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Scripture Reading: John 1:14; Exo. 25:8; 40:17, 34; Psa. 78:60; Rev. 21:2-3; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1 Tim. 3:16
John 1:1 says, “The Word was God,” and verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh.” Word refers to God, whereas flesh refers to man; hence, the Word becoming flesh means that God became a man. God became man so that God and man could be mingled together as one. Before the Word became flesh, that is, before God became man, God was God, and man was man. God was in the heavens, and man was on the earth. There was no union or mingling of God and man. They were separate from one another. In the Old Testament no matter how much God contacted man or how much man drew near to God, God was God, and man was man; God was not in man and neither was man in God. Then one day a wonderful, mysterious thing happened in the little town of Bethlehem — God became a man. At this point God and man were no longer separate from each other; rather, God and man were joined and mingled as one.
God becoming man is a mysterious matter. The world does not understand this matter, and even very few Christians understand it. The world celebrates Christmas, but it is often nothing more than an opportunity for music and dancing in order to indulge the flesh. However, even pure-hearted, God-venerating Christians do not understand the significance of Bethlehem. Although they know that a Savior was born in Bethlehem, they do not see the mystery of this birth. When our Savior was born, God came to be among men by becoming a man in the flesh. The mysterious, unsearchable, unfathomable, unapproachable God entered into humanity, not only to be joined with man but to become a genuine man. This is the significance of the Lord Jesus’ being born in Bethlehem. From that point forward, God has been joined and mingled with man; God and man are one, and now humanity as well as divinity can be found in God.
Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6 contain prophecies concerning the Word becoming flesh. These two verses are so mysterious that even Isaiah himself may not have understood them. Verse 14 of chapter 7 says, “The virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” A virgin of flesh and blood bore a son, whom men would call Emmanuel, which is translated “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called / ...Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” The Son who was born to us and given to us is the eternal Father, the source. The Son who was born in time is the Father outside of time. Although He was a child in a manger, He is the mighty God.
Seven hundred years before Christ was born, Isaiah was moved by the Holy Spirit to prophesy concerning this mystery. At the appointed time, David’s descendant, Mary, a virgin of flesh and blood, gave birth to a child who was the mighty God. This child was not only the Son who was given but also the eternal Father, the source. Human language cannot fully express this mystery. I hope that in our spirit we would understand the mystery of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. A great event, greater than the creation of all things, took place that day: the creating God entered into the created man; the Creator and the created were joined as one.
The greatest matter in the universe is not creation or redemption but incarnation, that is, the entering of God into man to be one with man. The creation of all things is not as significant as the incarnation; even the accomplishment of redemption is not as significant. Incarnation is the center, the watershed event in the universe. Prior to the incarnation God was not joined to or mingled with man. After the incarnation God was joined to and mingled with man as one. Nothing is greater than this in the universe.
Many people treasure the Lord being crucified for them and shedding His blood for the redemption of their sins, but they have little regard for His incarnation. It is easy for people to be moved to tears when they hear about the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross. However, they often have no depth of feeling related to the Lord’s incarnation. It is not easy for us to worship the Lord by giving thanks and praises to Him for His incarnation. May God give us a vision so that we see that God becoming man is the most glorious and mysterious matter in the universe. The distinguishing feature of the Lord Jesus’ birth is that the Creator entered into His creature, a created man. God became a man; the Word became flesh.
We should not think that God became anything other than a genuine man. He was not some sort of superior man; He was a man in the flesh. Although there was no corruption of sin in Him, He suffered from the temptation of sin and the affliction of the world (Heb. 2:18; 4:15). God became a man, but the man He became was not the perfect, beautiful man that God first created but a man afflicted by Satan, sin, and the world. Though sinless in His nature, His outward form was not attractive. Isaiah 52:14 says, “His visage was marred more than that of any man, / And His form more than that of the sons of men.” Verse 2 of chapter 53 says, “He grew up... / ...like a root out of dry ground. / He has no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, / Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him.” The man that God became was not outwardly presentable, but rather a man with no attracting form nor majesty.
In the universe a great thing was realized when the Lord was born in Bethlehem. God entered into man, becoming a man and being joined to and mingled with man. From that day forward, there has been One who is both God and man and man and God. This is a mysterious matter.
John 1:14 does not say, “God became man”; rather, it says, “The Word became flesh.” John’s speaking of God as the Word shows that the term Word is a further unveiling of God; thus, this utterance is more advanced. Some theologians may condemn this utterance as heretical, but we should not deviate in our understanding because of them. We must recognize that there is a distinction between God as the Word and God as God. Although there is no difference in element, God as the Word is more distinctive than God as God. While God is the substance of the Word, the Word is the uttered God. If God was not the Word, we would not even know Him as God, but we know Him as God because He is the Word, the uttered God.
