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Scripture Reading: Matt. 1:20-23; Gal. 4:4; John 1:1-3, 14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:14; Phil. 2:6-8; Rom. 8:3; 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45
In the Old Testament, before accomplishing redemption, God spoke of His redemption in detail through prophecies and types. In this chapter we will consider how God intended to accomplish redemption according to His plan.
The first step that God took toward accomplishing redemption was to become flesh (John 1:1, 14). God desires to gain man; He wants man to receive His life, to be joined to Him, to be the brothers of Christ, and to deal with His enemy, Satan. This was God’s purpose in creating man, but the created man sinned and fell. God intended for man to be His expression, but man sinned and fell short of God’s glory (Gen. 1:26; Rom. 3:23). God also desired that man would cooperate with Him to destroy His adversary, Satan, but man rebelled against God and followed Satan.
Under these circumstances God could have responded in several ways. He could have chosen to destroy both the man, whom He had created and who sinned and rebelled against Him, and Satan, whom man followed. This would have been easy. The more difficult way involved rescuing the man who had sinned and followed His enemy. If God had chosen the easy way, it would not have been possible for His eternal plan to be accomplished, but since God chose the difficult way of rescuing man, His eternal plan could be accomplished. In order to accomplish redemption for man, therefore, God had to become flesh. The accomplishment of redemption required the incarnation of Christ for at least six reasons.
First, in order to satisfy the requirements of His righteousness, holiness, and glory, God had to deal with man’s sins. However, in order to deal with man’s sins, God had to stand in the position of a man, according to the status of a man. In order to bear the curse of sin, receive God’s righteous judgment, and suffer the pain of death on behalf of man, God had to become a man through incarnation so that He could be in the position and status of a man.
Second, God had to deal with corruption in man’s nature, which was an issue of the fall. On the one hand, God needed to rescue the man whom He had created, but on the other hand, He needed to terminate the man who was corrupted. Hence, God was incarnated to become flesh and to put on humanity in order to bring humanity with Him through death and into resurrection. God terminated corrupted humanity through His death on the cross, and He rescued created humanity in His resurrection.
Third, God had to deal with Satan, who corrupted man. Satan was originally an archangel created by God, but he rebelled against God and became the adversary of God. God does not want to come as the Creator in order to deal with one of His creatures. Instead, He wants man, another creature, to deal with the creature who rebelled against Him. Regrettably, man was deceived by Satan and entered into an illicit union with him. Man was corrupted by Satan. In order to rescue the Satan-deceived man from Satan’s hand and also to destroy this rebellious archangel through man, God had to become a creature through incarnation. Colossians 1:15 says that He is “the Firstborn of all creation.” In order to deal with the creature who had rebelled against Him, God assumed the status of a creature and was joined to humanity.
Fourth, God had to enable fallen men to come near to Him. As a result of the fall, human beings were far from God. It was impossible for them to come near to God. Because fallen sinners have no way to approach or stand before the God of glory, God came in the flesh in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7), concealing His glory in the flesh of His humanity. This enabled men to come near to Him, because they were approaching a man, not God.
Fifth, God had to reveal Himself so that men could know Him. Men can perceive God’s eternal power and divine characteristics through the things that He created (Rom. 1:20). Furthermore, men can know God’s ways and see His wisdom through the Scriptures. But unless He came out of His sanctuary in the heavens to be among men as a person in the likeness of a man, it would not be possible to see God or know Him directly. Therefore, God became a man in order to be comprehensible to men. He presented Himself to men in bodily form so that men could see and know Him.
Sixth, God had to become a man in order to be joined with man. God’s intention in creating man was for man to be one with Him, but man sinned and thus could not be joined to God. Therefore, God joined Himself to man so that man would be joined to Him. This was accomplished through incarnation.
The Word becoming flesh means that God and man were joined as one. Our words express and represent us. Likewise, the Word of God expressed and manifested God (John 1:1). The word flesh points to the physical body of fallen man. The Bible often refers to fallen man as flesh because fallen man lives according to his flesh (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; 1 Cor. 1:29). Therefore, the flesh refers not only to the physical body of fallen man but also to man after the fall. The Word becoming flesh means that the manifested God became a man of flesh in the likeness of a sinful man. By doing so, God entered into sinful man and became one with sinful man. However, He had only the likeness of sinful man and not the sin of sinful man. When the Word became flesh, God was manifested in the flesh (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16). The Word is God, and the Word becoming flesh is God being manifested. This manifestation is in the flesh, that is, in humanity.
