187. The first incarnation was to redeem man from sin, to redeem him by means of the fleshly body of Jesus, that is, He saved man from the cross, but the satanic corrupt dispositions still remained within man. The second incarnation is no longer to serve as a sin offering but rather to save fully those who were redeemed from sin. This is done so that those whose sins have been forgiven may be free from sin and fully purified, and attain dispositional change, and thus break free of Satan’s influence of darkness and return before the throne of God. Only in this way can man be fully sanctified. After the Age of Law had come to an end, and beginning with the Age of Grace, God commenced the work of salvation, which continues into the last days, when God performs the work of judging and chastising the human race for their rebelliousness, thereby completely purifying mankind. Only after this will God conclude His work of salvation and enter into rest. Therefore, in the three stages of work, only twice has God become flesh to carry out His work among man Himself. That is because only one in the three stages of work is to guide people in leading their lives, while the other two consist of the work of salvation. Only by becoming flesh can God live alongside man, experience the suffering of the world, and live in a normal body of flesh. Only in this way can He supply people with the practical Way that they need as created beings. It is through the incarnation of God that man receives the full saving grace from God, not directly from heaven through his own supplication. Man is of flesh and blood, he has no way of seeing the Spirit of God, much less of approaching His Spirit, so all that he can come into contact with is God’s incarnate flesh. Only by means of this is man able to grasp all of the Way and all the truths and receive the full saving grace. The second incarnation is sufficient to rid man of his sins and to fully purify him. Hence, with the second incarnation, the entirety of God’s work in the flesh will be brought to a close and the significance of God’s incarnation be made complete. Thenceforth, the work of God in the flesh will have entirely come to an end. After the second incarnation, He will not become flesh a third time for His work. For His entire management will have come to an end, the incarnation of the last days will have fully gained the people He has selected, and mankind in the last days will all have been sorted according to their kind. He will no longer do the work of salvation, nor will He return to the flesh to carry out any work.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)

188. After the work of Jehovah, Jesus became flesh to do His work among man. His work was not carried out in isolation, but was built upon the work of Jehovah. It was work for a new age that God did after He had concluded the Age of Law. Similarly, after the work of Jesus ended, God went on with His work for the next age, because the entire management of God is always progressing forward. When the old age passes, it will be replaced by a new age, and once the old work has been completed, there will be new work to continue God’s management. This incarnation is God’s second incarnation, which follows upon Jesus’ work. Of course, this incarnation does not occur independently; it is the third stage of work after the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. Every time God initiates a new stage of work, there must always be a new beginning and it must always bring a new age. So too are there corresponding changes in the disposition of God, in the manner of His working, in the location of His work, and in His name. No wonder, then, that it is difficult for man to accept the work of God in the new age. But regardless of how He is opposed by man, God is always doing His work, and is always leading the whole of mankind forward. When Jesus came into the world of man, He ushered in the Age of Grace and ended the Age of Law. During the last days, God once more became flesh, and with this incarnation He ended the Age of Grace and ushered in the Age of Kingdom. All those who are able to accept the second incarnation of God will be led into the Age of Kingdom, and will moreover be able to personally accept the guidance of God. Though Jesus came among man and did much work, He only completed the work of redeeming all mankind and served as man’s sin offering; He did not rid man of all his corrupt dispositions. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to become the sin offering and bear the sins of man, but it also required God to do even greater work to rid man completely of his Satan-corrupted dispositions. And so, after man was forgiven of his sins, God returned to the flesh to lead man into the new age, and began the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought mankind into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and they shall gain the truth, the way, and the life.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface

189. The “incarnation” is God’s appearance in the flesh; God works among created mankind in the image of the flesh. So, as He is God incarnate, He must first be flesh, flesh with normal humanity; this is the most basic prerequisite. In fact, the implication of God’s incarnation is that God lives and works in the flesh, that God in His very essence becomes flesh, becomes a person.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God

190. Incarnation means that God’s Spirit becomes a flesh, that is, God becomes flesh; the work that the flesh does is the work of the Spirit, which is realized in the flesh, expressed by the flesh. No one except God’s flesh can fulfill the ministry of the incarnate God; that is, only God’s incarnate flesh, this normal human, can express the divine work. No human can take His place in this. If, during His first coming, God had not possessed normal humanity before the age of twenty-nine—if as soon as He was born He could perform signs and wonders, if as soon as He learned to speak He could speak the language of heaven, if from birth He could apprehend all worldly matters, see every person’s thoughts and what lies within their heart—such a person could not have been called a normal human being, and such flesh could not have been called human flesh. If this were the case with Christ, then the meaning and the essence of God’s incarnation would be lost. That He possesses normal humanity proves that He is God incarnated in the flesh; the fact that He undergoes a normal human growth process further demonstrates that He is a normal flesh; adding in His work on top of this, this is all enough to prove that He is God’s Word, God’s Spirit, become flesh.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God

191. The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh clothed by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of the flesh. This difference is because Christ is the incarnation of the Spirit, rather than being fleshly. He has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal humanity is to sustain all His normal activities in the flesh, while His divinity carries out the work of God Himself. Be it His humanity or divinity, both submit to the will of the heavenly Father. The essence of Christ is the Spirit, that is, the divinity. Therefore, His essence is that of God Himself; this essence will not disrupt His own work, and He could not possibly do anything that destroys His own work, nor would He ever utter any words that go against His own will. Thus, the incarnate God would absolutely never do any work that disrupts His own management. This is what all people should understand. The essence of the work of the Holy Spirit is to save man, and is for the sake of God’s own management. Similarly, the work of Christ is also to save man, and is for the sake of God’s will. Given that God becomes flesh, He realizes His essence within His flesh, such that His flesh is sufficient to undertake His work. Therefore, all the work of God’s Spirit is replaced by the work of Christ during the time of incarnation, and at the core of all work throughout the time of incarnation is the work of Christ. It cannot be mixed with work from any other age. And since God becomes flesh, He works in the identity of His flesh; since He comes in the flesh, He then finishes in the flesh the work that He ought to do. Be it the Spirit of God or be it Christ, both are God Himself, and He does the work that He ought to do and performs the ministry that He ought to perform.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of Christ Is Submission to the Will of the Heavenly Father

192. He who is God incarnate possesses the essence of God, and He who is God incarnate possesses the expression of God. Since God has become flesh, He brings with Him the work He intends to do, and since He is God incarnate, He expresses what He is, and is able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon him, and point the way for him. Flesh that does not have the essence of God is decidedly not the incarnate God; of this there is no doubt. If man intends to examine whether it is God’s incarnate flesh, then he must determine this from the disposition He expresses and the words He speaks. Which is to say, to determine whether or not it is God’s incarnate flesh, and whether or not it is the true way, one must discriminate on the basis of His essence. And so, the key to whether or not it is the flesh of God incarnate lies in His essence (His work, His words, His disposition, and many other aspects), rather than external appearance. If man examines only His external appearance, and as a result overlooks His essence, this shows that man is foolish and ignorant.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface

193. The implication of God’s incarnation is that God lives and works in the flesh, that God in His very essence becomes flesh, becomes a person. His incarnate life and work can be divided into two stages. First is the life He lives before performing His ministry. He lives in an ordinary human family, in utterly normal humanity, observing the normal ethics of human life and obeying the normal laws of human life, with normal human needs (food, clothing, sleep, shelter), normal human weaknesses, and normal human emotions. In other words, during this first stage He lives in non-divine, completely normal humanity, engaging in all the normal human activities. The second stage is the life He lives after beginning to perform His ministry. He still dwells in the ordinary humanity with a normal human shell, showing no outward sign of the supernatural. Yet He lives purely for the sake of His ministry, and during this time His normal humanity exists entirely in order to maintain the normal work of His divinity, for by then His normal humanity has matured to the point of being able to perform His ministry. So, the second stage of His life is to perform His ministry in His normal humanity, when it is a life both of normal humanity and complete divinity. The reason why, during the first stage of His life, He lives in completely ordinary humanity is that His humanity is not yet able to maintain the entirety of the divine work, is not yet mature; only after His humanity grows mature—that is, when it can shoulder His ministry—can He set about performing the ministry that He ought to perform. Since He is flesh, He needs to grow and mature. Therefore, the first stage of His life is that of normal humanity, whereas in the second stage, His humanity is capable of shouldering His work and performing His ministry, and so the life the incarnate God lives during His ministry is one of both humanity and complete divinity. If, from the moment of His birth, God’s incarnate flesh formally began His ministry, and all that He did involved performing supernatural signs and wonders, then He would have no corporeal essence. Therefore, His humanity exists for the sake of His corporeal essence; there can be no flesh without humanity, and a person without humanity is not a human being. In this way, the humanity of God’s flesh is an intrinsic attribute of God’s incarnate flesh. To say that “when God becomes flesh He only has divinity, and no humanity” is blasphemy, for this statement simply does not hold water, and violates the principle of incarnation. Even after He begins to perform His ministry, He still lives in His divinity with a human outer shell when He does His work; it is just that at this time, His humanity serves the sole purpose of allowing His divinity to perform the work in the normal flesh. So the agent of the work is the divinity inhabiting His humanity. His divinity, not His humanity, is at work, yet this divinity is hidden within His humanity; in essence, His work is still done by His complete divinity, not by His humanity. But the performer of the work is His flesh. One could say that He is a human being and also God, for God becomes a God living in the flesh; He has a human shell and a human essence, and even more so He has the essence of God. Because He is a human being with the essence of God, He is above all created humans, above any person who can perform God’s work. And so, among all those with a human shell like His, among all those who possess humanity, only He is the incarnate God Himself—all others are created humans. Though they all have humanity, created humans have nothing but humanity, while God incarnate is different: In His flesh He not only has humanity but, most importantly, divinity. His humanity can be seen in the outer appearance of His flesh and in His everyday life, but His divinity is difficult to perceive. Because His divinity is expressed only when He has humanity, and is not as supernatural as people imagine it to be, it is extremely difficult for people to see. Even today, people have the utmost difficulty fathoming exactly what the essence of the incarnate God is. Even after I have spoken so many words, I expect it is still a mystery to most of you. In fact, this issue is very simple: Since God becomes flesh, His essence is a combination of humanity and divinity. This combination is called God Himself, God Himself on earth.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God