The Word becoming flesh indicates that the uttered and declared God, who is eternally being spoken forth as the Word, has become flesh as well. As the eternal Word, God is sufficiently expressed and declared, but this expression became much more substantial when He, as the Word, became flesh. When the Word became flesh, God began to speak in the flesh, to be manifested in the flesh, and to be declared through the flesh. This is too glorious.
The Word became flesh in order to substantiate the declaration and the expression of God. Although He is eternally the Word, that is, the explanation and expression of God, He now expresses God even more substantially through the flesh and in the flesh. This is the key to the Gospel of John, which shows a human of flesh, who was also the Word of God, in action. God Himself is now expressed and uttered forth in the flesh. Although His visage was marred more than that of any man and His form more than that of the sons of men, having no attracting form nor majesty and coming out of a little town, Nazareth, God as the Word was manifested in the flesh. As the Word, God was substantially expressed in the flesh.
We know that the heavens declare the glory of God, the expanse proclaims the work of His hands (Psa. 19:1), and the words of the Bible reveal God so that man may know God. The expression of God through the heavens, the earth, all things, and even in the words of the Bible is not as expansive as the expression of God that was declared through Jesus, who is the incarnate Word (John 21:25). When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He was a little man from a carpenter’s home in a little town, and His visage was marred more than that of any man. Like a root out of dry ground, He had no attracting form nor majesty. Nevertheless, even as a lowly man, He expressed God much more than what can be declared through the heavens and the earth and what is contained in the words in the Bible. The twenty-one chapters of the Gospel of John depict the expression of God in a lowly man, the Lord Jesus. This lowly man in the flesh substantiated the Word of God. He explained God not only through His speaking but also through His entire living, work, and person.
God delights in entering into man, in being mingled with man, and in being expressed through man’s manner of living. This is the greatest mystery associated with Christians. God delights in entering into man. God also delights in being mingled with man such that God and man and man and God are one. Furthermore, God delights in being declared through man’s manner of life. Although a Christian is a man, he should declare God. God does not want a Christian to be a man declaring man, nor God declaring God, but a man declaring God. These three points are very significant and mysterious.
The Gospel of John speaks of the most wonderful person in the universe. This person is wonderful because God entered into the man Jesus and was mingled with Him as one. Now we can say that He is a man, because He is a genuine man. We also can say that He is God, because He is the true God. In Him God and man are mingled together and are inseparable. This wonderful person is the Jesus who is shown in the Gospel of John. Jesus is both God and man. In Him God and man are mingled as one. He did not come to man just as God, He came to man as man to express God. Thus, He did not express man but God through man. Although He lived in the flesh, He expressed the Word of God, because He lived in the flesh by the life of God, not by the life of man. He was a man, but His human living was out of the divine life. Hence, even though He was a man, He expressed God. He was both God and man; He was a man in His actions and living, yet in His actions and living God was expressed. He expressed God in the flesh. This is the meaning of incarnation.
The One who asked the Samaritan woman for water at Jacob’s well was both God and man (4:7). When He asked for water, He asked as a man. If He had come only as God, the Samaritan woman would have fallen to the ground, rather than asking, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman?” (v. 9). Although He was God, He spoke to her as a man, not just as God.
Although He spoke to her as a man, His expression was more than that of just a man. If His expression had been merely that of a man, He would have said, “Bring the waterpot to Me; I will talk to you after I get a drink.” Such a word would have expressed only man. This would have been an expression of man as man. In contrast, the Lord expressed God even though He was also a man. In His asking for water and in His speaking to the Samaritan woman about water, God fully came forth from Him as a man.
In contrast to the Lord, some saints, who desire to express Christ, cannot properly conduct themselves even as human beings. Twenty years ago in Beijing I met a sister who was very zealous for the Lord. She would go throughout the city visiting people all day long, but she also began to neglect her home responsibilities and even her husband and children. Later, she began to tell people that she regretted getting married and having a family. When I was able to talk to her, she said that she believed the Lord did not want her to be a wife, because a wife has too much “bondage,” including the “big bondage” of a husband and the “little bondage” of children. She also said that she would never have married if she had believed in the Lord at an earlier age. After listening to her, I had a deep feeling that she had no experience of incarnation, even though she was zealous and loved the Lord. This sister needed to see a vision of incarnation and be a proper wife.
