by Him will live Him out, they will be gained by Him, and
after His heart. If God only spoke in heaven, and did not actually come
on earth, then people would still be incapable of knowing God, they
would only be able to preach God’s deeds using empty theory, and would
not have God’s words as reality. God has come on earth primarily to act
as an exemplar and a model for those who are to be gained by God; only
in this way can people actually know God, and touch God, and see Him,
and only then can they truly be gained by God.
from “You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
57. 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.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
58. 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.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
59. 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
60. God becomes flesh only when He has to, and always with
unique significance. If it was only to allow man to have a look at Him
and open their eyes, then He would, with absolute certainty, never come
among men so frivolously. He comes unto earth for His management and His
greater work, and for Him to be able to obtain more men. He comes to
represent the age and to defeat Satan, and it is within a flesh that He
comes to defeat Satan. Moreover, He comes to lead all mankind in their
lives. All of this concerns His management, and is work that concerns
all the universe. If God became flesh merely to allow man to come to
know His flesh and to open the eyes of man, then why would He not travel
to every nation? Is this not a matter of exceeding ease? But He did not
do so, instead choosing a suitable place in which to settle and begin
the work that He ought to do. Just this flesh alone is of great
significance. He represents an entire age, and also carries out the work
of an entire age; He both brings the former age to an end and ushers in
the new. All of this is the important matter that concerns God’s
management, and is the significance of a stage of work carried out by
God come to earth.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
61. Today you are able to worship this person, but in
actuality you are worshiping the Spirit. This is the very least that
should be achieved in people’s knowledge of God incarnate: knowing the
substance of the Spirit through the flesh, knowing the Spirit’s divine
work in the flesh and human work in the flesh, accepting all of the
Spirit’s words and utterances in the flesh, and seeing how the Spirit of
God directs the flesh and demonstrates His power in the flesh. Which is
to say, man comes to know the Spirit in heaven through the flesh; the
appearance of the practical God Himself among man has dispelled the
vague God himself in people’s conceptions; people’s worship of the
practical God Himself has increased their obedience to God; and through
the Spirit of God’s divine work in the flesh, and human work in the
flesh, man receives revelation and shepherding, and changes are achieved
in his life disposition. Only this is the actual meaning of the
Spirit’s arrival in the flesh, and it is primarily so that people may
engage with God, rely on God, and attain the knowledge of God.
from “You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
62. Only when God humbles Himself to a certain point, which is
to say, only when God becomes flesh, can man be His intimate and
confidant. God is of the Spirit: How is man qualified to be the intimate
of this Spirit, who is so exalted and unfathomable? Only when the
Spirit of God descends into the flesh, and becomes a creature with the
same exterior as man, can man understand His will and actually be gained
by Him. He speaks and works in the flesh, shares in the joys, sorrows,
and tribulations of man, lives in the same world as man, protects man,
and guides him, and through this He cleanses man, and allows man to gain
His salvation and His blessing. Having gained these things, man truly
understands God’s will, and only then can he be an intimate of God. Only
this is practical. If God were invisible and intangible to man, how
could man be His intimate? Is this not empty doctrine?