194. The humanity of God incarnate exists to maintain the normal divine work in the flesh; His normal human thinking sustains His normal humanity and supports all His normal corporeal activities. One could say that His normal human thinking exists in order to maintain all the work of God in the flesh. If this flesh did not possess a normal human mind, then God could not work in the flesh, and what He needs to do in the flesh could never be accomplished. Though the incarnate God possesses a normal human mind, His work is not adulterated by human thought; He undertakes the work in the humanity with a normal mind, under the precondition of possessing the humanity with a mind, not by the exercise of normal human thought. No matter how lofty the thoughts of His flesh are, His work is not tainted by logic or thinking. In other words, His work is not conceived by the mind of His flesh, but is a direct expression of the divine work in His humanity. All of His work is the ministry He must fulfill, and none of it is conceived by His brain. For example, healing the sick, casting out demons, and the crucifixion were not products of His human mind, and could not have been achieved by any man with a human mind. Likewise, today’s work of conquest is a ministry that must be performed by the incarnate God, but it is not the will of the person, it is the work His divinity should do, work of which no flesh-and-blood human is capable. So the incarnate God must possess a normal human mind, must possess normal humanity, because He must perform His work in the humanity with a normal mind. This is the essence of the work of the incarnate God, the very essence of the incarnate God.

Before Jesus performed the work, He merely lived in His normal humanity. No one could tell that He was God, no one found out that He was the incarnate God; people just knew Him as a person of the utmost ordinariness. His normal humanity—which was as ordinary as could be—was proof that God was incarnated in the flesh, and that the Age of Grace was the age of the work of the incarnate God, not the age of the Spirit’s work. It was proof that the Spirit of God was realized completely in the flesh, that in the age of God’s incarnation His flesh would perform all the work of the Spirit. The Christ with normal humanity is a flesh in which the Spirit is realized, and is possessed of normal humanity, normal reason, and human thought. “Being realized” means God becoming man, the Spirit becoming flesh; to put it more plainly, it is when God Himself inhabits a flesh with normal humanity, and through it expresses His divine work—this is what it means to be realized, or incarnated.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God

195. The humanity of Christ is governed by His divinity. Though He is in the flesh, His humanity is not entirely like that of a man of the flesh. He has His own unique personality, and this too is governed by His divinity. His divinity has no weakness; the weakness of Christ refers to that of His humanity. To a certain degree, this weakness constrains His divinity, but such limits are within a certain scope and time, and are not boundless. When it comes time to carry out the work of His divinity, it is done regardless of His humanity. The humanity of Christ is directed entirely by His divinity. Aside from the normal life of His humanity, all other actions of His humanity are influenced, affected, and directed by His divinity. Though Christ has a humanity, it does not disturb the work of His divinity, and this is precisely because the humanity of Christ is directed by His divinity; though His humanity is not mature when it comes to worldly dealings, this does not affect the normal work of His divinity. When I say that His humanity has not been corrupted, I mean that the humanity of Christ can be immediately directed by His divinity, and is possessed of higher reason than that of the ordinary man. His humanity is most suited to being directed by the divinity in His work; His humanity is most able to express the work of the divinity, and most able to submit to such work. As God works in the flesh, He never neglects the duty that a person in the flesh ought to perform; He is able to worship God in heaven with a true heart. He has the essence of God, and His identity is that of God Himself. It is only that He has come to earth and become a created being, with the outer shell of a created being, and now possessed of a humanity that He did not have before. He is able to worship God in heaven; this is the being of God Himself and is inimitable to man. His identity is God Himself. It is from the perspective of the flesh that He worships God; therefore, the words “Christ worships God in heaven” are not wrong. What He asks of people is precisely His own being; He has already achieved all that He asks of people prior to asking such of them. He would never make demands of others while He Himself is free from them, for this all constitutes His being. Regardless of how He carries out His work, He would not act in a manner that rebels against God. No matter what He asks of man, no demand exceeds that which is attainable by man. All that He does is that which follows the will of God and is for the sake of His management. The divinity of Christ is above all people; therefore, He is the highest authority of all created beings. This authority is His divinity, that is, the disposition and being of God Himself, which determines His identity. Therefore, no matter how normal His humanity, it is undeniable that He has the identity of God Himself; no matter from which standpoint He speaks and howsoever He submits to the will of God, it cannot be said that He is not God Himself.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of Christ Is Submission to the Will of the Heavenly Father

196. The incarnate Son of man expressed God’s divinity through His humanity, and conveyed God’s intentions to mankind. And through His expression of God’s intentions and disposition, He also revealed to people the God of the spiritual realm that cannot be seen or touched. What people saw was God Himself, with form and image, and made of flesh and blood. So the incarnate Son of man reified and humanized such things as the identity, status, image, and disposition of God Himself, as well as what He has and is. Even though, in terms of the image of God, the Son of man was subject to certain limitations in His appearance, His essence and what He has and is were entirely able to represent the identity and status of God Himself—there were merely some differences in the form of expression. Whether in His humanity or His divinity, we cannot deny that the Son of man represented the identity and status of God Himself. It’s just that, during this time, God worked through the flesh, spoke from the perspective of the flesh, and faced mankind with the identity and status of the Son of man, giving people the opportunity to come into contact with and experience the practical words and work of God among mankind. It also allowed people insight into His divinity and His greatness in the midst of humility, as well as to gain an initial understanding and definition of the realness and practicality of God. Even though the Lord Jesus’ work, ways of working, and the perspective from which He spoke, differed from those of God’s true form in the spiritual realm, everything about Him represented God Himself with absolute precision, whom mankind had never seen before—this cannot be denied! That is to say, regardless of the manner by which God appears, the perspective from which He speaks, or the image with which He faces mankind, God represents only Himself; He could not possibly represent any individual, nor could He represent any corrupt human. God is God Himself. This cannot be denied.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III

197. The practical God Himself who is spoken of today works both in humanity and in divinity. Through the appearance of the practical God, His normal human work and life and His work of complete divinity are achieved. His humanity and divinity are combined as one, and the work of both is accomplished through words; whether in humanity or divinity, He utters words. When God works in humanity, He speaks the language of humanity, so that people may engage and understand more easily. His words are spoken plainly and are easy to understand, such that they can be provided to all people; regardless of whether people are possessed of knowledge or poorly educated, they can all receive God’s words. God’s work in divinity is also carried out through words, but it is full of provision, it is full of life, it is untainted by human ideas, it does not involve human preferences, and it is not subject to the limitations of humanity, it is free from any constraints of normal humanity; it is also carried out in the flesh, but it is the direct expression of the Spirit. If people only accept God’s work in humanity, then they will confine themselves to a certain scope, and so will require perennial pruning and discipline in order for there to be even a slight change in them. Without the work or presence of the Holy Spirit, though, they will always resort to their old ways. It is through the work of divinity that this drawback and deficiency is compensated for, and people made complete. Instead of sustained pruning, what is required is positive provision, using words to make up for all deficiencies, using words to expose people’s every state, using words to direct their lives, their every utterance, their every action, to lay bare their intentions and motivations. This is the practical work of the practical God. Thus, in your attitude to the practical God, you should submit before His humanity, recognizing and acknowledging Him, and all the more so you should accept and submit to His work and words in divinity. God’s appearance in the flesh means that all of the work and words of the Spirit of God are done through His normal humanity and through His incarnate flesh. In other words, God’s Spirit at once directs His humanity to perform work, and carries out the work of divinity in the flesh, and in God incarnate you can see both God’s work in humanity and His work in complete divinity. This is the actual significance of the practical God’s appearance in the flesh. If you can see this clearly, you will be able to connect all the different parts of God; you will cease to attach undue importance to His work in divinity, and you will cease to view His work in humanity with undue dismissiveness, and you will not go to extremes, nor take any detours. Overall, the meaning of the practical God is that the work of His humanity and of His divinity, as directed by the Spirit, is expressed through His flesh, so that people can see that He is vital and alive, real and true.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself

