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In 1 Timothy 3:15-16 Christ is presented as God manifested in the flesh. This is one of the greatest aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. Not only was the Lord Jesus the manifestation of God in the flesh in the past; the church today should also be the manifestation of God in the flesh.
In verse 16 Paul says, “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” The word godliness in this verse means “God-likeness.” Hence, this verse indicates that human beings may have the appearance, the expression, and the manifestation of God. In the context of this verse, the phrase the mystery of godliness means that God in His mystery can be manifested and expressed in the flesh, in human beings. Godliness is God manifested in the flesh; the mystery of godliness is God manifested in human beings. The transition from the mystery of godliness to He implies that Christ as the manifestation of God in the flesh is the mystery of godliness (Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20).
God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14). The New Testament does not say that only the Son of God was incarnated. Rather, it reveals that God was manifested in the flesh, indicating that the entire God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — was incarnated. Therefore, Christ in His incarnation was the entire God manifested in the flesh.
According to the Gospel of John, the Word, who is God, became flesh (vv. 1, 14). The God who the Word is, is not a partial God but the entire God — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The Word is God’s definition, explanation, and expression. Hence, the Word who became flesh — God manifested in the flesh — is God’s definition, explanation, and expression in the flesh (v. 18). God was manifested in the flesh not only as the Son but as the entire Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Through incarnation and human living (vv. 1, 14), God was manifested in the flesh. The expression in the flesh means “in the likeness, in the fashion, of man” (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7-8). Christ appeared to people in the form of man (2 Cor. 5:16), yet He was God manifested in a man.
God desired to become a man, and one day He became a man in the person of Christ, living on earth as a God-man. Christ lived in His humanity on the earth to express God for thirty-three and a half years. He is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). He is the faithful Witness of God (Rev. 1:5), and He witnessed God.
When He lived on earth as the God-man, He did not live by His human life but by His divine life. He lived a human life not by His humanity but by His divinity. He lived as a God-man yet not by the life of man but by the life of God. Hence, His human living was not lived out by the human life but by the divine life. He lived by always rejecting His human life, by always putting His human life under the cross. From the first day He lived on earth, He lived a crucified human life, not by His human life but by His divine life. His human living did not express humanity but divinity in the divine attributes becoming the human virtues. This is what Paul meant in 1 Timothy 3 when he spoke of Christ as God manifested in the flesh (v. 16).
The incarnation of Christ produced a God-man who lived on the earth not by His human life but by His divine life. All of His days on earth, He put Himself on the cross. He remained on the cross to die so that He might live by God, not to express man but to express God in His divine attributes becoming man’s virtues. This was the life of the first God-man as a prototype. Since today we are His reproduction, we should live the same kind of life.
To follow Jesus is to live the life of a God-man, not by the human life but by the divine life, in order that God may be expressed, or manifested, in the flesh in all His divine attributes becoming the human virtues. This is the intrinsic significance of what it is to follow Christ. As God-men, we need to live a life not by ourselves but by another One, not by our human life but by His divine life, not to express ourselves but to express His divinity in His divine attributes which become our human virtues.
God being manifested in the flesh is God living a human life. We should not try to be angels, because God is not manifested in the angels but in the flesh. This means that God is living a human life. The Lord Jesus was a real, perfect man to express the complete God. He was God manifested in the flesh to express the eternal, infinite, invisible, glorious, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God through the mortal, finite, visible, inglorious man, limited in power, knowledge, and presence. Mortal is versus eternal, finite is versus infinite, visible is versus invisible, and inglorious is versus glorious. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere, but man is limited in power, knowledge, and presence.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He expressed the divine attributes as His human virtues in all His actions. That expression of His virtues was the manifestation of God in the flesh. Outwardly, people saw Him as Jesus from Nazareth, but He was God manifested in the flesh. For example, after the Lord Jesus fed the five thousand, there were many leftovers. If those leftovers had been left there as a mess, this would have been a poor testimony. But the Lord instructed His disciples to gather the broken pieces left over that nothing would be lost (John 6:12). After all the leftovers were picked up, everything was clean and in order. This was the virtue of the One who is resurrection (11:25). When the Lord left the things in the tomb in good order, this was also a testimony of His resurrection (20:7). When we exercise our spirit and do things in resurrection, this is a display of our Christian virtues. These Christian virtues are expressions of the divine attributes and are the manifestation of God in the flesh. This is God’s living in man.