from “Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
63. The first incarnation was to redeem man from sin through
the flesh of Jesus, that is, He saved man from the cross, but the
corrupt satanic disposition still remained within man. The second
incarnation is no longer to serve as a sin offering but to fully save
those who were redeemed from sin. This is done so that those forgiven
can be delivered from their sins and be fully made clean, and attain a
change in disposition, thereby breaking free of Satan’s influence of
darkness and returning before the throne of God. Only in this way can
man be fully sanctified. God began the work of salvation in the Age of
Grace after the Age of Law had come to an end. It is not until the last
days, when God has fully purified mankind by doing the work of judgment
and chastisement of man for rebelliousness, will God conclude His work
of salvation and enter into rest. Therefore, in the three stages of
work, only twice did God become flesh to carry out His work among man
Himself. That is because only one in the three stages of work is to lead
man in their lives, while the other two are the work of salvation. Only
if God becomes flesh can He live alongside man, experience the
suffering of the world, and live in an ordinary flesh. Only in this way
can He supply man of His creation with the practical word that they
need. Man receives full salvation from God because of God incarnate, not
directly from their prayers to heaven. For man is fleshly; man is
unable to see the Spirit of God and much less able to approach Him. All
that man can associate with is God’s incarnate flesh; only through Him
can man understand all the words and all the truths, and receive full
salvation. The second incarnation is sufficient to get rid of the sins
of man and fully purify man. Hence, the second incarnation will bring to
a close all the work of God in the flesh and complete the significance
of God’s incarnation. Thereafter, the work of God in the flesh will have
entirely come to an end. After the second incarnation, He will not
again become flesh for His work. For His entire management will have
come to an end. In the last days, His incarnation will have fully gained
His chosen people, and all man in the last days will have been divided
according to their kind. He will no longer do the work of salvation, nor
will He return to flesh to carry out any work.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
64. When Jesus arrived, He was male, and this time He is
female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for
His work and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His
Spirit arrives, He can take on any flesh at will and the flesh
represents Him. Be it male or female, both represent God as long as it
is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus arrived and appeared as a female, in
other words, if an infant girl, not a boy, was to be conceived by the
Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same.
If so, this stage of work would have to be completed instead by a male
and the work would then be completed all the same. The work done in both
stages is significant; no work is repeated or conflicts with each
other. At the time of His work, Jesus was called the only Son, which
indicates the male gender. Then why is the only Son not mentioned in
this stage? This is because the needs of the work have necessitated a
change to the gender different from that of Jesus. With God there is no
distinction of gender. His work is done as He wishes and is not subject
to any restrictions, particularly free, but every stage has a real
significance.
from “The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
65. Whether in this stage God incarnate is enduring hardship
or performing His ministry, He does so to complete the meaning of
incarnation, for this is God’s last incarnation. God can only be
incarnated twice. There cannot be a third time. The first incarnation
was male, the second female, and so the image of God’s flesh is
completed in man’s mind; moreover, the two incarnations have already
finished God’s work in the flesh. The first time God incarnate possessed
normal humanity, in order to complete the meaning of incarnation. This
time He also possesses normal humanity, but the meaning of this
incarnation is different: It is deeper, and His work is of more profound
significance. The reason God has become flesh again is to complete the
meaning of incarnation. When God has completely ended this stage of His
work, the entire meaning of incarnation, that is, God’s work in the
flesh, will be complete, and there will be no more work to be done in
the flesh. That is, from now on God will never again come into the flesh
to do His work. Only to save and perfect mankind does God do the work
of incarnation. In other words, it is by no means usual for God to come
into the flesh, except for the sake of the work. By coming into the
flesh to work, He shows Satan that God is a flesh, a normal person, an
ordinary person—and yet He can reign triumphant over the world, can
vanquish Satan, redeem mankind, conquer mankind!
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
66. Why do I say that the meaning of incarnation was not
completed in Jesus’ work? Because the Word did not entirely become
flesh. What Jesus did was only one part of God’s work in the flesh; He
only did the redemptive work and did not do the work of completely
gaining man. For this reason God has become flesh once again in the last
days. This stage of the work is also done in an ordinary flesh, done by
an utterly normal human being, one whose humanity is not in the least
bit transcendent. In other words, God has become a complete human being,
and it is a person whose identity is that of God, a complete human
being, a complete flesh, who is performing the work. … During the three
stages of His work, God has been incarnated twice, and both times the
work of God incarnate inaugurates a new age, ushers in a new work; the
incarnations complement each other. It is impossible for human eyes to
tell that the two fleshes actually come from the same source. Needless
to say, it is beyond the capacity of the human eye or of the human mind.
But in Their essence They are the same, for Their work originates from
the same Spirit. Whether the two incarnate fleshes arise from the same
source cannot be judged by the era and the place in which They were
born, or other such factors, but by the divine work expressed by Them.