198. The Spirit of God is the authority over all things. The flesh with the essence of God is also possessed of authority, but God in the flesh can do all the work that submits to the will of the heavenly Father. This cannot be attained or conceived by any one person. God Himself is authority, but His flesh can submit to His authority. This is the underlying meaning of “Christ submits to the will of God the Father.” God is a Spirit and can do the work of salvation, and so can God who has become human. At any rate, God Himself does His own work; He neither disrupts nor disturbs, much less does He carry out work that contradicts itself, for the essence of the work done by the Spirit and the flesh is alike. Be it the Spirit or the flesh, both work to fulfill one will and manage the same work. Though the Spirit and the flesh have two disparate attributes, their essences are the same; both have the essence of God Himself, and the identity of God Himself. God Himself possesses no elements of rebelliousness; His essence is good. He is the expression of all beauty and goodness, as well as all love. Even in the flesh, God does not do anything that rebels against God the Father. Even at the expense of sacrificing His life, He would be wholeheartedly willing to do so, and He would make no other choice. God possesses no elements of self-righteousness or self-importance, or those of conceit and arrogance; He possesses no elements of crookedness. Everything that rebels against God comes from Satan; Satan is the source of all ugliness and evil. The reason man has the same attributes as Satan is that man has been corrupted and processed by Satan. Christ has not been corrupted by Satan, hence He possesses only the attributes of God, and none of the attributes of Satan. No matter how arduous the work or weak the flesh, God, while He lives in the flesh, will never do anything that disrupts the work of God Himself, much less forsake the will of God the Father and rebel. He would rather suffer pains of the flesh than go against the will of God the Father; it is just as Jesus said in prayer, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as You will.” People make their own choices, but Christ does not. Though He has the identity of God Himself, He still seeks the will of God the Father, and fulfills what is entrusted to Him by God the Father, from the perspective of the flesh. This is something that man cannot attain to. That which comes from Satan cannot have the essence of God; it can only have one that rebels against and resists God. It cannot fully submit to God, much less willingly submit to the will of God. All people apart from Christ may do that which resists God, and not a single person can directly undertake the work entrusted by God; not one is able to regard the management of God as their own duty to perform. The essence of Christ is submission to the will of God the Father; rebelliousness against God is the attribute of Satan. These two attributes are incompatible, and any who have the attributes of Satan cannot be called Christ. The reason man cannot do the work of God in His stead is that man does not have any of the essence of God. Man works for God for the sake of man’s personal interests and future prospects, but Christ works to follow the will of God the Father.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of Christ Is Submission to the Will of the Heavenly Father

199. Although the outward appearance of God incarnate is exactly the same as that of a human, and although He learns human knowledge and speaks human language, and sometimes even expresses His ideas through human methods or by quoting human sayings, nevertheless, the way He sees humans and the essence of things is absolutely not the same as how corrupt people see them. His perspective and the elevation at which He stands is something unattainable for any corrupt person. This is because God is the truth, because the flesh that He wears also possesses the essence of God Himself, and His thoughts and that which is expressed by His humanity are also the truth. For corrupt people, what He expresses in the flesh are provisions of the truth, and of life. These provisions are not just for one person, but for all of mankind. In any corrupt person’s heart, there are only those few people who are associated with them. They care and are concerned only for this handful of people. When disaster strikes, they first think of their own children, spouse, or parents. Even a person who is more “universally loving” would at best spare a thought for some relative or good friend, but would they ever consider anyone else? No, never! Because humans are, after all, humans, and they can only look at everything from the elevation and perspective of a human being. However, God incarnate is entirely different from a corrupt human. No matter how ordinary, how normal, how humble God’s incarnate flesh is, or even how much people look down on Him, His thoughts and His attitude toward mankind are things that no man could possess, that no man could imitate. He will always observe mankind from the perspective of divinity, from the elevation of His position as the Creator. He will always see mankind through the essence and the mindset of God. He absolutely will not see mankind from the elevation of an average person, or from the perspective of a corrupt person. When people look at mankind, they do so with human vision, and they use things such as human knowledge and human regulations and theories as their measure. This is the scope that people can see with their eyes and the scope that is achievable by corrupt people. When God looks at mankind, He looks with divine vision, and He uses His essence and what He has and is as a measure. This is the scope that people cannot see, and this is where God incarnate and corrupt humans are entirely different. This difference is determined by humans’ and God’s different essences—it is these different essences that determine their identities and positions as well as the perspective and elevation from which they see things.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III

200. Whether you have experiences of society and how you actually live in your family and experience within it can be seen in what you express, whereas you cannot see in the work of God incarnate whether He has social experiences. He knows the substance of man inside and out, and can expose the various practices of all kinds of people. Even more so, He can expose the corrupt dispositions and the rebellious behavior of man. He does not live among the people of the world, but He is aware of the nature of mortals and all the corruptions of the people of the world. This is His being. Though He does not deal with the world, He knows all the rules of dealing with the world, because He understands human nature fully. He knows about the Spirit’s work that man’s eyes cannot see and man’s ears cannot hear, both of today and of the past. This includes wisdom that is not a philosophy for worldly dealings and wonders that are hard for man to fathom. This is His being, open to man and also hidden from man. What He expresses is not the being of an extraordinary person, but the inherent attributes and being of the Spirit. He does not travel the world but knows everything of it. He contacts the “anthropoids” who have no knowledge or insight, but He expresses words that are higher than knowledge and above those of great figures. He lives within a group of obtuse and numb people who are without humanity, and who do not understand human life or the norms of humanity, but He can ask mankind to live out normal humanity, at the same time exposing the base and low humanity of mankind. All this is His being, higher than the being of any flesh-and-blood person. There is no need for Him to go through the extra step of experiencing a complicated, cumbersome, and sordid social life to do the work He needs to do and expose the substance of corrupt mankind thoroughly. A sordid social life could not “cultivate” His flesh. His work and words only expose man’s rebelliousness and do not provide man with experience and lessons for dealing with the world. He does not need to investigate society or man’s family when He supplies man with life. Exposing and judging man is not an expression of the experiences of His flesh; it is His exposure of man’s unrighteousness after having long known man’s rebelliousness and hating mankind’s corruption. All the work He does makes His disposition known to man and expresses His being. Only He can do this work; it is not something a flesh-and-blood person could achieve.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Work and Man’s Work

201. The work and expression of Christ determines His essence. He is able to complete with a true heart that which has been entrusted to Him. He is able to worship God in heaven with a true heart, and with a true heart seek the will of God the Father. This is all determined by His essence. And so too is His natural revelation determined by His essence; the reason I call this His “natural revelation” is that His expression is not an imitation, or the result of education by man, or the result of many years of cultivation by man. He did not learn it or adorn Himself with it; rather, it is inherent within Him. Man may deny His work, His expression, His humanity, and the entire life of His normal humanity, but none can deny that He worships God in heaven with a true heart; none can deny that He has come to fulfill the will of the heavenly Father, and none can deny the earnestness with which He seeks God the Father. Though His image is not pleasing to the senses, His discourse not possessed of an extraordinary air, and His work not as earth-shattering or heaven-shaking as man imagines, He is indeed Christ, who fulfills the will of the heavenly Father with a true heart, completely submits to the heavenly Father, and is submissive unto death. This is because His essence is the essence of Christ. This truth is hard for man to believe, but it is a fact. When the ministry of Christ has been completely fulfilled, man will be able to see from His work that His disposition and His being represent the disposition and being of God in heaven. At that time, by summarizing all of His work, man can confirm that He is indeed the flesh which the Way becomes, and not the same as that of a flesh and blood man.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of Christ Is Submission to the Will of the Heavenly Father

202. God become flesh is called Christ, and so calling the Christ who can bestow the truth upon people God is not excessive at all. This is because He possesses the essence of God, and He possesses God’s disposition, and the wisdom of God’s work, which are unattainable by man. Those who call themselves christs, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds. Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but also the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out His work on earth and completes His work among man. This flesh cannot be supplanted by just any man, but is a flesh that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, that can express the disposition of God, that can adequately represent God, and that can provide man with life. Sooner or later, those who impersonate Christ will all fall, for although they claim to be christ, they possess none of the essence of Christ. And so I say that the authenticity of Christ cannot be determined by man, but is answered and decided by God Himself.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life

