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Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:21, 23; Rom. 8:3; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; 12, Heb. 9:26, 28; 2:14; 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 John 4:9
I. The issue of the incarnation:
А. Jesus — Jehovah our Savior — Matt. 1:21.
B. Emmanuel — God with us — v. 23.
C. The God-man — the complete God and the perfect man.
II. The purpose of the incarnation:
А. To bring God into man.
B. To make God man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
C. To mingle God with man so that God and man may be one.
D. To accomplish God’s redemption for man — Rom. 8:3; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; 12, Heb. 9:26, 28; 2:14.
E. To carry out God’s salvation in man — 1 Tim. 1:15.
F. To impart the divine life into man — 1 John 4:9.
In this chapter we want to see the issue and the purpose of God’s incarnation.
The first item that we need to see as the issue of the incarnation is Jesus — Jehovah our Savior (Matt. 1:21). The Hebrew equivalent of the name Jesus in the Old Testament is Joshua. In Hebrews 4 Joshua is set forth as a type of the Lord Jesus bringing the people of God into rest (vv. 8-9). The Old Testament Joshua is a type of the New Testament Jesus. We may say that Joshua is the shadow, and Jesus is the real man. A man’s shadow is his type.
Joshua and Jesus both mean “Jehovah the Savior” or “the salvation of Jehovah.” Salvation is a person, and that person is divine. His name is Jehovah. Jehovah is our Savior, so He is our salvation. In the Old Testament there was a person who was called Jehovah the Savior. Then the real One came, whose name is Jehovah, the Triune God Himself. In the Old Testament God had the titles Elohim (Gen. 1:1) and Jehovah (2:4), and often these two titles were placed together as Jehovah Elohim, that is, the Lord God. Elohim means “the strong and faithful One.” Jehovah is the eternal I Am. In Exodus 3 Moses asked God what he should say to those who asked him the name of the One who sent him. God then told Moses that His name is “I Am” (v. 14). I Am is Jehovah. Jehovah means “To Be.” In the whole universe there is only One who is “To Be.” He is the self-existing and ever-existing One. His name is “I AM WHO I AM” (v. 14). He is the One who is, the One who exists. That is His name.
The day came when this One left His eternity and came into time. As the To Be in eternity, He entered into time to become a man. Before He was born, God through His angel charged the virgin Mary to call this man Jesus, Jehovah the Savior. Many people know the name Jesus, but they do not know who Jesus is. Jesus is God becoming a man to be our Savior.
We have to realize that even if we had not become fallen, we would still need to be saved. Man was created into a situation of needing salvation. His fall increased his need of salvation. When God created Adam, Adam was not sinful; he was innocently perfect. It seemed as if he had no need. But anything that is organic, that is of life, needs feeding. Even the plant life needs the sunshine, air, fertilizer, and water as the nutrients for its growth. These items are for feeding. The sunshine, air, fertilizer, and water are the salvation of the plant. If you take away these four things from any plant, the plant will die. All plants need this kind of salvation.
For Jehovah to be our Savior means that He is the One to meet our need. The entire Bible reveals that He is our sunshine (Psa. 84:11; Mal. 4:2), our air (John 20:22), our living water (4:10, 14), and our food (6:35). At the end of the Bible, the tree of life is the food, and the water of life is the drink within the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem there will be no need of the physical sun, because God the divine light will be shining there (Rev. 21:23). Outside the New Jerusalem the nations will still have the sun, but in the New Jerusalem we will have our unique sun — God Himself. The sun, the air, the water, and the food are the items of God being our Savior to save us. His saving us means that He supplies us with all that we need.
Because of the fall, sin came in, death came in, Satan came in, and the world came in. Even we ourselves became sin because our body became the flesh of sin, and our soul became the self. Because of these great negative things, we surely need a Savior. We need salvation. But today most Christians talk only about the need of being saved from the negative things. They do not see the positive aspect of God’s salvation. Even if we had not been damaged by sin, death, Satan, and the world, and even if we did not have the flesh and a sinful nature, we would still need God as our sunshine, air, water, and food. We need to see that even if we had never become fallen, we would still need to be regenerated. According to the revelation in Genesis 1 and 2, before Adam fell, he needed the tree of life. Although Adam was sinless and pure before he fell, he still needed God as life, signified by the tree of life.
The first issue of God’s move in man in His incarnation is that God became Jesus. He became Jehovah our Savior, Jehovah our salvation. Every day we need Jesus. Every day we need Him as our sunshine, our air, our water, and our food. When we experience Him as our Savior, we become vital believers. The problem with us is that we do not experience and enjoy Him as our Savior in a continual way.
In the morning we may become vital after spending some time with the Lord in prayer and in the Word. But in the afternoon we may become dead. We have to realize that we have a person in us whose name is Jehovah the Savior, Jehovah the salvation, Jesus. He is within us and is one with us. He is in us and we are in Him, but in order to enjoy Him continually, we must learn how to do everything according to the spirit. Romans 8:4 says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk according to the spirit. To walk means to have our life and to do everything. In our speaking, in our thinking, in our attitude, and in everything, we must live and walk not according to our American custom or habit but according to the spirit. Time after time I have to ask the Lord to forgive me when I do not walk according to the spirit.
