Through Incarnation, the Word became Flesh for God to be Manifested in the Flesh

The Word, who is God, became flesh, and in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; in Christ, God was manifested in the flesh, that is, God was living a human life, and in us today He can manifest Himself if we live in resurrection to express God and not ourselves. Amen!

The entire Bible reveals a crucial truth: God wants to be expressed and manifested through man. Even though He is the Creator of all things, existing in Himself and by Himself, without any need of anyone, His desire is to be expressed through man.

This is truly mind-blowing.

The Creator of the universe who created all things by His speaking and who upholds and sustains all life on earth wants to be manifested, and the chosen instrument for this is not the angels but man.

God’s enemy, however, came in to damage, ruin, and corrupt man, to the extent that man is now sinful by birth, and the evil nature of Satan is in man.

So God Himself became a man. He was incarnated to be a man, Jesus Christ.

Jesus was the infinite God mingled with and expressed in the finite man.

Our human mind cannot comprehend how this can be, but the infinite God whom the heavens and the earth cannot contain became a man to be finite, limited, and restricted.

The main reason for the incarnation of God is not only to accomplish redemption but for God to be manifested in the flesh.

In this man, Jesus Christ, God was manifested in an individual way.

Wherever He was, He brought God there.

He manifested God when He spoke, when He worked, and when He performed miracles.

Christ lived the life of a God-man – He was both God and man; this was a life lived by the divine life, not by the human life.

Even though man failed God and chose to eat the wrong tree in the Garden of Eden, God did not give man up.

Rather, He became a man in the flesh, a lowly man, a despised man, a man of sorrow.

In this man, God was manifested in full, for in Him all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.

Christ lived a perfect human life on earth expressing God, manifesting God, and He died an all-inclusive, all-terminating death on the cross to terminate anything that is negative.

Then, in His resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit to impart Himself and propagate Himself into many human beings who believe into Him.

We believers in Christ are now Christ’s continuation, His reproduction, and His multiplication.

By believing into the Lord Jesus, we are regenerated with His life to become children of God, and we are part of the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh.

We now are learning to live a life not by our human life but by the divine life to express God in our daily living.

Through Incarnation, the Word became Flesh for God to be Manifested in the Flesh

John 1:1 says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Verse 14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and the disciples saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

Here it doesn’t say that God became man but that the Word became flesh; God became flesh, in the likeness, the fashion, of man (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7-8).

The eternal Word of God became flesh; He was born in a manger, in a low estate, very humble, to be found in likeness as man.

We would not associate God with the flesh, for the flesh has a negative meaning; however, John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh.

Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He did not have the sin of the flesh.

This One, who did not know sin, was made sin on our behalf so that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. Wow.

When He was on earth, the Lord Jesus had no sin in Him.

In the form of a man means that Christ appeared to people, yet He was God manifested in a man (2 Cor. 5:16).

The Word became flesh for God to be manifested in the flesh.

The God who the Word is, is not a partial God but the entire God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

It is very interesting that John says in the beginning was the Word.

The Word refers to the definition, expression, and explanation of God.

We express ourselves through our words.

The eternal word one day came to become flesh in order for the mysterious, invisible, and hidden God to be known, defined, and manifested.

The incarnated Christ is the individual manifestation of God in the flesh.

He was not only in the beginning with God but He is God Himself.

The incarnated Christ is God manifested in the flesh. God became flesh for God to be manifested in the flesh; He lived a life that is full of grace and full of reality.

However, God did not become the flesh; He did not become a sinful man with the sinful flesh.

Rather, He became flesh by putting on the human nature. His human nature, however, had no sin.

What people saw when they looked at Him was a man, but this man manifested God.

The Lord Jesus was a real and perfect man, and He expressed the complete God.

He was God manifested in the flesh. In Christ, the eternal, infinite, invisible, glorious, omnipotent, and omniscient God was expressed and manifested.

The eternal God was manifested in the mortal man. The infinite God was manifested in the finite man.

The invisible and glorious God was manifested in the visible and inglorious man.

Though Jesus Christ as a man in the flesh was limited, finite, and mortal in His humanity, He manifested God in the flesh.

If you read the Gospels you see a man who is also God, a God who is manifested in the flesh, in a normal human, yet mystical and divine way.

Christ expressed the divine attributes as His human virtues in all His actions, and that expression was the manifestation of God in the flesh.

People saw Jesus of Nazareth living, walking, speaking, and doing things, but it was actually God who was manifested in Him.

Even after His resurrection, when the Lord left the things in the tomb in good order, you could see God being manifested in a man (John 20:7).

Such a One now lives in us to be our life. He lives in each one of His believers to repeat the same kind of life in us. He wants to manifest God in us and through us.

Lord Jesus, we praise You as the Word who became flesh to manifest God in the flesh. Wow, the infinite God became a finite man, and the immortal God became a mortal man so that God may be manifested in the flesh! Praise the Lord, the glorious God became an inglorious man, and the invisible God became a visible man for the manifestation of God in the flesh! Thank You for setting up a pattern of living a God-man life for God to be manifested in the flesh. You expressed God, defined God, and explained God. And praise the Lord, You are now in us as the Spirit to live in us the same kind of life today! Amen, Lord, we want to live one spirit with You today. We want to express You and manifest You in the flesh. May our daily living be the manifestation of God in the flesh, the continuation and duplication of the life of Jesus, the first God-man!