203. The flesh worn by the Spirit of God is God’s own flesh. The Spirit of God is supreme; He is almighty, holy, and righteous. Likewise, His flesh is also supreme, almighty, holy, and righteous. Such a flesh can only do that which is righteous and beneficial to mankind, that which is holy, glorious, and mighty; He is incapable of doing anything that violates the truth, that violates moral justice, and much less is He capable of anything that would betray God’s Spirit. The Spirit of God is holy, and thus His flesh is incorruptible by Satan; His flesh is of a different essence than the flesh of man. For it is man, not God, who is corrupted by Satan, and Satan could not possibly corrupt the flesh of God Himself. Thus, despite the fact that man and Christ dwell within the same space, it is only man who can be occupied and used by Satan, and harmed by Satan’s tricks. By contrast, Christ is eternally impervious to Satan’s corruption, because Satan will never be capable of ascending to the highest place, and will never be able to draw near to God. Today, you should all understand that it is only mankind, corrupted as it is by Satan, that betrays Me. Betrayal will never be an issue that involves Christ in the least.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2)

204. God became flesh because the object of His work is not the spirit of Satan, or anything that is not of the flesh, but man, who is of the flesh and has been corrupted by Satan. It is precisely because the flesh of man has been corrupted that God has made fleshly man the object of His work; even more so, it is because man is the object of corruption that God has chosen man as the only object of His work throughout all the stages of His salvation work. Man is a mortal being, is of flesh and blood, and God is the only One who can save man. Thus, God must become flesh that possesses the same attributes as man in order to do His work, so that His work might achieve better effects. God must become flesh to do His work precisely because man is of the flesh, and incapable of overcoming sin or divesting himself of the flesh. Though the essence and identity of God incarnate differ greatly from the essence and identity of man, yet His appearance is identical to that of man; He has the appearance of a normal person, and leads the life of a normal person, and those who see Him can discern no difference between Him and a normal person. This normal appearance and normal humanity are sufficient for Him to do His divine work in normal humanity. His flesh helps Him do His work in normal humanity, and His work among man, and His normal humanity even more so helps Him carry out the work of salvation among man. Although His normal humanity has caused much tumult among man, such tumult has not impacted the normal effects of His work. In short, the work of His normal flesh is of supreme benefit to man. Though most people cannot accept His normal humanity, His work can still achieve results, and these results are achieved thanks to His normal humanity. Of this there is no doubt. From His work in the flesh, man gains ten times or dozens of times more things than the notions that exist among man about His normal humanity, and such notions shall all ultimately be swallowed by His work. And the effect that His work has achieved, which is to say, the knowledge that man has of Him, far outweighs man’s notions about Him. There is no way to imagine or measure the work He does in the flesh, for His flesh is unlike that of any fleshly human being; although the outer shell is identical, the essence is not the same. His flesh engenders many notions among man about God, yet His flesh can also allow man to acquire much knowledge, and can even conquer any person possessed of a similar outer shell. For He is not merely human, but is God with the outer shell of a human, and none can completely fathom or understand Him.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

205. Man has been corrupted by Satan and is the highest of all God’s creatures, therefore man is in need of God’s salvation. The object of God’s salvation is man, not Satan, and that which shall be saved is the flesh of man, and the soul of man, and not devils. Satan is the object of God’s annihilation, man is the object of God’s salvation, and the flesh of man has been corrupted by Satan, so the first to be saved must be the flesh of man. The flesh of man has been most profoundly corrupted, and it has become something which opposes God, so much so that it even openly opposes and denies the existence of God. This corrupt flesh is simply too intractable, and nothing is more difficult to deal with or change than the corrupt disposition of the flesh. Satan comes into the flesh of man to stir up disturbances, and it uses the flesh of man to disturb the work of God and impair the plan of God, and thus man has become Satan, and become the enemy of God. For man to be saved, he must first be conquered. It is because of this that God rises to the challenge and comes in the flesh to do the work He intends to do, and to do battle with Satan. His aim is the salvation of mankind, who has been corrupted, and the defeat and annihilation of Satan, which rebels against Him. He defeats Satan through His work of conquering man, while at the same time He saves corrupt mankind. It is a work that achieves two aims at once. He works in the flesh, and speaks in the flesh, and undertakes all work in the flesh in order to better engage with man, and better conquer man. The last time that God becomes flesh, His work of the last days will be concluded in the flesh. He will sort all people according to their kind, conclude His entire management, and also conclude all His work in the flesh. After all His work on earth comes to an end, He will be completely victorious. Working in the flesh, God will have fully conquered mankind, and fully gained mankind. Does this not mean that His entire management will have come to an end? When God concludes His work in the flesh, as He has fully defeated Satan and has been victorious, Satan will have no further opportunity to corrupt man. The work of the first incarnation of God was redemption and the forgiveness of man’s sins. Now it is the work of conquering and fully gaining mankind, so that Satan will no longer have any way to do its work, and will have completely lost, and God will have been completely victorious. This is the work of the flesh, and is the work done by God Himself.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

206. The flesh of man has been corrupted by Satan, and it has been most deeply blinded, and profoundly harmed. The most fundamental reason why God works personally in the flesh is that the object of His salvation is man, who is of the flesh, and that Satan also uses the flesh of man to disturb the work of God. The battle with Satan is actually the work of conquering man, and at the same time, man is also the object of God’s salvation. Thus, God becoming flesh to do His work is of utmost necessity. Satan corrupted the flesh of man, and man became the embodiment of Satan, and became the object to be defeated by God. Therefore, the work of doing battle with Satan and saving mankind occurs on earth, and God must become human in order to do battle with Satan. This is work of the utmost practicality. When God is working in the flesh, He is actually doing battle with Satan in the flesh. When He works in the flesh, He is doing His work of the spiritual realm, and He makes the whole of His work in the spiritual realm real on earth. The one who is conquered is man, man who is rebellious to Him, and the one who is defeated is the embodiment of Satan (of course, this is also man), who is in enmity to Him, and the one who is ultimately saved is also man. Thus, it is even more necessary for God to become a human who has the outer shell of a created being, so that He is able to do actual battle with Satan, to conquer man, who is rebellious to Him and possessed of the same outer shell as Him, and to save man, who has the same outer shell as Him and has been harmed by Satan. His enemy is man, the object of His conquest is man, and the object of His salvation is man, who was created by Him. So He must become human, and in this way, His work becomes much easier—He is able to defeat Satan and conquer mankind, and even more so able to save mankind.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

207. God’s saving of man is not done directly by means of the Spirit and with the identity of the Spirit, for His Spirit can neither be touched nor seen by man, nor can man draw near. If He tried to save man directly as the Spirit, man would be unable to receive His saving grace. If God did not put on the outer shell of a created human being, there would be no way for man to receive this saving grace. For man absolutely has no way of approaching Him, just as no one was able to go near the cloud of Jehovah. Only by becoming a created human being, that is, only by putting His Way into the flesh that He is about to become, can He personally work the Way into all who follow Him. Only then can man personally hear and see His Way, and also gain His Way, and by this means come to be fully saved. If God did not become flesh, no one of flesh and blood would be able to receive such great saving grace, nor would a single person be saved. If the Spirit of God worked directly among man, all people would be struck down, or, with no way of coming into contact with God, they would be completely taken captive by Satan.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)