The second incarnate flesh does not perform any of the work that Jesus
did, for God’s work does not adhere to convention, but each time it
opens up a new path. The second incarnate flesh does not aim to deepen
or solidify the impression of the first flesh in people’s minds, but to
complement it and to perfect it, to deepen man’s knowledge of God, to
break all the rules that exist in people’s hearts, and to wipe out the
fallacious images of God in their hearts. It can be said that no
individual stage of God’s own work can give man a complete knowledge of
Him; each gives only a part, not the whole. Though God has expressed His
disposition in full, because of man’s limited faculties of
understanding, his knowledge of God still remains incomplete. It is
impossible, using human language, to convey the entirety of God’s
disposition; how much less can a single stage of His work fully express
God? He works in the flesh under the cover of His normal humanity, and
one can only know Him by the expressions of His divinity, not by His
bodily shell. God comes into the flesh to allow man to know Him by means
of His various work, and no two stages of His work are alike. Only in
this way can man have a full knowledge of God’s work in the flesh, not
confined to one single facet. Though the work of the two incarnate
fleshes is different, the essence of the fleshes, and the source of
Their work, are identical; it is just that They exist to perform two
different stages of the work, and arise in two different ages. No matter
what, God’s incarnate fleshes share the same essence and the same
origin—this is a truth no one can deny.
from “The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
67. Jesus did a stage of work which only fulfilled the
substance of “the Word was with God”: The truth of God was with God, and
the Spirit of God was with the flesh and was inseparable from Him, that
is, the flesh of God incarnate was with the Spirit of God, which is
greater proof that Jesus incarnate was the first incarnation of God.
This stage of work fulfilled the inner meaning of “the Word becomes
flesh,” lent deeper meaning to “the Word was with God, and the Word was
God,” and allows you to firmly believe the words that “In the beginning
was the Word.” Which is to say, at the time of creation God was
possessed of words, His words were with Him and inseparable from Him,
and the final age makes even clearer the power and authority of His
words, and allows man to see all of His words—to hear all of His words.
Such is the work of the final age. You must come to know these things
through and through. It is not a question of knowing the flesh, but of
knowing the flesh and the Word. This is that to which you must bear
witness, that which everyone must know. Because this is the work of the
second incarnation—and the last time that God becomes flesh—it fully
completes the significance of the incarnation, thoroughly carries out
and issues forth all of God’s work in the flesh, and brings to an end
the era of God’s being in the flesh.
from “Practice (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
68. God is not only the Holy Spirit, that Spirit, the
sevenfold intensified Spirit, the all-encompassing Spirit, but also a
person, an ordinary person, an exceptionally common person. He is not
only male, but also female. They are similar in that They are both born
to humans, and dissimilar in that one is conceived by the Holy Spirit
and the other is born to a human but derived directly from the Spirit.
They are similar in that both incarnate fleshes of God carry out God the
Father’s work, and dissimilar in that one does the work of redemption
and the other does the work of conquering. Both represent God the
Father, but one is the Lord of redemption filled with lovingkindness and
mercy, and the other is the God of righteousness filled with wrath and
judgment. One is the Supreme Commander to launch the redemption work,
and the other is the righteous God to accomplish the work of conquering.
One is the Beginning, the other the End. One is sinless flesh, the
other is flesh that completes the redemption, continues the work, and is
never of sin. Both are the same Spirit, but They dwell in different
fleshes and are born in different places. And They are separated by
several thousand years. Yet all Their work is mutually complementary,
never conflictual, and can be spoken of in the same breath. Both are
people, but one is a baby boy and the other is an infant girl.
from “When It Comes to God, What Is Your Understanding” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
69. The essence of God is faithful—He does what He says and
whatever He does is achieved. He is faithful; everything He does for man
is sincere and He does not speak idly. When He says He will pay the
price, He pays the price practically; when He says He will undertake
man’s suffering, take man’s place and suffer in their stead, He takes
this experience on Himself practically, and comes to live amongst man.
After He has felt this suffering and witnessed this suffering with His
own eyes, all things in the universe will say that everything God does
is right and righteous, that all God does is realistic: This is powerful
proof. Besides this, the beautiful destination will follow and all
those who will be left will praise God; they will praise that God’s
deeds are indeed His love for man. He does not come to the world for a
casual trip, to do some work, to say some words and then leave. He comes
to experience practically the suffering of the world, to become human
in the world, to humbly become a normal person to experience the
suffering of the world. Only after all this suffering has been
experienced will He then leave. His work is realistic like this,
practical like this. Those who will be left will praise God for this.