Live and Do Things in Resurrection to Express God for His Manifestation in the Flesh

Col. 2:9 says that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Before His incarnation, all the fullness dwells in Christ, but not in the bodily form; after His incarnation, the fullness dwells in His bodily.

The fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ in a way that is real, practical, and tangible.

In Christ with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead dwells, and He is the manifestation of God in the flesh.

This verse is very mysterious. We may think that it is good enough for us to say that in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, but Paul adds the word, bodily.

God prepared a body for Christ, and in this body, the fullness of the Godhead dwells. Wow.

It may seem to imply that this very One who came with his human body embodying all the fullness of the Godhead, was the manifestation of God in the flesh in an individual way.

In Him, God delights to the uttermost. He expressed God and manifested God. God delights in a body that can contain all the fullness of the Godhead for His expression.

And this is true not only for the human body of Christ but even for His resurrected, enlarged Body, the Body of Christ.

Even in His glorified body, which is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the Godhead dwells. Hallelujah!

Since the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead must be the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

That all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily means that the Triune God is embodied in Him (John 14:10).

As the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, Christ is not only the Son of God but also the entire God. This is truly wonderful.

If we try to think about it too much, our mind is not able to understand or comprehend this, but if we exercise our spirit to read and pray over the word of God, we will apprehend this truth in our spirit.

And the most wonderful thing is that it is not only in Christ that God is manifested but even more, He is now manifested in us, the Body of Christ, the enlargement of Christ.

It is God’s good pleasure for Him to have many sons, the duplication and enlargement of His Firstborn Son, so that He may be expressed in the Son through the Spirit.

For this, God became flesh to manifest Himself first in Christ as His individual manifestation and then in the church, the enlarged Body of Christ, as the enlarged corporate expression of God in the flesh.

And the book of Revelation clearly shows us that for eternity God will be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the consummate corporate expression in the new heaven and new earth.

Praise the Lord! The fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily; the fullness refers not to the riches of God but to the expression of these riches, to expression of the riches of what God is.

In Christ dwells the expression of the riches of what God is.

Christ expressed the divine attributes of God as His human virtues; He did this by going through death and resurrection day by day so that He may live in resurrection a life of manifesting God.

Today we as believers in Christ need to do the same. We need to exercise our spirit and live in resurrection and do all things in resurrection.

When we exercise our spirit and live in resurrection, we will display the Christian virtues, which is Christ being lived out in us, the manifestation of God in the flesh.

May we be those who live and do things in resurrection so that God may be manifested in our living.

May the church life be the manifestation of God in the flesh.

Though we are in the flesh, we should not live by the flesh.

Rather, we should live in and by resurrection so that God may be manifested in us.

May God be manifested in our living. May His divine attributes be expressed through our human virtues as we do things and live in resurrection.

Thank the Lord for our mingled spirit, the key to contacting God, receiving God, enjoying God, and living God.

When we exercise our spirit and remain in our spirit, we live in resurrection and we do things in resurrection, and God is manifested in us.

When we contact the Lord day by day and moment by moment through the exercise of our spirit, we live in and by resurrection, and God lives in our living.

Lord Jesus, we praise You as the One in who dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily! Hallelujah, the expression of the riches of what God dwells in Christ for God to be manifested in the flesh! Amen, Lord, thank You for coming into us to live in us today. We exercise our spirit to contact You, receive You, enjoy You, and live You. We want to live in and by resurrection, not in the flesh and by the flesh. Oh Lord, keep us turning to our spirit today! Keep us exercising our spirit so that God may live in our living and His attributes may become our virtues for His manifestation! Amen, may God be manifested in us and through us today. May the church life be filled with the manifestation of God in the flesh. Lord Jesus, be expressed through us. May our Christian virtues be the expression of the divine attributes for the manifesting of God in the flesh!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 13, 161, and 208 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 9, entitled, The Function of the Church (2) The Corporate Manifestation of God in the Flesh.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The experience of the pneumatic Christ in the Gospel of John, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The Deep Significance of the Birth of Jesus Christ, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Tabernacled among us, a portion from, Christ as the Reality, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The ministry of Christ in the stage of Incarnation, article by John Campbell in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The Word becoming flesh and Tabernacling among us, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Men of God, Living on God’s Instant, Spoken, Applied Words in the Gospels, article at, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The Glory of God (1): Concealed in the Shell of Christ’s Humanity, article via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Word of God—how rich, profound, / His testimony shown; / Within the Word Thou art declared, / That God should be made known. / Thou, living Word, didst flesh become, / With man on earth hast trod; / And all Thy words and conduct here / Expression gave to God. / O living Word, Thou art the life, / Thou art the living light; / As life Thou dost illuminate / The Father to our sight. (Hymns #58 stanzas 3-5)
  – The fulness of God dwells in Thee; / Thou dost manifest God’s glory; / In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought; / As Spirit, oneness with me sought. / All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be. (Hymns #501 stanzas 2-3)
  – As Christ is God’s embodiment, / Expressing God as life divine; / So is the Spirit unto Christ, / Revealing Him in life sublime. / The fulness of the Father God / In Christ the Son dwells bodily; / And all the riches of the Son / Are Spirit, our reality. (Hymns #243 stanzas 2-3)