208. The incarnate God has come in the flesh entirely because of the needs of corrupt man. It is because of the needs of man, not of God, and all the prices He has paid and all His suffering are for the sake of mankind, and not for the benefit of God Himself. There are no gain and loss or rewards for God; what He obtains is not something that He reaps, but that which was originally owed to Him. The purpose behind all that He does for mankind and all the prices He has paid for mankind is not so that He might gain more rewards, but purely for the sake of mankind. Though God’s work in the flesh involves many unimaginable difficulties, the effects that it ultimately achieves far exceed those of the work done directly by the Spirit. The work of the flesh entails quite a large number of difficulties, and the flesh cannot possess the same great identity as the Spirit, He cannot carry out supernatural deeds like the Spirit, much less can He possess the same authority as the Spirit. Yet the essence of the work done by this unremarkable flesh is far superior to that of the work done directly by the Spirit, and this flesh Himself is what all people need. For those to be saved, the use value of the Spirit is far inferior to that of the flesh: The work of the Spirit is able to cover the entire universe, across all mountains, rivers, lakes, and oceans, yet the work of the flesh more effectively relates to every person with whom He comes into contact. What is more, God’s flesh with tangible form can better be understood and trusted by man, and can further deepen man’s knowledge of God, and can leave upon man a more profound impression of the practical deeds of God. The work of the Spirit is shrouded in mystery; it is difficult for mortal beings to predict, and even harder for them to see, and so they can only imagine things about it based on nothing. The work of the flesh, however, is normal and practical, and possessed of rich wisdom, and is a fact that can be personally seen by the eyes of mortal man; man can personally appreciate the wisdom of the work of God, and has no need to employ his bountiful imagination. This is the accuracy and practical value of the work of God in the flesh. The Spirit can only do things that are invisible to man and difficult for him to imagine, for example the enlightenment of the Spirit, the moving of the Spirit, and the guidance of the Spirit, but for man who has a mind, these cannot provide any clear meaning. They can only provide a moving, or a roughly similar meaning, and cannot give an instruction with words. The work of God in the flesh, however, is greatly different: It involves the accurate guidance of words, and there are clear intentions and clear required goals. And so man does not need to grope around, or employ his imagination, much less make guesses. This is the clarity of the work in the flesh, and His work is vastly different from that of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is only suitable for a limited scope and cannot replace the work of the flesh. The precise goals required of man through the work of the flesh, and the practical value of the knowledge that man obtains through this work, far surpass the preciseness and practical value of the work of the Spirit. For corrupt man, only work that provides accurate words and clear goals to pursue, and is visible and tangible, is the most valuable kind of work. Only realistic work and timely guidance are suited to man’s tastes, and only practical work can save man from his corrupt and depraved disposition. This can only be achieved by the incarnate God; only the incarnate God can save man from his old corrupt and depraved disposition. Although the Spirit is the inherent essence of God, work such as this can only be done by His flesh. If the Spirit worked single-handedly, then it would not be possible for His work to be effective—this is a plain truth. Most people have become the enemies of God because of this flesh. However, when this flesh concludes His work, those who are against Him will not only cease to be His enemies, but on the contrary will become His witnesses. They will become the witnesses that have been conquered by Him, witnesses that are compatible with Him and inseparable from Him. He shall cause man to know the importance of the work of the flesh to man, and man shall know the importance of this flesh to the meaning of man’s existence, shall know His practical value as concerns the growth of man’s life, and, even more so, shall know that this flesh will unexpectedly become a living fountain of life from which man cannot bear to part.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

209. Though the incarnate flesh of God is far from matching God’s identity and status, and seems to man to be incompatible with His actual worth, this flesh, who does not possess the inherent image of God, or the inherent identity of God, can do the work that God’s Spirit is unable to do directly. Such is the inherent significance and value of God’s incarnation, and it is this significance and value which man is unable to comprehend and acknowledge. Though all mankind look up to God’s Spirit and look down on God’s flesh, irrespective of how they view or think, the practical significance and value of the flesh far exceed those of the Spirit. Of course, this is only with regard to corrupt mankind. For everyone who seeks the truth and longs for the appearance of God, the Spirit’s work can only provide moving or inspiration, and a sense of wonder that this work is marvelous, unfathomable, and unimaginable, and a sense that it is great, transcendent, and admirable, yet also unattainable and unreachable to all. Man and the Spirit of God can only look upon each other from afar, as if there were a great distance between them, and they can never be alike, as if man and God were separated by an invisible divide. In fact, this is an illusion given to man by the Spirit, which is because the Spirit and man are not of the same kind and shall never coexist in the same world, and because the Spirit possesses nothing of man. So man does not have need of the Spirit, for the Spirit cannot directly do the work most needed by man. The work of the flesh offers man practical objectives to pursue, explicit words, and a sense that He is practical and normal, that He is humble and ordinary. Although man may be afraid of Him, for most people He is quite approachable. Man can behold His face, and hear His voice, and he does not need to look upon Him from afar. This flesh feels near to man, not distant, or unfathomable, but visible and accessible, for this flesh is in the same world as man.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

210. Now man sees that the work of God incarnate is indeed extraordinary, and there are many things in it that cannot be attained by man, and that are mysteries and wonders. Therefore, many have submitted. Some have never submitted to any man since the day of their birth, yet when they see the words of God this day, they fully submit without noticing they have done so, and they do not venture to scrutinize or say anything else. Humanity has fallen under the word and lies prostrate under the judgment of the word. If the Spirit of God spoke directly to man, mankind would all submit to the voice, prostrating themselves without God needing to expose man with His words, much in the way that Paul fell to the ground in the light on the road to Damascus. If God continued to work in this way, man would never be able to come to know his own corruption through the judgment of the word and thereby attain salvation. Only through becoming flesh can God personally deliver His words into the ears of each and every human being, so that all who have ears may hear His words and accept His work of judgment by the word. This is the true result achieved by His word, not the Spirit becoming manifest to overwhelm man with fear. It is only through this practical and yet extraordinary work that the old dispositions of man, hidden deep within for many years, can be fully exposed, so that man may recognize them and experience change. These things are all the practical work of God incarnate, in which He speaks and executes judgment in a wholly practical manner, and then achieves the results of judgment upon man by the word. This is the authority of God incarnate and the significance of God’s incarnation. It is done to reveal the authority of God incarnate, to reveal the results achieved by the work of the word, and to reveal that the Spirit has come in the flesh and demonstrates His authority through judging man by the word. Although His flesh is the outer shell of an ordinary, normal humanity, it is the results His words achieve that show to man He is full of authority, that He is God Himself, and that His words are the expression of God Himself. By this means all humanity is shown that He is God Himself, that He is God Himself who became flesh, that none may commit an offense against Him, and that no one can surpass His judgment by the word, and no force of darkness can prevail over His authority. Man’s submission to Him is all due to the flesh in which He is incarnated, it is all due to His authority, and due to His judgment by the word. The work brought by His incarnate flesh is the authority that He possesses. The reason why He becomes flesh is because the flesh can also possess authority, and He is capable of carrying out work in a practical manner among mankind, in such a way that it is visible and tangible to man. This work is much more practical than the work done directly by the Spirit of God, who possesses all authority, and its results are also apparent. This is because God’s incarnate flesh can speak and work in a practical way. The outer shell of His flesh holds no authority, and can be approached by man, whereas His essence does carry authority, but His authority is visible to none. When He speaks and works, man is unable to detect the existence of His authority; this facilitates Him in doing His practical work. All this practical work can achieve results. Even though no man realizes that He holds authority, or sees that no offense may be committed against Him, or sees His wrath, He achieves the intended results of His words through His veiled authority, His hidden wrath, and the words He openly speaks. In other words, through His tone of voice, the sternness of His speech, and all the wisdom of His words, man is utterly convinced. In this way, man submits to the word of God incarnate, who seemingly has no authority, thereby fulfilling God’s aim of saving man. This is another aspect of the significance of His incarnation: to speak in a more practical way, to allow the reality of His words to achieve its results in man, and to allow man to witness the might of the word of God. Therefore, were this work not done by means of the incarnation, it would not achieve the slightest results and would not be able to fully save sinful people. If God did not become flesh, He would remain the Spirit who is both invisible and inaccessible to man. Man being a creature of flesh, he and God belong to two different worlds and are possessed of different natures. The Spirit of God is incompatible with man, who is of flesh, and there is simply no way of establishing relations between them; man, meanwhile, is incapable of turning into a spirit. This being so, the Spirit of God must become a created being in order to do His original work. God can both ascend to the highest place and humble Himself to become a created human being, doing work among mankind and living in their midst, but man cannot ascend to the highest place and become a spirit, and even less can he descend to the lowest place. This is why God must become flesh to carry out His work. It is just as, during the first incarnation, only the flesh of God incarnate could redeem man through His crucifixion, whereas there would have been no way for the Spirit of God to be crucified as a sin offering for man. God could directly become flesh to serve as a sin offering for man, but man could not directly ascend to heaven to take the sin offering that God had prepared for him. This being so, all that is possible would be to ask God to run back and forth a few times between heaven and earth, not to have man ascend to heaven to take this saving grace, for man had fallen and, moreover, man simply could not ascend to heaven, much less obtain the sin offering. Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to come among mankind and personally do the work that simply could not be accomplished by man. Every time God becomes flesh, it is out of absolute necessity. If any of the stages could have been carried out directly by the Spirit of God, He would not have submitted to the complaints and indignity that came with being incarnated.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)