If we do things in resurrection, many virtues will be exhibited, and those virtues will be the expression of the divine attributes. Thus, what we do will be a manifestation of God in the flesh. In the church life God should be manifested in the flesh. Even though we are in the flesh, we should not live by the flesh. We should live in and by resurrection so that God may live in our living, making us Him in His attributes as our virtues for His manifestation.
First Timothy 3:15-16 indicates that not only Christ Himself as the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh but also that the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God is the manifestation of God in the flesh — the mystery of godliness. According to the context, godliness in verse 16 refers not only to piety but also to the living of God in the church, that is, to God as life lived out in the church. Both Christ and the church are the mystery of godliness, expressing God in the flesh. The church life is the expression of God; therefore, the mystery of godliness is the living of a proper church (1 Cor. 14:24-25). God is manifested in the church — the house of God and the Body of Christ — as His enlarged corporate expression in the flesh (Eph. 2:19; 1:22-23).
The manifestation of God in the flesh began with Christ when He was on earth (John 14:9). The manifestation of God in the flesh continues with the church, which is the increase, enlargement, and multiplication of the manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). Such a church becomes the continuation of Christ’s manifestation of God in the flesh — Christ lived out of the church as the manifestation of God. This is God manifested in the flesh in a wider way according to the New Testament principle of incarnation (1 Cor. 7:40; Gal. 2:20). The principle of incarnation is that God enters into man and mingles Himself with man to make man one with Himself (John 15:4-5). The principle of incarnation means that divinity is brought into humanity and works within humanity (1 Cor. 6:17; 7:40; 1 Tim. 4:1). The great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh (Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; Eph. 4:24).
Although we were sinners, we have been redeemed out of our sinful position and sinful situation. We are now redeemed ones. God has imparted Himself into us, making us one with Him and also making Him one with us. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This is the great mystery of godliness — God manifested in the flesh. We are the same as God in the divine life, the divine nature, the divine element, and the divine essence but not in the Godhead. Today we are the flesh in which God can be manifested. God is manifested in the flesh, but we need to realize that God can never be manifested by the flesh. The flesh is merely the earthen vessel. It is not the key to carry out God’s manifestation; the key to God’s manifestation in us is our spirit.
In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul goes on to tell us that we should exercise ourselves unto godliness. To exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit so that we may express the mystery of godliness — God manifested in the flesh. This is indicated by Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 1:6-7, which says, “For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” Second Timothy 4:22 tells us that the Lord is with our spirit. Since the Lord Jesus as the mystery of godliness is in our spirit, in order to express and practice this mystery, we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness by exercising our spirit.
Before we do anything, we should exercise our spirit. Then our spirit will lead us, and whatever we do will be godliness, God manifested in the flesh. This is the exercise unto godliness. In everything we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness. Before we speak, we should exercise our spirit unto godliness. Therefore, we must live, walk, have our daily life, and have our whole being according to our spirit (Rom. 8:4). Paul exhorted Timothy to pray for those “who are in high position; that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity” (1 Tim. 2:2). If we are godly, it will affect the choice of pictures we hang in our bedroom, the kind of clothes that we wear, our hair style, and our conversation. The inward life of godliness has an outward expression. Such a manifestation of godliness is a testimony and has an impact on those who meet us. In whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we wear, there should be an impression that God is manifested in us.
In the church life there should be the manifestation of God in the flesh. In order for this to be the situation, there must be in the church the glorious union of God and man. Inwardly we should have God, but God is manifested in the flesh through a normal and proper humanity. All those in the church life — the brothers and the sisters, the elderly ones and the young ones — should behave in a way that is normal and fitting for their respective ages. Instead of pretense, there should be a genuineness that is both human and divine. This is the condition of God being manifested in humanity.
