III. On the Truth of the Incarnation
18. God’s arrival in the flesh is primarily to enable people to see the real deeds of God, to materialize the formless Spirit in the flesh, and allow people to see and touch Him. In this way, those who are made complete by Him will live Him out, they will be gained by Him, and after His heart. If God only spoke in heaven, and did not actually come on earth, then people would still be incapable of knowing God, they would only be able to preach God’s deeds using empty theory, and would not have God’s words as reality. God has come on earth primarily to act as an exemplar and a model for those who are to be gained by God; only in this way can people actually know God, and touch God, and see Him, and only then can they truly be gained by God.
19. Only when God humbles Himself to a certain point, which is to say, only when God becomes flesh, can man be His intimate and confidant. God is of the Spirit: How is man qualified to be the intimate of this Spirit, who is so exalted and unfathomable? Only when the Spirit of God descends into the flesh, and becomes a creature with the same exterior as man, can man understand His will and actually be gained by Him. He speaks and works in the flesh, shares in the joys, sorrows, and tribulations of man, lives in the same world as man, protects man, and guides him, and through this He cleanses man, and allows man to gain His salvation and His blessing. Having gained these things, man truly understands God’s will, and only then can he be an intimate of God. Only this is practical. If God were invisible and intangible to man, how could man be His intimate? Is this not empty doctrine?
from “Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
20. In one regard, the incarnation of God during the last days removes the place held by the vague God in the conceptions of man, so that there is no longer the image of the vague God in man’s heart. Through His actual words and actual work, His movement across all lands, and the exceptionally real and normal work that He does among man, He causes man to know the reality of God, and removes the place of the vague God in man’s heart. In another regard, God uses the words spoken by His flesh to make man complete, and accomplish all things. This is the work that God will accomplish during the last days.
21. For all of those who live in the flesh, changing their disposition requires goals to pursue, and knowing God requires witnessing the real deeds and the real face of God. Both can only be achieved by God’s incarnate flesh, and both can only be accomplished by the normal and real flesh. This is why the incarnation is necessary, and why it is needed by all corrupt mankind.
from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
22. God becomes flesh only to complete the work of the flesh, not simply to allow all men to see Him. Rather, He lets His work affirm His identity, and allows what He reveals to attest to His substance. His substance is not baseless; His identity was not seized by His hand; it is determined by His work and His substance. Though He has the substance of God Himself and is capable of doing the work of God Himself, He is still, after all, flesh unlike the Spirit. He is not God with the qualities of the Spirit; He is God with the shell of flesh.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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