Recently, I met an old acquaintance and his wife whom I have known for many years. Later, the wife wrote a letter to me, in which she apologized for being too loose in her talk with me. Before I received her letter, I also had asked the Lord to forgive me for speaking something to her and her husband that was not according to the spirit. I am sharing this small incident to show how little of our time is spent walking according to the spirit. When we read the newspaper, do we read it according to the spirit? I have to restrict myself strongly whenever I read the newspaper. I need to read the newspaper because I need to know the world situation in order to take care of the Lord’s interests. I need to know about the situation politically, diplomatically, and militarily in Taiwan because we have many churches there. I also need to know what is going on in Russia for the sake of the Lord’s move there. I need to be informed about the world situation and then pray accordingly. But when we pick up the newspaper, we are tempted and attracted to look at many other things. When we look at the newspaper, do we look at it according to the spirit? Furthermore, when we buy a tie, do we do it according to the spirit? I am sharing this to show that we need to do everything according to the spirit.
After many years of being a Christian, I feel that the most difficult thing for us to do today on this earth is to walk according to the spirit. The word spirit in Romans 8:4 denotes our regenerated human spirit indwelt by and mingled with the Spirit, who is the processed and consummated God. We all have to admit that we are short of God in our experience and in our inward being. This is why we need to be filled with the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to “pick up God,” of whom we are short.
Since the Lord’s recovery came to this country over thirty years ago, thousands of messages have been released through our ministry. Many of the saints in the recovery have received all the truths, yet they are short of the Spirit and of walking according to the spirit. Recently, we have been paying our attention to the vital groups, but according to our actual daily practice, we are not picking up God that much. This is why we need to have set times of prayer every day. We need to pray in the morning, and we should try to have another time of prayer during the day. We should make a decision that upon rising up early in the morning, we would not care for anything first except going to the Lord. We should also make a decision to go to the Lord in prayer at another time later in the day. This is a very difficult thing to do.
During our time with the Lord, we should not allow ourselves to be disturbed by the telephone or by someone coming to our door. If we were having a time with the Lord in prayer, and there was a knock on our door, would we go to answer it? We should have the attitude that when we are having such a time with the Lord, we are absent because we are fully occupied by God. Since we are absent and occupied by God, we do not need to answer the door or the phone at that time. We need to realize that during our time of prayer, we are busy with our God. In this sense, we are not at home during this time. We should not be directed or controlled by the telephone or by people knocking on our door. During our time with the Lord, we are absent from everything and busy with Him, occupied by Him.
Our lack of vitality in the Spirit is because of our lack of prayer. Most of us have read Romans 8:4, but how many of us really practice walking according to the spirit? We surely love Jesus and desire to exalt Jesus, but do we have our daily life according to the spirit? In order to experience and enjoy Jesus, Jehovah our Savior, we must practice doing everything according to the spirit.
The first issue of the incarnation is Jesus. Jesus is our Savior, our salvation. He is not merely in heaven; He is within us as the processed, consummated Spirit. But do we have our daily life walking according to Him? In our walk, does He take the lead or do we? Does He direct our steps or do we? We have to admit that most of the time in our Christian life we are the boss. We are the ones taking the lead. Quite often in our experience, we have even fired Jesus.
The virgin Mary brought forth a child and was told by God to give Him the name Jesus. As Christians, we have received Him. We possess Him, and He is with us. He lives in us, and He is our life. We may even say that He is our person. But we have to admit that most of the time we do not take Him as our person. Instead, we take our self as our person. Most of the time He is the guest within us, and we are the host. Since the day we were saved, we put Him in a position as the guest within us instead of allowing Him to make His home within us.
If this brief fellowship could be used by the Lord to touch us, it will revolutionize us. The realization that we should walk according to the spirit will restrict us and revolutionize our Christian life and church life.
We may say that the second issue of the incarnation is Emmanuel — God with us (Matt. 1:23). Jesus was the name given by God, whereas Emmanuel, meaning “God with us,” was the name by which man called Him. This was a fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. God told Mary that she would bear a child whose name should be called Jesus. When Jesus came, people called Him Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.”
The issue of the incarnation should be that God is with us. Today we have to say that God is with us not only outwardly but also and even more inwardly. The incarnation should be a process in our Christian life. Every day we should have the experience and realization that God is with us. When we are with people, do we cause people to feel that God is with us? As long as we are walking according to the spirit, others will have the sensation that God is with us. Our life should be the issue of incarnation.
The incarnation also issued in Jesus as the God-man, the complete God and the perfect man. Jesus was the God-man, living and walking on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. He is the complete God. This means that He is not merely God the Son but the Triune God — God the Father (Isa. 9:6), God the Son (Matt. 3:17), and God the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Colossians 2:9 says that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. He is the complete God, the entire God, the whole God, and the perfect man, the real man. This is the issue, the result, of God’s incarnation.