Although the Word becoming flesh is God being manifested in and joined to fallen man, the Lord Jesus had only the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3). The Lord Jesus was without the sin of fallen man, just as the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:6-9 had the form of a serpent but not its poison. The bronze serpent is a type of Christ, the incarnated God (John 3:14). Although Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, He did not know sin (2 Cor. 5:21). He became a man with the human nature, but He did not have the sin in the fallen human nature.
Christ did not have sin, because He was born of a woman and not of a man (Gal. 4:4). Every person who is born on earth is of the seed of man. Only Christ is not of the seed of man; He is of the seed of a woman (Gen. 3:15). Christ is not of the seed of Adam, and He does not have Adam’s sinful life. The Lord’s humanity was conceived in the womb of a chaste virgin through the Holy Spirit. He did not possess Adam’s sinful nature, because He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a woman (Luke 1:34-35; Matt. 1:20-23). Although Christ was not touched by man’s sin, He had a genuine human nature and was in the likeness of men.
Christ existed in the form of God, but in order to accomplish redemption and be joined to man, He laid aside the form of God and put on the likeness of men, even taking the form of a slave (Phil. 2:6-7). According to His outward form, He was a man. Consequently, the Jews, who saw and knew Him according to His outward likeness, insisted that He was merely a man. They refused to believe Him when He said, “I am the Son of God” (John 10:33-36), and people regarded Him only as a man from Nazareth, that is, as an ordinary man born of human parents (1:45; Matt. 13:55-56). Even His disciples recognized Him as a man, because He was a genuine man (8:27).
The Lord Jesus was a genuine man. There was nothing about Him that caused people to doubt that He was a man. The Bible refers to Him as a man (1 Tim. 2:5), and the Lord Jesus also referred to Himself as the Son of Man (Luke 19:10; Matt. 16:13, 27; John 3:14). Even though He is God and the angels minister to Him, He was made a little inferior to the angels (Heb. 2:9). This means that He was in the likeness of men, in the likeness of those whom He would rescue (v. 14), possessing the human life and nature and partaking of flesh and blood. He was made like us in all things, but He was without sin.
The Lord Jesus is the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Adam is a type of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 5:14). Adam was a man, and the Lord is a man. Adam was the first Adam, the first man, but the Lord Jesus is the last Adam, the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). Just as Adam was the head and representative of all human beings, who were in him as his descendants, Christ is the Head and Representative of all the people who are in Him. Adam is one with those who belong to him, and he is the same as them in all things. Christ is also one with those who belong to Him, and He is like them in all things except in the matter of sin.
Although the Lord Jesus was made like us, yet without sin, He is not only a man; He is also God. He is God yet man. He is God, but He became a man. He is a genuine man, and He is the true God. He possesses the human life and nature, and He also possesses the divine life and nature. He bears the image and likeness of a man, and He also bears the image of God. While He lived on earth, His outward form was that of a man, but inwardly He was also God. People saw His human life and nature, but He was filled also with the divine life and nature. He expressed the human image and likeness, but hidden within Him was God’s image. Outwardly He had “no attracting form nor majesty,” but inwardly He was full of God’s glory and beauty (Isa. 53:2; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3). He descended out of heaven, but He was still in heaven (John 3:13). He spoke of Himself as the Son of Man (1:51), and He also spoke of Himself as the Son of God (9:35-38). He even said that He was one with the Father (10:30). He was manifested among men as a man, but He also let people know that He was equal with God and that He was God (5:17-18; 10:33).
The Lord lived a human life on earth, and He was found in fashion as a man. Hence, people believed that He was a man. At the same time, however, He executed God’s authority, exercised God’s wisdom, and manifested God’s glory so that people could see that He was the very God. At the wedding feast in Cana He changed water into wine. Then people realized that He was God the Creator, who can create something out of nothing (2:1-11; 1:3; Rom. 4:17). In a boat on the Sea of Galilee, He rebuked the wind and the sea, bringing in a great calm. Then the disciples realized that He was God, who rules over all things (Mark 4:35-41).