211. No one is more suitable, and qualified, than God in the flesh for the work of judging the corruption of man’s flesh. If judgment were carried out directly by the Spirit of God, then it would not be all-embracing, and, moreover, man would have difficulty accepting this, for the Spirit is unable to come face-to-face with man. Just in light of this point, the effects would not be immediate, much less would man be able to behold with greater clarity the disposition of God which must not be offended. Satan can only be fully defeated if God in the flesh judges the corruption of mankind. God in the flesh is also a person with normal humanity, yet He can directly judge the unrighteousness of man; this is the mark of His innate holiness, and of His singularness. Only God is qualified to, and is in the position to, judge man, for He is possessed of the truth, and righteousness, and so He is able to judge man. Those who are without truth and righteousness are not fit to judge others. If this work were done by the Spirit of God, then it would not mean victory over Satan. The Spirit is inherently loftier than mortal beings, and the Spirit of God is inherently holy, and triumphant over the flesh. If the Spirit did this work directly, He would not be able to judge all of man’s rebelliousness and could not reveal all of man’s unrighteousness. For the work of judgment is also carried out through man’s notions about God, and man has never had any notions about the Spirit, and so the Spirit is incapable of better revealing the unrighteousness of man, much less of thoroughly exposing such unrighteousness. The incarnate God is the enemy of all those who do not know Him. Through judging man’s notions about Him and their opposition to Him, He exposes all the rebelliousness of mankind. The effects of His work in the flesh are more apparent than those of the work of the Spirit. And so, the judgment of all mankind is not carried out directly by the Spirit but is the work of the incarnate God. God in the flesh can be seen and touched by man, and God in the flesh can completely conquer man. Man progresses from opposing Him to submitting to Him, from persecuting Him to accepting Him, from having notions about Him to knowing Him, and from rejecting Him to loving Him—these are the effects of the work of the incarnate God. Man is only saved through the acceptance of His judgment, man only gradually comes to know Him through the words of His mouth, man is conquered by Him during his opposition to Him, and he receives the life supply from Him during the acceptance of His chastisement. All of this work is the work of God in the flesh, and not the work of God in His identity as the Spirit.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

212. When God had not yet become flesh, people did not understand much of what He said, because His words came out of complete divinity. The perspective and context of what He said was invisible and unreachable to mankind; it was expressed from a spiritual realm that people could not see, and which people who lived in the flesh could not pass through. But after God became flesh, He spoke to mankind from the perspective of humanity, and He came out of and surpassed the scope of the spiritual realm. He could express His divine disposition and intentions, as well as His attitude, through things humans could imagine in their own notions, things they saw and encountered in their lives, and using methods that humans could accept, in a language they could understand, and with knowledge they grasped, to allow mankind to understand and to know God, to comprehend His desires and His required standards within the scope of their capacity and to the degree that they were able. This was the method and principle of God’s work in humanity. Even though God’s ways and principles of working in the flesh were mostly achieved by means of or through humanity, it achieved results that could not be achieved by working directly in divinity. God’s work in humanity was more concrete, authentic, and targeted, the methods were much more flexible, and in form it surpassed the work carried out during the Age of Law.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III

213. God’s arrival in the flesh is primarily meant to enable people to see the practical deeds of God, and to materialize the formless Spirit in the flesh so that people can see and touch Him. Only in this way will those who are made complete by Him live out what He lives out, be gained by Him, and be in accordance with His intentions. If God only spoke in heaven and had not actually come onto the earth, then people would yet 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’s purpose in coming to the earth is primarily to establish Himself as an exemplar and a model for those whom He is to gain; only thus can people actually know God, touch God, and see Him, and only then can they truly be gained by God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Know That the Practical God Is God Himself

214. 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 the Spirit, He is so great and lofty, and so unfathomable—how are people qualified to be His intimates? Only when the Spirit of God descends into the flesh, and becomes a created being with the same outer shell as man, can people understand His intentions and be gained by Him in a practical way. He speaks and works in the flesh, shares in the joys, sorrows, and tribulations of humankind, lives in the same world as humankind, protects humankind, guides them, and enables them to be cleansed and to gain His salvation and His blessing. Only when people have gained these things and truly understood God’s intentions can they be the intimates of God. Only this is practical. If God were invisible and intangible to people, how then could they be His intimates? Is this not empty doctrine?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Those Who Know God and His Work Are the Ones Who Satisfy God

215. For all of those who live in the flesh, pursuing dispositional change requires goals, and pursuing knowledge of God requires witnessing the practical 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 practical flesh. This is why the incarnation is necessary—it is needed by all corrupt mankind. Since people are required to know God, the images of the nebulous and supernatural gods must be dispelled from their hearts, and since they are required to cast off their corrupt dispositions, they must first know their corrupt dispositions. If only man does the work to dispel the images of the nebulous gods from people’s hearts, then he will fail to achieve the intended effect. The images of the nebulous gods in people’s hearts cannot be exposed, cast off, or completely expelled by words alone. In doing so, ultimately it would still not be possible to dispel these deep-rooted things from people. Only by replacing these nebulous and supernatural things with the practical God and the inherent image of God, and making people gradually know them, can the due effect be achieved. Man recognizes that the god whom he pursued in times past is nebulous and supernatural. That which can achieve this effect is not the direct leadership of the Spirit, much less the teachings of a certain individual, but the incarnate God. Precisely because the normality and practicality of the incarnate God is the antithesis of the nebulous and supernatural gods in man’s imaginings, the notions of man are all laid bare when the incarnate God officially does His work. The original notions of man can only be revealed when contrasted against the incarnate God. Without the comparison to the incarnate God, the notions of man could not be revealed; in other words, without practicality as a foil, the nebulous things could not be revealed. No one is capable of using words to do this work, and no one is capable of articulating this work using words. God Himself can do His own work, and no one else can do this work on His behalf. No matter how rich the language of man is, he is incapable of articulating the practicality and normality of God. Man can only know God more practically, and can only see Him more clearly, if God personally works among man and completely shows forth His image and His being. This effect cannot be achieved by any human being of flesh. Of course, God’s Spirit is also incapable of achieving this effect. God can save corrupt man from the influence of Satan, but this work cannot be directly accomplished by the Spirit of God; rather, it can only be done by the flesh God’s Spirit wears, by God’s incarnate flesh. This flesh is a human being and also God; this flesh is a person possessed of normal humanity and also God possessed of full divinity. And so, even though this flesh is not the Spirit of God, and differs greatly from the Spirit, it is still the incarnate God Himself who saves man, who is the Spirit and also the flesh. No matter what He is called by, ultimately it is still God Himself who saves mankind. For the Spirit of God is indivisible from the flesh, and the work of the flesh is also the work of the Spirit of God; it is just that this work is not done using the identity of the Spirit, but is done using the identity of the flesh. Work that needs to be done directly by the Spirit does not require incarnation, and work that requires the flesh to do cannot be done directly by the Spirit, and can only be done by God incarnate. This is what is required for this work, and it is what is required by corrupt mankind. In the three stages of God’s work, only one stage was carried out directly by the Spirit, and the remaining two stages are carried out by the incarnate God, and not directly by the Spirit. The work of the Age of Law done by the Spirit did not involve changing the corrupt disposition of man, and neither did it bear any relation to man’s knowledge of God. The work of God’s flesh in the Age of Grace and the Age of Kingdom, however, involves man’s corrupt disposition and his knowledge of God, and is an important and crucial part of the work of salvation. Therefore, corrupt mankind is in greater need of the salvation of the incarnate God, and is in greater need of the direct work of the incarnate God. Mankind needs the incarnate God to shepherd him, support him, water him, feed him, judge and chastise him, and he needs more grace and greater redemption from the incarnate God. Only God in the flesh can be the confidant of man, the shepherd of man, the very present help of man, and all of this is the necessity of the incarnation both today and in times past.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

216. God has come to earth to do His work among man, to personally appear to man and allow man to behold Him; is this a small matter? It really is not simple! It is not as man imagines: that God has come so man may look upon Him, so that man may understand that God is practical and not nebulous or hollow, and that God is lofty but also humble. Could it be that simple? It is precisely because Satan has corrupted the flesh of man, and man is the one who God intends to save, that God must assume the flesh to do battle with Satan and to personally shepherd man. Only this is beneficial to His work. The two incarnate fleshes of God have existed in order to defeat Satan, and also in order to better save man. That is because the one doing the battle with Satan can only be God, whether it be the Spirit of God or the incarnate flesh of God. In short, it cannot be the angels who are doing battle with Satan, much less can it be man, who has been corrupted by Satan. The angels are powerless to fight this battle, and man has even less hope of getting involved. As such, if God wants to work the life of man, if He wants to personally come to earth to save man, then He must personally become flesh—that is, He must personally assume the flesh, and with His inherent identity and the work that He must do, come among man and personally save man. If not, if it were the Spirit of God or man that did this work, then nothing would ever come of this battle, and it would never end. Only when God becomes flesh to personally go to war against Satan among man does man have a chance of salvation. Furthermore, Satan is consequently shamed and left without any opportunities to exploit or any plots to carry out. The work done by God incarnate is unachievable by the Spirit of God, and it would be even more impossible for any man of flesh and blood to do it on God’s behalf, for the work that He does is all for the sake of the life of man, and in order to change the corrupt disposition of man. Were man to participate in this battle, he would only drop his weapons and flee in utter disgrace and disarray; he would simply be incapable of changing man’s corrupt disposition. He would be incapable of saving man from the cross, or of conquering all of rebellious mankind, but would only be able to do a little old work that does not go beyond principles, or else work that is unrelated to the defeat of Satan. So why bother? He wouldn’t be able to gain man, and much less could he perform the work of defeating Satan, so what would be the point? And so, the battle with Satan can only be carried out by God Himself, and it would simply be impossible for man to do it. Man’s duty is to submit and to follow, for man is wholly unable to do work akin to creating the heavens and earth, much less can he carry out the work of battling Satan. Man can only satisfy the Creator under the leadership of God Himself, through which Satan is defeated; this is the only thing that man can do. And so, every time a new battle commences, which is to say, every time the work of a new age begins, this work is personally done by God Himself, through which He leads the entire age and opens up a newer path for the whole of mankind. The dawn of each new age is a new start in the battle with Satan, through which man enters a newer, more beautiful realm, and a new age that is personally led by God Himself.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Restoring the Normal Life of Man and Taking Him to a Wonderful Destination