The church as the house of God is the living God becoming flesh and being manifested in the flesh. In the four Gospels God was manifested in the flesh in Jesus as a single individual. But in 1 Timothy 3 God’s manifestation in the flesh is in the entire church corporately. Not only is Christ the great mystery of godliness, but in principle the church is also God manifested in the flesh.
Christ is the manifestation of God in the flesh, but so is the church. We are the church, but we are still in the flesh. When we meet together in the Spirit, God is manifested among us; this is the manifestation of God in the flesh. Just as Christ the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh, so also is His Body. If the whole church is gathered together in a proper way, and an unbeliever comes in, “falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that indeed God is among you” (1 Cor. 14:23-25). God’s presence is known whenever the church meets together properly. We admit that we are still flesh, but the God who lives in our spirit will be manifested, expressed, in our flesh. This manifestation must be not merely individual but corporate. Because the proper church life is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh, the church of the living God is the consummate mystery of godliness. For the church to be the corporate expression of God in the flesh, everyone in the church must be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18).
Ultimately, God will be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the consummated corporate expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2, 10-11). The church as the manifestation of God in the flesh is the house of God, but the New Jerusalem will be the city of God, signifying that the New Jerusalem, as the manifestation of God in the new creation, will be the enlargement and consummation of the church to express God in eternity.
In 1 Timothy 3:16 Paul goes on to say, “Justified in the Spirit, / Seen by angels, / Preached among the nations, / Believed on in the world, / Taken up in glory.”
Christ, God manifested in the flesh, was “justified in the Spirit.” The Greek word rendered “justified” also means “vindicated.” The incarnated Christ in His human living was not only justified as the Son of God by the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Rom. 1:3-4) but was also vindicated, proved, and approved as right and righteous by the Spirit (Matt. 3:15-16; 4:1). He was manifested in the flesh but was vindicated and justified in the Spirit. He appeared in the flesh, but He lived in the Spirit (Luke 4:1, 14; Matt. 12:28) and offered Himself to God through the Spirit (Heb. 9:14). His transfiguration (Matt. 17:2) and His resurrection are both justifications in the Spirit. Furthermore, in resurrection He even became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17) to dwell and live in us (Rom. 8:9-10) for the manifestation of God in the flesh as the mystery of godliness. Hence, now we know Him and His members no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (2 Cor. 5:16). Since the manifestation of God in the flesh is justified in the Spirit, and the Spirit is one with our spirit (Rom. 8:16), we must live and behave in our spirit that this justification may be accomplished.
The church as the mystery of godliness is justified in the spirit. To be justified in the Spirit, we must walk and live in our regenerated human spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25). If we walk and live in our spirit, we will have a justified life, that is, a life that can be justified by God. God is manifested in the flesh of those who are the mystery of godliness. However, we should not live by our flesh. Instead, we should live by our spirit. Through our living by our spirit, God will be manifested in our flesh. Although we are in the flesh, we should live by the spirit. We must walk, live, and do things by the spirit. In this way God becomes our living in our spirit and is manifested in our flesh. Such a living will be justified in the Spirit.
In verse 16 Paul also says, “Seen by angels.” Angels saw the incarnation, human living, and ascension of Christ (Luke 2:9-14; Matt. 4:11; Acts 1:10-11; Rev. 5:6, 11-12). When the Lord Jesus was born, a host of angels praised God (Luke 2:10-14). If the angels rejoiced at the birth of the Lord Jesus in Bethlehem, the city of David, will they not also rejoice to see God manifested in the church, which is Christ’s increase and enlargement? Furthermore, when the Lord Jesus, living out God and manifesting Him on earth, confronted the demons, they cried out. In at least one case they begged the Lord Jesus not to order them to depart into the abyss (8:31). If the demons trembled at the presence of the Lord Jesus, will they not also tremble at the manifestation of the living God in the church? No doubt when the church is living out God and manifesting Him, the demons and the evil angels will be terrified. Every local church must be a place where Christ is born anew in the saints. Furthermore, every local church must live out God in such a way that the devil’s time is shortened. When the churches come up to God’s standard, the angels will sing and rejoice, and the demons and the evil angels will tremble.