Until He took Peter, James, and John to a high mountain, they thought that the Lord was a man just like them. When He was transfigured, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as the light, they realized that He was one with the God of glory (Matt. 17:1-8). In the matter of paying the temple tax, Peter considered the Lord only in His status as a man and a law-abiding citizen. But when He directed Peter to get a stater from the mouth of a fish in order to pay the temple tax, the Lord showed Peter that He was God to whom all things belong (vv. 24-27). When the Lord wept in front of a sorrowful crowd by Lazarus’s tomb, people saw Him as a genuine man, full of human emotions. When He later cried out for Lazarus to come out from the tomb, people saw that He was the ever-living God, who gives life to the dead (John 11:25-44).
When the Lord prayed in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and His sweat was like great drops of blood, His sufferings as a man were apparent (Luke 22:39-46). When the Roman cohort and the attendants from the chief priests and Pharisees came to arrest Him, however, He identified Himself with the words I am. (“I Am” is the meaning of the name Jehovah, as in Exodus 3:14.) This caused those who came to draw back and fall to the ground (John 18:1-8). He manifested Jehovah, the One who has authority. He was Jesus the Nazarene whom they sought to arrest, but He was also Jehovah, the self-existing and ever-existing great I Am. Outwardly He was in the lowly, humble likeness of a man, but inwardly He was filled with the glorious image of God. The glorious image of God was concealed within His lowly and humble likeness of a man, just as the glory and beauty of the gold in the tabernacle was hidden within by rough and tough porpoise skins (Exo. 36:19). Nevertheless, His actions revealed God’s image and glory through the veil of His flesh. He was a genuine man and the true God.
The Lord Jesus is God mingled with man. God’s eternal intention is to enter into man and be joined with man. God wanted man to receive Him and be joined to Him, but man failed. Hence, God became a man and put on humanity, taking the image and likeness of a man and possessing the human life and nature. Now He is one with man and inseparable from man. When He lived on the earth, He was the Son of Man who put on humanity and had a body of flesh and blood, and even after being designated the Son of God in His resurrection, He still has a body of flesh and bones and the human nature (Rom. 1:4; Luke 24:39; John 20:27). Furthermore, now that He is sitting at the right hand of God in His ascension, He is still the Son of Man with the human nature (Acts 7:55-56). Ultimately, in His second coming in the glory of God, He will be the Son of Man, still in possession of His human nature (Matt. 26:64). He is not only God joined to man in time but God joined and mingled with man for eternity. Just as God possesses the divine life and nature, the Lord Jesus possesses the divine life and nature. Just as God possesses might and glory, the Lord Jesus also possesses might and glory. The Lord is a genuine man, and He is also God Himself.
Even though the Lord Jesus was a man in the flesh, He was God coming to be with man. Therefore, He was given the name Emmanuel. He was called by the name Jesus and also by the name Emmanuel. God gave Him the name Jesus, but people called His name Emmanuel, meaning “God with us” (1:21, 23). As the embodiment of God, the Lord Jesus is the declaration and manifestation of God among men (John 1:18). He is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of God’s substance (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15). He is God. When He was among men, God was among men. Therefore, He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
The Lord allowed people to worship Him and call Him God, because He is God manifested in the flesh, God living among men and with men (Matt. 8:2; 20:20; John 20:28). This is the great mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:16). God was hidden in man, His glory was concealed within human flesh, and the Creator was joined to His creatures. What a mystery! This was not only God mingled with man but also eternity joined to time, heaven united with earth, and the invisible blended with the visible. The eternal God was mingled with man in time, God in heaven was joined to man on earth, and the Creator was blended with His creatures. Hence, time, space, and creation were joined to God, were filled with God, and expressed God. Therefore, this mystery is great and godly. Godly means that God is manifested so that man can see Him. The Word becoming flesh was for God to be manifested in man, that is, in time, space, and creation, so that God could be seen by man. This is a great mystery.