They will see God’s faithfulness to man and see the aspect of God’s
kindheartedness. God’s essence of beauty and goodness can be seen in
this aspect of significance of the incarnation. Whatever He does is
sincere, whatever He says is sincere and faithful. All the things He
intends to do are done practically; all the price He intends to pay is
paid practically. He does not speak idly. God is a righteous God; God is
a faithful God.
from “The Second Aspect of Significance of the Incarnation” in Records of Christ’s Talks
70. The only reason that the incarnate God has come into the flesh is
because of the needs of corrupt man. It is because of the needs of man
but not of God, and all His sacrifices and sufferings are for the sake
of mankind, and not for the benefit of God Himself. There are no pros
and cons or rewards for God; He shall not reap some future harvest, but
that which was originally owed to Him. All that He does and sacrifices
for mankind is not so that He might gain great rewards, but purely for
the sake of mankind.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
71. Why does He take on the flesh? It has been said before
that God did not hesitate to pay any price to save mankind. The
incarnation includes complete love, and this allows you to see that
mankind rebels against God to the extreme, they have already reached the
condition where they cannot be saved; therefore, God had no alternative
but to take on the flesh and devote Himself to mankind. God has offered
up all of His love. If He didn’t love mankind, then there is no way He
would have taken on the flesh. God can make thunder rumble and directly
express His majesty and wrath, and mankind would fall on the ground;
there would be no need for Him to take on the flesh and expend so much
effort and pay such a great price and suffer such great humiliation.
This is an obvious example. He would rather Himself suffer, be
humiliated, be forsaken, and be persecuted to save mankind. He would
still rather come to this kind of environment to save mankind. Is this
not love? If there was only righteousness and unbounded hate for
mankind, then He wouldn’t have taken on the flesh to do the work, and
God could have waited until mankind was extremely corrupt and destroyed
them, and it would be over. It is because God loves mankind and because
He has an enormous love for mankind that He took on the flesh to save
mankind who is extremely corrupt.
from “God’s True Love for Mankind” in Records of Christ’s Talks
72. During the Age of Kingdom, God incarnate speaks words to conquer
all those who believe in Him. This is “the Word appearing in the flesh”;
God has come during the last days to do this work, which is to say, He
has come to accomplish the actual significance of the Word appearing in
the flesh. He only speaks words, and rarely is there the advent of
facts. This is the very substance of the Word appearing in the flesh,
and when God incarnate speaks His words, this is the appearance of the
Word in the flesh, and is the Word coming into the flesh. “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and the Word became flesh.” This (the work of the appearance of the
Word in the flesh) is the work that God will accomplish in the last
days, and is the final chapter of His entire management plan, and so God
has to come to earth and manifest His words in the flesh. That which is
done today, that which will be done in the future, that which will be
accomplished by God, man’s final destination, those who will be saved,
those who will be destroyed, and so on—this work that should be achieved
in the end has all been clearly stated, and is all in order to
accomplish the actual significance of the Word appearing in the flesh.
The administrative decrees and constitution that were previously issued
forth, those who will be destroyed, those who will enter into rest—these
words must all be fulfilled. This is the work principally accomplished
by God incarnate during the last days. He makes people understand where
those predestined by God belong and where those not predestined by God
belong, how His people and sons will be classified, what will happen to
Israel, what will happen to Egypt—in the future, every one of these
words will be accomplished. The steps of God’s work are accelerating.
God uses the word as the means to reveal to man what is to be done in
every age, what is to be done by God incarnate of the last days, and His
ministry that is to be performed, and these words are all in order to
accomplish the actual significance of the Word appearing in the flesh.
from “All Is Achieved by the Word of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
73. God has come to earth primarily to accomplish the fact of
“the Word become flesh,” which is to say, He has come so that His words
may be issued from the flesh (not like the time of Moses in the Old
Testament, when God spoke directly from the sky). After that, each of
His words will be fulfilled during the Age of Millennial Kingdom, they
will become facts visible before people’s eyes, and people will behold
them using their own eyes without the slightest disparity. This is the
supreme meaning of God’s incarnation. Which is to say, the work of the
Spirit is accomplished through the flesh, and through words. This is the
true meaning of “the Word become flesh” and “the Word’s appearance in
the flesh.” … God will use words to conquer the universe. He will do
this not by His incarnate flesh, but through using the utterances from
the mouth of God become flesh to conquer all people in the entire
universe; only this is the Word become flesh, and only this is the
appearance of the Word in the flesh. Perhaps, to people, it appears as
if God hasn’t done much work—but God has but to utter His words for
people to be thoroughly convinced, and for them to be overawed. Without
facts, people shout and scream; with the words of God, they fall silent.