In the church life we are expressing God. Human beings may not realize this adequately, but the angels recognize it and appreciate it. All the angels are spectators who are looking at the universal man, Christ and the church, living in the spirit to manifest God in the flesh (Eph. 3:10). On the one hand, the good angels rejoice when they behold the expression of God in the church. On the other hand, the evil angels and the demons tremble in fear. They realize that eventually those in the church life will condemn them to the lake of fire.
Christ was also preached among the nations. Christ as God’s manifestation in the flesh has been preached as the gospel among the nations, including the nation of Israel, from the day of Pentecost (Rom. 16:26; Eph. 3:8). Furthermore, Christ has been “believed on in the world” (1 Tim. 3:16). Christ as the embodiment of God in the flesh has been believed on, received as Savior and life, by people in the world (Acts 13:48).
Through our living in the spirit that manifests God in the flesh, God in Christ as the Spirit is being preached among the nations and is being believed on in the world. The real gospel preaching takes place when we live in the spirit to manifest God. Such a living can be not only seen by the angels but also preached to the uttermost part of the earth (1:8). When this gospel is preached, other human beings will see what we are living and then receive what we are living. This is not a preaching merely by word but a preaching mainly by life, a preaching by living. We must live out what we preach. Our message should be our life, our living. Although we may sometimes preach the gospel with words, we preach mainly by living a life that manifests God. Our living is our preaching. Regardless of how much believers preach by speaking, what eventually causes sinners to believe is the testimony of the believers’ living. We must have a living that is in the spirit to manifest God. This kind of living is our preaching, and our preaching must be this kind of living.
Paul concludes 1 Timothy 3:16 with the phrase taken up in glory. This refers to Christ’s ascension into glory (Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11; 2:33; Phil. 2:9). According to the sequence of historical events, Christ’s ascension preceded His being preached among the nations. However, it is listed here as the last step in Christ’s being the manifestation of God in the flesh. This must indicate that the church too is taken up in glory. Hence, it implies that not only Christ Himself as the Head but also the church as the Body are the manifestation of God in the flesh. When a church is well taken care of according to the instructions given in the first two chapters of 1 Timothy, with the oversight of the elders and the service of the deacons fully established, as revealed in chapter 3, the church will function as the house and household of the living God for His move on the earth, and as the supporting pillar and holding base of the truth, bearing the divine reality of Christ and His Body as a testimony to the world. Then the church becomes the continuation of Christ’s manifestation of God in the flesh. This is the great mystery of godliness — Christ lived out of the church as the manifestation of God in the flesh.
Although Christ was taken up in glory (Acts 1:9) before the preaching of Him began in Acts 2, Paul mentions this last, not only after the preaching but even after being believed on in the world. This indicates that taken up in glory may include not only the ascension of Christ but also the rapture of the church. The Head, Christ, was taken up before the preaching of Him began; however, the Body, the church, will be taken up only after Christ has been preached and believed on in the world. Therefore, in 1 Timothy 3:16 there is a definite indication that this verse refers not only to the Head as the manifestation of God in the flesh but also to the Body as the continuation of this manifestation. The Head, Christ, has been taken up in glory, and the Body, the church, will also be taken up in glory. Both the Head and the Body are the mystery of godliness.
Christ as God manifested in the flesh is the truth borne by the church of the living God. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul speaks of the house of God, which is “the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.” In speaking of the church as the house of God, Paul specifically refers to God as the living God. The living God who lives in the church must be subjective to the church rather than merely objective. An idol in a heathen temple is lifeless. The God who not only lives but also acts, moves, and works in His living temple, the church, is living. Because He is living, the church is also living in Him, by Him, and with Him. A living God and a living church live, move, and work together. The living church is the house and the household of the living God. Hence, it becomes the manifestation of God in the flesh.