The central revelation of the Bible is God becoming a man in order to be mingled with man. In the Gospel of Matthew God revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Son of God (16:13-17). When Peter ranked Jesus with Moses, who represents the law, and with Elijah, who represents the prophets, God came in and said that Jesus, the Son of Man, is His beloved Son (17:1-8). Even people as great as Moses and Elijah cannot be ranked with His beloved Son. The Lord told the Pharisees that He is the son of David and also the Lord of David (22:41-45). Romans 1:3-4 says, “Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” On the one hand, as the son of David, the Lord is a man, and on the other hand, as the Lord of David, He is God.
While living as a man in the flesh, Christ repeatedly said that God was in Him and that He was in God; that is, Christ was mingled with God (John 10:38; 14:10). Although Christ was manifested as the Son of Man, He wanted people to believe that He is the Son of God (9:35-38). Christ was a man with a human body, but He wanted people to believe that He is God (20:27-29). The Bible testifies that Jesus is the Son of God so that by believing we may have life in His name (v. 31). In order to be saved, we must confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9). To call Him Jesus is to confess that He is a man, but to call Him Lord is to confess that He is God. When we believe and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, we abide in God and He in us (1 John 5:5; 4:15). The Bible also says, “Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either,” because the Son has declared the Father (2:23; cf. 2 John 9; John 1:18). Believing that Jesus is the Son of God enables us to receive eternal life, because He is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:11-12, 20). We must believe that Jesus is the incarnated God. We must believe that He is God and that He is also a man. He is God yet man and man yet God. We must believe that Christ has both the divine life and nature and the human life and nature and that He bears the likeness of a man and the image of God. Jesus Christ is God joined to and mingled with man. This is what we must believe, and this is what Satan refuses to confess.
Satan, the evil spirits, and the demons know that God’s intention is to destroy them through the man Jesus Christ; hence, they will not confess that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (4:2-3). They know that the Lord Jesus came in His status as the Son of Man, not as the Son of God, in order to destroy them. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus came forth to work for God, Satan tempted Him to forsake His position as the Son of Man (Matt. 4:1-7). Twice Satan said to Him, “If You are the Son of God” (vv. 3, 6). His intention was to tempt the Lord to stand in His position as the Son of God and thus abandon His position as the Son of Man. Therefore, in verse 4 the Lord replied, “Man shall...live.” The Lord emphasized man. He knew that Satan’s subtle intention was for Him to leave His position as the Son of Man; hence, He said, “Man shall...live.” In His answers the Lord proved that He was a man living before God. He was a man through whom God could deal with Satan. Satan could not carry out his subtle intention and had to depart because the Lord stood firmly in His position as a man.
Even though the Lord repeatedly said that He was the Son of Man, Satan’s subordinates, the demons, repeatedly cried out that He was the Son of God (8:29). They would not confess that the Lord was the Son of Man, because they knew that He had come in His status as the Son of Man in order to deal with them.
When the Lord’s ministry on earth was coming to an end, Satan used the high priest to tempt the Lord in the same way that he had tempted the Lord in the wilderness. This was Satan’s final effort to tempt the Lord to leave His position as the Son of Man. The high priest asked, “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God” (26:63). Although the Lord answered, “You have said rightly,” He added emphatically, “You will see the Son of Man” (v. 64). Satan constantly tried to tempt the Lord to leave His position as the Son of Man, but the Lord remained in His position as the Son of Man in order to deal with Satan.
Today the evil spirits are not willing to confess that the Lord has come in the flesh (1 John 4:2-3). They will not confess that He is a man. The evil spirits know that the Lord became flesh in order to accomplish redemption and to deal with them.
On the one hand, Satan is unwilling to confess that the Lord Jesus is the Son of Man. On the other hand, he does not want people to confess that the Lord Jesus is God, the Son of God. Satan knows that once he confesses that the Lord is the Son of Man, he will be destroyed, and he also knows that any person who confesses that the Lord is the Son of God will receive eternal life and be saved. Therefore, Satan confesses that the Lord is the Son of God but not the Son of Man, and he causes people to confess that the Lord is the Son of Man but not the Son of God.