God will surely accomplish this fact, for this is God’s
long-established plan: accomplishing the fact of the Word’s arrival on
earth.
from “The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
74. During this incarnation of God on earth, when He
personally does His work among man, all the work He does is in order to
defeat Satan, and He will defeat Satan through the conquest of man and
making you complete. When you bear resounding testimony, this, too, will
be a mark of Satan’s defeat. Man is first conquered and ultimately
completely made perfect in order to defeat Satan. In substance, however,
along with the defeat of Satan this is simultaneously the salvation of
all mankind from this hollow sea of affliction. Regardless of whether
this work is carried out throughout the entire universe or in China, it
is all in order to defeat Satan and bring salvation to the whole of
mankind so that man may enter the place of rest.
from “Restoring the Normal Life of Man and Taking Him to a Wonderful Destination” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
75. God directs people positively; His life is living water,
immeasurable and without limits. Satan has corrupted man to a certain
degree; in the end, the living water of life will complete man, and it
will be impossible for Satan to interfere and carry out its work. Thus,
God will completely obtain these people. Satan still refuses to accept
this now; it continuously pits itself against God, but God pays it no
attention. He has said, I will be victorious over all of Satan’s dark
forces and over all dark influences. This is the work that must now be
done in the flesh, and it is also the meaning of the incarnation. It is
to complete the stage of work of defeating Satan in the last days, to
wipe out all things that belong to Satan.
from “You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
76. From His work in the flesh, man gains ten times or dozens
of times more things than the conceptions that exist among man about His
normal humanity, and such conceptions shall all ultimately be swallowed
by His work. And the effect that His work has achieved, which is to
say, the knowledge that man has toward Him, far outnumbers man’s
conceptions about Him. There is no way to imagine or measure the work He
does in the flesh, for His flesh is unlike that of any fleshly man;
although the outer shell is identical, the substance is not the same.
His flesh produces many conceptions among man about God, yet His flesh
can also allow man to acquire much knowledge, and can even conquer any
man possessed of a similar outer shell. For He is not merely a man, but
is God with the outer shell of a man, and none can completely fathom or
understand Him.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
77. Though Christ on earth is able to work on behalf of God
Himself, He does not come with the intention of showing all men His
image in the flesh. He does not come for all men to see Him; He comes to
allow man to be led by His hand, thereby entering into the new age. The
function of Christ’s flesh is for the work of God Himself, that is, for
the work of God in the flesh, and not to enable man to fully understand
the substance of His flesh.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
78. The image of God is not made known to man through the
incarnate image, but rather through the work carried out by the
incarnate God of image and form; and through His (Her) work, His image
is shown and His disposition is made known. This is the significance of
the work He wishes to do in the flesh.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
79. What He manifests to the multitude is only His righteous
disposition and all His deeds, and not the image of His body when He
twice became flesh, for the image of God can only be shown through His
disposition, and not replaced by the image of His incarnate flesh. …
What is shown to the multitude is the righteousness of God and His
disposition in its entirety, rather than His image when He twice became
flesh. It is neither the single image that is shown to man, nor the two
images combined.
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
80. 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.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
81. It is because of the work of God incarnate that God
becomes a flesh who has a tangible form, and who can be seen and touched
by man. He is not a formless Spirit, but a flesh that can be contacted
and seen by man. However, most of the Gods people believe in are
fleshless deities that are formless, which are also of a free form. In
this way, the incarnate God has become the enemy of most of those who
believe in God, and those who cannot accept the fact of God’s
incarnation have, similarly, become the adversaries of God.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
82. Though most people have become the enemies of God because
of this flesh, when He concludes His work, those who are against Him
will not only cease to be His enemies, but on the contrary will become
His witnesses. They will become the witnesses that have been conquered
by Him, witnesses that are compatible with Him and inseparable from Him.