When we believed in Jesus, we received this God-man. Jesus Christ is the God-man, and we Christians are Christ-men. A Christian is a Christ-man, one who is one with Christ, having His life and nature in an organic union with Him, and who is living by Him, even living Him, in his daily life. A Christ-man is a God-man. As a man at work in an office, the people around you should have the realization that you are a man plus something — a man plus God. Our life should be such an issue of the incarnation. If it is not, the incarnation to us is merely a doctrine, a part of theology. The incarnation of the Triune God should not be just a doctrine as a part of theology to us. Our life must be a life of God’s incarnation. God today is incarnated in us.
The purpose of the incarnation was to bring God into man. God is in us (1 John 4:15), and we have to realize that the first step God took to get into us was to be incarnated. Furthermore, God was incarnated not only in Jesus but also in us. To be saved is to have God incarnated in you. This is because incarnation brings God into man. Before you were saved, you had nothing to do with God. But since the day you believed into the Lord Jesus, God was incarnated in you. This means that God came into you. In human history God never came into man until four thousand years after His creation of man. He was born into man to bring God into man. When God comes into a person through regeneration, the incarnation is repeated again.
God in eternity past was God only, but in incarnation He was made man. He made Himself man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. We may be able to say that we become like God in life and nature, but do we have the boldness to say that we become God in life and nature? We need to see that we have been born of God, and we are the sons of God. Have you not been born of man? Then are you not man? If you are not man, then what are you? In the same way, since we are born of God and are the sons of God, are we not God? You are whatever you have been born of. If you have been born of Chinese, you are Chinese. If you have been born of Caucasians, you are Caucasian. Since we are born of God, we may say and even we should say that we are God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
The church fathers taught the truth concerning deification in the first four centuries. They pointed out clearly that deification means that the believers in Christ have been made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. He is the unique God for people to worship in His Godhead, but we are God only in life and in nature, not in the Godhead. We all have to be clear that today we are God-men. Others should be able to sense that we are men plus something else. They may not be able to pin down what we are, but they can sense that we have something more. Eventually, when we speak something concerning Christ, they all will realize that what we have as something more is Christ Himself, that is, God. This is the testimony of a God-man.
The purpose of the incarnation was also to mingle God with man so that God and man may be one. We are not one with God merely by being in company with Him. This is why it is more meaningful to say that we and God are one. Instead of always saying that we are one with God, we should learn to say that we and God are one. But even to say that we and God are one is still not fully adequate. We have to say that we and God are one by being mingled together.
Because of the wrong teaching of Eutyches in the fifth century, most Christian teachers dare not to say that God and man are mingled together. The Eutychians denied the distinctness and coexistence of Christ’s divinity and humanity, and they asserted that the two natures were merged into one, resulting in a third nature being produced (see Concerning the Person of Christ). But this teaching is in contradiction with the revelation of the holy Word. We need to see the wonderful truth in the Bible concerning the mingling of divinity with humanity. According to Leviticus 2:4, the fine flour mingled with oil as the meal offering is a type of Christ as the One who was a mingling of divinity with humanity. Although oil and flour were mingled into one, they were still two in nature; they were not merged into one to become a third nature.
The Lord Jesus told us that He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15:5). We were born of God to be the branches of Christ. We have been grafted into Christ (Rom. 11:24). Grafting is a matter of mingling. When the branches of one tree are grafted into another tree, the two become one not just by joining but by mingling. The two plants are mingled to become one plant. In other words, the two lives are mingled to become one life.
The meal offering in Leviticus 2:4 was made of fine flour mingled with oil. Two elements were mingled together to be one entity but without a third element being produced. The English word mingled means that two elements are combined together but that they remain distinguishable in their elements. The meal offering was of two elements — the element of oil and the element of fine flour. No third element was produced. The truth of mingling can also be seen in 1 Corinthians 6:17, which says that “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. The divine Spirit dwells in our human spirit, and these two mingle together as one spirit.
Another purpose of the incarnation was to accomplish God’s redemption for man (Rom. 8:3; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; 12, Heb. 9:26, 28; 2:14). God cannot apply His redemptive work to us without being one with us. He died a vicarious death for us so that His death could now become our death (Gal. 2:20a). The only way that this could be realized is by mingling. God is mingled with us, so now He is one with us. When He died on the cross, we died there with Him. Without our union with Him and without being joined to Him, His substitutionary death could not be applied to us. When we become one with Christ, whatever He has accomplished as our Substitute becomes ours.
The incarnation was also for the purpose of carrying out God’s salvation in man (1 Tim. 1:15). We need not only God’s redemption but also God’s salvation. Redemption mostly deals with the negative things, and salvation is mostly to supply us with the positive things. For God to be our salvation, He needs to be one with us. Since He is one with us, His death was a vicarious death for our redemption. Also, His being everything to us as our life and nature means that He is our salvation. In order to be our salvation, He has to become one with us.
God was incarnated to impart the divine life into man. First John 4:9 says that “God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.” God came to be a man so that we could have His divine life. If He had never been a man, He could not come into us, and we could not have Him as our divine life. Incarnation was for the impartation of the divine life into us.