There are some who go beyond the teaching of Christ and reject the truth that Christ has two natures—divinity and humanity (2 John 9). Some people confess that Jesus was only a noble man, a religionist, a reformer, a person of universal love who served humanity and sacrificed for others, a model for human society, a teacher, and a philosopher. But they do not confess that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, who is one with God and is God. The Bible refers to such persons as antichrists (1 John 2:22). Such persons say that they believe in Christ, but they do not believe or confess that Jesus is the Christ. They may call themselves Christians, but they oppose and blaspheme Christ.
This kind of speaking concerning Christ is an invention of evil spirits that comes out of man’s rebellious mind; it is not the revelation given to man by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Such speaking goes beyond the teaching of Christ and does not confess that Christ is both God and man, possessing both divinity and humanity. Hence, those who have been saved by grace should reject persons who go beyond the teaching of Christ. God’s children should not receive or even greet such ones in order to avoid sharing in their evil works of opposing and blaspheming Christ (2 John 10-11). We must neither associate with such ones nor fellowship with them, because their teaching and speaking deny the person of Christ.
There are other erroneous concepts concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people say that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God but that He was not one with God. They teach that the Father and the Son are separate persons in the Godhead. According to this concept, They are separate “Gods” who are merely related to each other. According to the truth, however, the Father and the Son are distinct, but They are not separate persons in the Godhead. They are one. The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father (John 14:10). Only the Father knows the Son, and only the Son knows the Father (Matt. 11:27). Therefore, the Lord Jesus is God. We cannot see God or gain Him apart from the Lord Jesus.
Some people have the concept that the Lord Jesus was merely a man when He was on earth but that He became God after His ascension and was no longer a man. Such a concept comes from the imagination of an unenlightened mind. According to the Bible, in eternity past the Lord Jesus was God. In His incarnation He became flesh with genuine humanity, but He was still God. In His resurrection from the dead, the body of His humiliation was transfigured into a body of glory (Phil. 3:21). His resurrected body still possesses its human nature; He is still a man. He ascended into heaven with His resurrected body, and He is still a man with the human nature. He is also still God. In His second coming He will be the God of glory, but He will be manifested as a man.
The Lord Jesus is God, who created all things, becoming a man. He is God putting on humanity. He is God entering into man to be joined to man. He is God in life, nature, position, person, authority, glory, power, and wisdom. When He became a man, He put on the image and likeness of a man, possessing the human life and nature, living a human life on earth, and having the flavor of man. God in Christ became a man in order to accomplish redemption, thus solving God’s problems and attaining His goal. In order for man to have God’s life and become His expression, God became a man; He came in the likeness of man. In order for man to be joined to Him, God came to be joined to man. The Lord Jesus is God becoming a man. Even though He is a man, He is still God. He is God yet man and man yet God. This is our Savior!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, how glorious and how precious You are! We can draw near to You and contact You because You are the glorious God who became a lowly man, and You are the mighty Creator who became a small creature. You came out of unapproachable light and concealed Your matchless glory in the humble likeness of a man; hence, sinners can approach You, and tax collectors can be Your friends. Sinners can kiss Your feet, and those whom You love can recline on Your bosom. You touched the leper with Your hand, and You shed tears with those in sorrow. You have God’s inward affections and the human nature. In You we see a genuine man and touch the true God. Only You are the complete God and the perfect man. You brought God to the earth, and You also brought man to the heavens. You were both God and man while You were on the earth, and You are still both God and man in the heavens. When You walked in the land of Judea, You were a man, and You were the incarnated Word. Today on the throne You are still God with the human nature. When You lived on earth, God was humbled in man, but today man is glorified in God. Lord, how glorious and precious this revelation is! We worship and praise You!
O glorious Lord, as we consider the coming day of glory, our heart leaps, and our mouth is filled with praise. Then Your human nature will be manifested in the glory of God for the universe and all creation to see that You are the incarnated God and the glorified man. You are God yet man and man yet God. Then all creation will see that You are the glorious mystery. We worship and praise You even now because we see and know You today. We desire to receive more revelation and to know You in a deeper way. We give You all honor and love. We praise Your lovely name forever and ever! Amen.