In 1936 I was serving the Lord in Tientsin. One day someone knocked on the door with such haste that I quickly ran to open it. When I opened the door, I saw a stranger with a handbag and who appeared to have come to town from the countryside. As soon as he saw me, he asked, “Are you Mr. Lee?” I said, “Yes,” and he immediately said, “The Lord has sent me to you. I left everything behind for the Lord. I want to follow Him and glorify Him on earth.” I then asked, “Brother, do you have a family?” He said, “I have left my parents, wife, and children. The Lord Jesus charged me to do this in the Gospels, so I left them behind.” When I asked him what he planned to do, he said, “I do not know what to do. I am just following the leading of the Holy Spirit. God led me to you today, so I am here. If God leads me somewhere else tomorrow, I will go somewhere else.” When I asked him if he no longer cared for his parents, wife, and children, he frowned and said, “You are a fleshly person. The Lord wants us to leave everything behind to follow Him. You should know this.” I said, “If you want to follow the Lord, how will you follow Him, and where will you follow Him?” He became quite angered by my questions and said, “You are a fleshly person. Never mind. I will not stay with you.” Then he left in a hurry.
This incident gave me a heavy feeling, so I considered it and also read the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke and other Gospels, the Lord indeed tells us to forsake and leave everything behind to follow Him (Luke 14:33; Matt. 19:29; Mark 10:29). Consequently, I asked the Lord, “Do You really want us to leave everything behind as this man has done? There should be a purpose for leaving everything behind, but I feel that this brother left everything behind in an aimless way and without any purpose.” Then the Spirit showed me something concerning our human responsibilities. On the one hand, the Gospels tell us to leave our children, our house, and our fields behind, but on the other hand, God charges us in the Epistles to love our wife, to be subject to our husband, to honor our mother and father, and to care for our children (22, Eph. 5:25; 6:2-4; 1 Tim. 3:4). Such charges are related to the principle of incarnation. God does not enter into us to make us someone other than a man in the flesh; God enters into us so that we would express more than just the life of a man. He wants us to be proper as children, as husbands and wives, and as parents, according to the principle of incarnation. God has no intention that we would no longer be men but that we would be men who express God.
A saint who works as a household servant may believe that menial work such as sweeping the floor is beneath him because he has the Lord Jesus in him, but he has an altogether mistaken concept. Our Lord was glorious and dignified, but when He became flesh and put on the human nature, He was lowlier than any of us. He was born into a poor family, and He grew up in an obscure little town. As a carpenter, He toiled daily in work, but He expressed God in this lowly life. This is incarnation. Therefore, if we have a job of sweeping and mopping the floor, our sweeping and mopping should express God now that we have believed in the Lord Jesus. May we express the Lord Jesus in our sweeping and mopping of the floor.
The tabernacle of God, which was among the children of Israel, illustrates this principle. The outer layer of the tabernacle was coarse porpoise skins (Exo. 26:14); it had no attracting form nor majesty. However, the inner layer of the tabernacle was embroidered with glorious and exquisite cherubim (v. 31). Inwardly, we have the exceedingly glorious Word, but outwardly, we are but base, earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4:7). The apostle Paul says, “Each one, in the calling in which he was called, in this let him remain” (1 Cor. 7:20). We do not need to change our living; rather, we should express Christ in our living as a man. This is what is mysterious and powerful about Christians.
It is also possible for some saints who want to express Christ, to conduct themselves as human beings but without any true expression of Christ. Twenty years ago a Christian couple in Shanghai invited several co-workers to dinner. Upon seeing the happy and harmonious situation in their home, everyone admired the brother for having such a wife and the sister for having such a husband. On the surface, the brother was a good husband, and the sister was a good wife, but the only expression that we could sense was the expression of a good brother being a good husband and a good sister being a good wife.
Christians can be good husbands but not express Christ, and Christians can be good wives but not express Christ. Even among worldly people, there are expressions of husbands being a good husband and expressions of wives being a good wife. With Christians, however, the expression of a husband or a wife should cause people to meet, feel, taste, and smell Christ. Being a good husband or a good wife apart from the expression of God is merely to express the flesh, not the Word. A normal Christian expresses the operation of divinity and humanity, humanity and divinity. Just being a good husband or a good wife is not enough. We must express Christ in our being a husband or a wife.
May the Holy Spirit speak to us so that we truly know how the meaning of the Word became flesh can be applied to our practical living. It is a glorious matter that the Word became flesh. The Word is our glorious Lord, and human beings are the flesh. He became one of us and is in us so that God may be expressed in man on the earth. This is a glorious matter.