He shall cause man to know the importance of His work in the flesh to
man, and man shall know the importance of this flesh to the meaning of
man’s existence, shall know His real value to the growth of man’s life,
and, moreover, shall know that this flesh will become a living fountain
of life from which man cannot bear to part.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
83. 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
84. The reason this flesh can do the work that man cannot do
is because His inward substance is unlike that of any man, and the
reason He can save man is because His identity is different from that of
any man. This flesh is so important to mankind because He is man and
even more God, because He can do the work that no ordinary man of flesh
can do, and because He can save corrupt man, who lives together with Him
on earth. Though He is identical to man, the incarnate God is more
important to mankind than any person of value, for He can do the work
that cannot be done by the Spirit of God, is more able than the Spirit
of God to bear testimony to God Himself, and is more able than the
Spirit of God to fully gain mankind. As a result, although this flesh is
normal and ordinary, His contribution to mankind and His significance
to the existence of mankind make Him highly precious, and the real value
and significance of this flesh is immeasurable to any man. Although
this flesh cannot directly destroy Satan, He can use His work to conquer
mankind and defeat Satan, and make Satan fully submit to His dominion.
It is because God is incarnated that He can defeat Satan and is able to
save mankind. He does not directly destroy Satan, but becomes flesh to
do the work to conquer mankind, who has been corrupted by Satan. In this
way, He is better able to bear testimony to Himself among the
creatures, and is better able to save corrupted man. God incarnate’s
defeat of Satan bears greater testimony, and is more persuasive, than
the direct destruction of Satan by the Spirit of God. God in the flesh
is better able to help man know the Creator, and is better able to bear
testimony to Himself among the creatures.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
85. This time, God comes to do work not in a spiritual body
but in a very ordinary one. Not only is it the body of God’s second
incarnation, but also the body in which God returns. It is a very
ordinary flesh. In Him, you cannot see anything that is different from
others, but you can receive from Him the truths you have never heard
before. This insignificant flesh is the embodiment of all the words of
truth from God, that which undertakes God’s work in the last days, and
an expression of the whole of God’s disposition for man to come to know.
Did you not desire greatly to see the God in heaven? Did you not desire
greatly to understand the God in heaven? Did you not desire greatly to
see the destination of mankind? He will tell you all these secrets that
no man has been able to tell you, and He will even tell you of the
truths that you do not understand. He is your gate into the kingdom, and
your guide into the new age. Such an ordinary flesh holds many
unfathomable mysteries. His deeds may be inscrutable to you, but the
goal of all the work He does is sufficient for you to see that He is not
a simple flesh as man believes. For He represents the will of God as
well as the care shown by God toward mankind in the last days. Though
you cannot hear the words He speaks that seem to shake the heavens and
earth or see His eyes like blazing flames, and though you cannot feel
the discipline of His iron rod, you can hear from His words the fury of
God and know that God shows compassion for mankind; you can see the
righteous disposition of God and His wisdom, and moreover, realize the
concern and care that God has for all mankind.
from “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
86. The work of God in the last days is to allow man to see
the God in heaven live among men on earth, and to enable man to come to
know, obey, revere, and love God. This is why He has returned to flesh
for a second time. Though what man sees this day is a God that is the
same as man, a God with a nose and two eyes, and an unremarkable God, in
the end God will show you that without the existence of this man, the
heaven and earth will undergo a tremendous change; without the existence
of this man, the heaven will grow dim, the earth will become chaos, and
all mankind will live in famine and plagues. He will show you that
without the salvation of God incarnate in the last days, then God would
have long ago destroyed all mankind in hell; without the existence of
this flesh, then you would forever be chief of sinners and corpses
evermore. You should know that without the existence of this flesh, all
mankind would face an inevitable calamity and find it difficult to
escape God’s more severe punishment of mankind in the last days. Without
the birth of this ordinary flesh, you would all be in a state where
neither life nor death will come no matter how you seek it; without the
existence of this flesh, then this day you would not be able to receive
the truth and come before the throne of God. Rather, you would be
punished by God because of your grievous sins. Do you know? If not for
the return of God to the flesh, none would have a chance at salvation;
and if not for the coming of this flesh, God would have long ago ended
the age of old. As such, can you still reject the second incarnation of
God? Since you can so greatly profit from this ordinary man, then why
would you not accept Him readily?