Everything in the church must be living because this is the house of the living God. We should not do anything in the church according to dead rules or dead forms. Everything we do or practice in the church life must be living because we are serving a living God (Heb. 9:14).
Speaking metaphorically, Paul speaks of the church as “the pillar and base of the truth.” The pillar supports the building, and the base holds the pillar. The church is such a supporting pillar and holding base of the truth. The truth here refers to the real things which are revealed in the New Testament concerning Christ and the church according to God’s New Testament economy. The truth is the reality and the contents of God’s New Testament economy. This economy is composed of two mysteries: Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). Christ and the church, the Head and the Body, are the contents of the reality of God’s New Testament economy. The church is the supporting pillar and holding base of all these realities. A local church should be such a building that holds, bears, and testifies the truth, the reality, of Christ and the church.
To God, the church has the function to bear all that God is as the reality, the truth, of the universe. The word reality is better than truth in conveying the proper meaning, because truth can be misunderstood as doctrines. This may cause people to think that the church holds doctrines. No, the church is not for holding doctrines but for holding the reality of all that God is. In the universe, only God is reality; all that He is, is reality, which is borne by the church. We are here as the church, the house and household of God, holding the reality of all that God is.
The truth borne by the church is the Triune God, having Christ as the embodiment, center, and expression, to produce the church as the Body of Christ, the house of God, and the kingdom of God (Col. 2:9; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 1 Tim. 3:15; John 3:3, 5). The truth, the reality, is Christ, and Christ is the embodiment of God. The church bears Christ as the reality. The church testifies to the whole universe that Christ, and Christ alone, is the reality (1:14, 17; 14:6). As the pillar and base of the truth, the church bears the reality of the Triune God. The church stands not for doctrine but for the truth, the reality of the Triune God.
In Greek the word truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 denotes something real and solid. Hence, truth means “reality.” However, truth is not simply a solid reality but also the expression of this reality. Truth is not vain doctrine; it is the expression of reality, doctrine constituted with reality and conveying that reality. The church is the pillar bearing the truth, that is, bearing the expression of the reality.
The reality borne by the church is revealed in 1 Timothy 3:16: “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, / Justified in the Spirit, / Seen by angels, / Preached among the nations, / Believed on in the world, / Taken up in glory.” The truth in verse 15, the expression of the reality, is the mystery of godliness in verse 16. As previously mentioned, the mystery of godliness is God manifested in the flesh. When Christ was on earth, He was God manifested in the flesh. Outwardly, He was a man in the flesh; inwardly, in actuality and in reality, He was God. God in His reality was manifested in the man Jesus. God was reality, and Jesus as a man in the flesh was the manifestation of God. This is the truth mentioned in verse 15, and this is the mystery of godliness.
The Gospel of John confirms that the truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the manifestation of God in the flesh. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 continues, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.” That this reality, this truth, has become flesh is indicated by verse 17, which says, “Grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Furthermore, in John 14:6 the Lord Jesus, the God who created all things and became flesh, declared that He is the reality. These verses indicate that truth refers to God becoming man, God entering into man, God being joined to man, and God being manifested in man; thus, the truth is God manifested in the flesh. The church is the pillar and base of the truth of God being manifested in the flesh. As a pillar and base of the truth, the church upholds and presents to the universe the fact of God’s manifestation in the flesh.
In summary, God manifested in the flesh implies God manifested not only in Christ, the Head, but also in the church, His Body. When Christ lived on the earth, God was manifested in the flesh of Christ; now in the church age, the same God is manifested in the flesh of the believers, who compose the church. This is the great mystery of godliness, that is, the great mystery of the expression of God. The manifestation of God first in the flesh of Christ and then in the flesh of the members of His Body is a great mystery. Such a manifestation of God in the flesh is witnessed by and justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory. The manifestation of God in the flesh is also the truth, the reality, borne by the church of the living God. Today the church is not only the manifestation of God in the flesh but also the bearer of the truth of the living God. In the universe God alone is the reality, and this reality rests upon the church. Therefore, the church is the pillar and base of the truth, bearing the Triune God Himself, who is the unique reality in the universe.