from “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
87. All you have this day is because of this flesh. It is
because God lives in the flesh that you have the chance to live. All
this good fortune has been gained because of this ordinary man. Not only
this, but in the end every nation shall worship this ordinary man, as
well as give thanks to and obey this insignificant man. Because it is He
who has brought the truth, the life, and the way to save all mankind,
ease the conflict between God and man, bring God and man closer
together, and communicate thoughts between God and man. It is also He
who has brought even greater glory to God. Is not an ordinary man such
as this worthy of your trust and adoration? Is such an ordinary flesh
not fit to be called Christ? Can such an ordinary man not be the
expression of God among men? Is not such a man who helps mankind be
spared disaster worthy of your love and for you to hold? If you reject
the truths uttered from His mouth and also detest His existence among
you, then what will be your fate?
from “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
88. All of God’s work in the last days is done through this
ordinary man. He will bestow everything unto you, and further, He can
decide everything about you. Can such a man be as you believe: a man so
simple as to be unworthy of mention? Is His truth not enough to utterly
convince you? Is witness of His deeds not enough to utterly convince
you? Or is it that the path He leads you on is not worthy for you to
follow? What is it that causes you to feel an aversion to Him and to
cast Him away and shirk from Him? It is He who expresses the truth, it
is He who supplies the truth, and it is He who enables you to have a
path to travel. Could it be that you still cannot find the traces of
God’s work within these truths?
from “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
89. Without the work of Jesus, mankind could not have come
down from the cross, but without the incarnation this day, those who
come down from the cross could never be commended by God or enter into
the new age. Without the coming of this ordinary man, then you would
never have the opportunity or be eligible to see the true countenance of
God, for you are all ones that should have long ago been destroyed.
Because of the coming of the second incarnation of God, God has forgiven
you and shown you mercy. Regardless, the words I must leave you with in
the end are still these: This ordinary man, who is God incarnate, is of
vital importance to you. This is the great thing that God has already
done among men.
from “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
90. He makes painstaking efforts for us, loses sleep and
appetite for us, weeps for us, sighs for us, groans in sickness for us,
suffers humiliation for the sake of our destination and salvation, and
His heart bleeds and sheds tears for our numbness and rebelliousness.
Such being and possessions of His are beyond an ordinary person, and
cannot be possessed or attained by any of the corrupted. He has
tolerance and patience possessed by no ordinary person, and His love is
not possessed by any created being. No one apart from Him can know all
of our thoughts, or have such a grasp of our nature and substance, or
judge the rebelliousness and corruption of mankind, or speak to us and
work among us like this on behalf of the God of heaven. No one except
for Him can possess the authority, wisdom, and dignity of God; the
disposition of God and what He has and is are issued forth, in their
entirety, from Him. No one apart from Him can show us the way and bring
us light. No one apart from Him can reveal the mysteries God has not
disclosed from creation until today. No one apart from Him can save us
from Satan’s bondage and our corrupt disposition. He represents God, and
expresses the heart’s voice of God, the exhortations of God, and the
words of judgment of God toward all mankind. He has begun a new age, a
new era, and brought a new heaven and earth, new work, and He has
brought us hope, and ended the life we led in vagueness, and allowed us
to fully behold the path of salvation. He has conquered our whole being,
and gained our hearts. From that moment onward, our minds become
conscious, and our spirits seem to be revived: This ordinary,
insignificant person, who lives among us and has long been rejected by
us—is He not the Lord Jesus, who is ever in our thoughts, and whom we
long for night and day? It is He! It’s really Him! He is our God! He is
the truth, the way, and the life!
from “Beholding the Appearance of God in His Judgment and Chastisement” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
a. The original text omits “the work of.”
from Classic Words From Almighty God, Christ of the Last Days
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