217. Why do I say that the meaning of incarnation was not completed in Jesus’ work? Because the Way did not entirely become flesh. What Jesus did was only one part of God’s work in the flesh; He only did the work of redemption, and did not do the work of completely gaining man. For this reason, God has become flesh once again in the last days. This stage of the work is also done in an ordinary flesh; it is performed by an utterly normal human being, one whose humanity is not in the least bit transcendent. In other words, God has become a complete human being; He is a person whose identity is that of God, a complete human being, a complete flesh, who is performing the work. Human eyes see a fleshly body that is not transcendent at all, a very ordinary person who can speak the language of heaven, who shows no signs, works no miracles, much less exposes the real story behind religion in great assembly halls. To people, the work of the second incarnate flesh seems utterly unlike that of the first, and the two even seem to have nothing in common—nothing of the first’s work can be seen this time. Though the work of the second incarnate flesh is different from the first, that does not prove that Their source is not one and the same. Whether Their source is the same depends on the nature of the work done by the fleshes, and not on Their outer shells. During the three stages of His work, God has been incarnated twice, and both times the work of God incarnate inaugurates a new age, ushers in a new work; the incarnations complement each other. It is impossible for human eyes to tell that the two fleshes actually come from the same source. Of course, this is beyond the capacity of the human eye or the human mind. But in Their essence, They are the same, for Their work originates from the same Spirit. Whether the two incarnate fleshes arise from the same source cannot be judged by the era and the place in which They were born, or other such factors, but by the divine work expressed by Them. The second incarnate flesh does not perform any of the work that Jesus did, for God’s work does not adhere to convention, but opens up a new path each time. The second incarnate flesh does not aim to deepen or solidify the impression of the first flesh in people’s minds, but to complement and improve on the image of the first flesh in their minds, to deepen man’s knowledge of God, to break all the regulations that exist in people’s hearts, and to wipe out the fallacious images of god in their hearts. It can be said that no individual stage of God’s own work can give man a complete knowledge of Him; each gives only a part, not the whole. Though God has expressed His disposition in full, because of man’s limited comprehension ability, his knowledge of God still remains incomplete. It is impossible, using human language, to fully explain the entirety of God’s disposition. How much less so, then, could a single stage of His work fully express God? He works in the flesh under the cover of His normal humanity, and one can only know Him by the expressions of His divinity, not by His bodily shell. God comes in the flesh to allow man to know Him by means of His various work, and no two stages of His work are alike. Only in this way can man have a full knowledge of God’s work in the flesh, and not delimit it to a certain scope. Though the work of the two incarnate fleshes is different, the essence of the fleshes, and the source of Their work, are identical; it is just that They exist to perform two different stages of the work, and arise in two different ages. No matter what, God’s incarnate fleshes share the same essence and the same origin—this is something that no one can deny.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God

218. God in His first incarnation did not complete the work of the incarnation; He only completed the first step of the work that God in the flesh was supposed to perform. So, in order to complete the work of the incarnation, God has returned to the flesh once again, living out all the normality and practicality of the flesh, that is, making God’s Way manifest in a flesh which is as normal and ordinary as can be, thereby concluding the work that He has yet to complete in the flesh. The second incarnate flesh has the same essence as the first, but He is even more practical, even more normal than the first. As a consequence, the suffering the second incarnate flesh endures is greater than that of the first, but this suffering is a result of His ministry in the flesh, which is unlike the suffering of corrupted man. It also stems from the normality and practicality of His flesh. Because He performs His ministry in flesh which is of the utmost normality and practicality, the flesh must endure a great deal of suffering. The more normal and practical this flesh is, the more He will suffer in the performance of His ministry. God’s work is expressed in a very common flesh, without any supernaturalness at all. Because His flesh is normal and must also shoulder the work of saving man, He suffers in even greater measure than a supernatural flesh would—and all this suffering stems from the practicality and normality of His flesh. From the suffering that the two incarnate fleshes have undergone while performing Their ministries, one can see the essence of the incarnate flesh. The more normal the flesh, the greater the suffering He must endure while undertaking the work; the more practical the flesh that undertakes the work, the stronger people’s notions become, and the greater the risk He takes. And yet, the more practical the flesh is, and the more the flesh possesses the needs and complete reason of a normal human being, the more capable He is of shouldering God’s work in the flesh. Jesus was nailed to the cross by means of the flesh, and He served as a sin offering by means of the flesh, that is, it was through a flesh with normal humanity that He defeated Satan and completely saved man from the cross. It is by means of a complete flesh that the second God incarnate performs the work of conquest and defeats Satan. Only a flesh that is completely normal and practical can perform the work of conquest in its fullest sense and bear a powerful testimony. That is to say, the conquest of man achieves its effect through the practicality and normality of God in the flesh, not through supernatural miracles and revelations. The ministry performed by this incarnate God is to speak, and it is through speaking that He conquers and perfects man; in other words, the work of the Spirit realized in the flesh is to speak and the flesh’s job is to speak, thereby achieving the purpose of completely conquering, revealing, perfecting, and eliminating people. And so, it is in the work of conquest that God’s work in the flesh will be accomplished in full. The work of atoning for man’s sins that was performed the first time was only the beginning of the work of the incarnation; only the flesh that performs the work of conquest completes the entire work of the incarnation. In gender, one is male and the other female, so completing the significance of God’s incarnation, and dispelling man’s notions of God: God can become both male and female, and in essence, the incarnate God is genderless. He made both man and woman, and to Him, there is no division of gender. In this stage of the work, God does not perform signs and wonders, so that the work will achieve its results by means of words. The reason for this, moreover, is that the work of God incarnate this time is not to heal the sick and cast out demons, but to conquer man by speaking, which is to say that the instinctive abilities possessed by this incarnate flesh of God are to speak words and to conquer man, not to heal the sick and cast out demons. His work in normal humanity is not to perform signs, not to heal the sick and cast out demons, but to speak, and so the second incarnate flesh seems to people much more normal than the first. The way people see it, God has indeed become flesh. However, this incarnate God is different from Jesus incarnate, and though They are both God incarnate, They are not completely the same. Jesus possessed normal humanity, ordinary humanity, but He was accompanied by many signs and wonders. In this incarnate God, human eyes will see no signs or wonders, neither healing the sick nor driving out demons, nor walking on the sea, nor fasting for forty days…. He does not do the same work that Jesus did, not because, in essence, His flesh is any different from Jesus’, but because it is not His ministry to heal the sick and cast out demons. He does not tear down His own work, does not disturb His own work. Since He conquers man through His practical words, there is no need to subdue him with signs, and so this stage is to complete the work of the incarnation.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God

219. Each stage of work done by God has its own practical significance. Back then, when Jesus came, He came in male form, and when God comes this time, His form is female. From this, you can see that God’s creation of both men and women can serve His work, and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit comes, He can take on any flesh He pleases, and that flesh can represent Him; whether male or female, it can represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus had appeared as a female when He came, in other words, if an infant girl, and not a boy, had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same. If that had been the case, then the present stage of work would have to be done by a male instead, but the work would be completed all the same. The work done in each stage has its significance; neither stage of work repeats the other, but they also do not conflict with each other. At the time, Jesus, in doing His work, was called the only Son, and “Son” implies the male gender. Why is the only Son not mentioned in this current stage? Because the requirements of the work have necessitated a change in gender from that of Jesus. With God there is no distinction of gender. He does His work as He wishes, and in doing His work He is not subject to any constraints, but is especially free. Yet every stage of work has its own practical significance.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation

220. The stage of work which Jesus performed only fulfilled the essence of “the Way was with God”: The truth of God was with God, and the Spirit of God was with the flesh and was inseparable from that flesh. That is, the flesh of God incarnate was with the Spirit of God, which is greater proof that Jesus incarnate was the first incarnation of God. This stage of work precisely fulfills the inner meaning of “the Word becomes flesh,” lends deeper meaning to “the Way was with God, and the Way was God,” and allows you to firmly believe the words “In the beginning was the Way.” Which is to say, at the time of creation God was possessed of words, His words were with Him and inseparable from Him, and in the final age, He reveals the might and authority of His words even more clearly, and allows man to see all of His Way—to hear all of His words. Such is the work of the final age. You must come to understand these things through and through. It is not a question of knowing the flesh, but of how you understand the flesh and the Word, and the flesh and the Way. This is the testimony that you must bear, that which everyone must know. For this is the work of the second incarnation—and the last time that God becomes flesh; in other words, it completes the significance of the incarnation, thoroughly carries out and issues forth all of God’s work in the flesh, and brings to an end the era of God’s being in the flesh.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Practice (4)

221. God has come to earth primarily to accomplish the fact of “the Word become flesh,” which is to say, He has come so that His words may be issued from the flesh (not like the time of Moses in the Old Testament, when God’s voice issued directly from the sky). After that, all of His words will be fulfilled during the Age of Millennial Kingdom, they will become facts visible before man’s eyes, and people will behold them using their own eyes without the slightest disparity. This is the tremendous significance of God’s incarnation. Which is to say, the work of the Spirit is accomplished through the flesh, and through words. This is the true meaning of “the Word become flesh” and “the Word’s appearance in the flesh.” Only God can speak the intentions of the Spirit, and only God in the flesh can speak on behalf of the Spirit; the words of God are made manifest in God incarnate, and everyone else is guided by them. No one can get around this; they all exist within this scope. Only from these utterances can people become aware; without them, people are dreaming if they think they can gain the utterances from heaven. Such is the authority demonstrated in God’s incarnate flesh, causing all to believe in it with total conviction. Even the most venerable experts and religious pastors cannot speak these words. They must all surrender beneath them, and none will be able to make another start. God will use words to conquer the universe. He will do this not by His incarnate flesh, but through using the utterances from the mouth of God become flesh to conquer all people in the entire universe; only this is the Way become flesh, and only this is the appearance of the Word in the flesh. Perhaps, to humans, it appears as if God has not done any great work—but once God utters His words, they will be thoroughly convinced and struck dumb. Without facts, people shout and scream; with the words of God, they fall silent. God will surely accomplish this fact, for this is God’s long-established plan: accomplishing the fact of the Word’s arrival on earth.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived

222. God become flesh only manifests Himself to a portion of the people who follow Him during this period when He personally carries out His work, and not to all created beings. He became flesh only to complete one stage of His work, and not for the sake of showing man His image. However, His work must be carried out by Himself, thus it is necessary for Him to do so in the flesh. When this work concludes, He will depart from the human world; He cannot remain for the long term among mankind lest this hinder the work to come. What He manifests to the myriad people is only His righteous disposition and all His deeds, and not the images of His two incarnations, for the image of God can only be revealed through His disposition, and cannot be replaced by the image of His incarnate flesh. The image of His flesh is revealed only to a limited number of people, only to those who follow Him as He works in the flesh. This is why the work being carried out now is done so in secret. In the same way, Jesus only revealed Himself to the Jews when He did His work, and never publicly revealed Himself to any other nation. Thus, once He had completed His work, He promptly departed from the human world and did not stay; afterward, it was not His image, the image of this person, that manifested itself to man, but the Holy Spirit who carried out the work directly. Once the work of God become flesh is completely finished, He will depart from the mortal world, and never again will He do any work similar to what He did when He was in flesh. After this, the work will all be done directly by the Holy Spirit. During this period, man will hardly be able to see the image of His fleshly body; He will not manifest Himself to man at all, but will remain forever hidden. The time for the work of God become flesh is limited. It is carried out in a specific age, period, country, and among specific people. This work represents only the work during the period of God’s incarnation. It is representative of an age, and it represents the work of the Spirit of God in one particular age, and not the entirety of the work of the Spirit of God. Therefore, the image of God become flesh will not be manifested to the myriad peoples. What is manifested to the myriad people is the righteousness of God and His disposition in its entirety, rather than His image when He twice became flesh. It is neither the one single image that is manifested to man, nor the two images combined. Therefore, it is imperative that God’s incarnate flesh should depart the earth upon completion of the work that He needs to do, for He comes only to complete the work He ought to do, and not to reveal His image to people. Even though the significance of the incarnation has already been fulfilled by God twice becoming flesh, still He will not openly manifest Himself to any nation that has never before seen Him. Jesus will never again manifest Himself to the Jews as the Sun of righteousness, nor will He stand atop the Mount of Olives and manifest Himself to the myriad peoples; all that the Jews have seen is the portrait of Jesus during His time in Judea. This is because the work of Jesus in His incarnation ended two thousand years ago; He will not return to Judea in the image of a Jew, much less manifest Himself in the image of a Jew to any of the Gentile nations, for the image of Jesus become flesh is merely the image of a Jew, and not the image of the Son of man that John saw. Even though Jesus promised His followers that He would come again, He will not manifest Himself in the image of a Jew to all those in Gentile nations. You ought to know that the work of God become flesh is to open up an age. This work is limited to a period of several years, and He cannot complete all the work of the Spirit of God, just as the image of Jesus as a Jew could represent only the image of God as He worked in Judea, and He could only do the work of crucifixion. During the period when Jesus was in the flesh, He could not do the work of bringing the age to an end or destroying mankind. Therefore, after He had been crucified and had concluded His work, He ascended to the highest height and forever concealed Himself from man. From then on, those loyal believers from the Gentile nations were unable to see the manifestation of the Lord Jesus, but only the portrait of Him that they had pasted on the wall. This portrait is but one drawn by man, and not the image of God as He manifests Himself to man. God will not openly manifest Himself to the myriad people in the images of His two incarnations. The work He does among mankind is to allow them to understand His disposition. All this is made manifest to man by means of the work of the different ages; it is accomplished through the disposition He has made known and the work that He has done, rather than through the manifestation of Jesus. That is to say, the image of God is made known to man not through the incarnate image, but rather through the work carried out by the incarnate God who has both image and form; and through His work, His image is revealed and His disposition is made known. This is the significance of the work He wishes to do in the flesh.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (2)

223. God being the greatest throughout the universe and in the realm above, could He fully explain Himself using the image of a flesh? God clothes Himself in this flesh in order to do one stage of His work. There is no particular significance to this image of the flesh, it bears no relation to the passing of ages, nor does it have anything to do with God’s disposition. Why did Jesus not allow the image of Him to remain? Why did He not let man paint His image so that it could be passed on to later generations? Why did He not allow people to acknowledge that His image was the image of God? Although the image of man was created in the image of God, would it have been possible for the appearance of man to represent the lofty image of God? When God becomes flesh, He merely descends from heaven into a particular flesh. It is His Spirit that descends into a flesh, through which He does the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that is expressed in the flesh, and it is the Spirit who does His work in the flesh. The work done in the flesh fully represents the Spirit, and the flesh is for the sake of the work, but that does not mean that the image of the flesh is a substitute for the true image of God Himself; this is not the purpose or the significance of God becoming flesh. He becomes flesh only so that the Spirit may find a place to reside that suits His working, so that He may achieve His work in the flesh, and so that people can see His deeds, understand His disposition, hear His words, and know the wonder of His work. His name represents His disposition, His work represents His identity, but He has never said that His appearance in the flesh represents His image; that is merely a notion of man. And so, the crucial aspects of the incarnation of God are His name, His work, His disposition, and His gender. These are used to represent His management in this age. His appearance in the flesh bears no relation to His management, being merely for the sake of His work at the time. Yet it is impossible for God incarnate to have no particular appearance, and so He chooses the appropriate family to determine His appearance. If the appearance of God were to have representative significance, then all those who possess regular facial features similar to His would also represent God. Would that not be an egregious mistake? The portrait of Jesus was painted by man in order that man might worship Him. At the time, the Holy Spirit gave no special instructions, and so man passed that imagined portrait on until today. In truth, according to God’s original intention, man should not have done this. It is only the zeal of man that has caused the portrait of Jesus to remain until this day. God is Spirit, and man will never be capable of summarizing His exact image. His image can only be represented by His disposition.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Vision of God’s Work (3)

224. God becomes flesh not with the intention of allowing man to know His flesh, or to allow man to distinguish the differences between the flesh of God incarnate and that of man; nor does God become flesh to train man’s powers of discernment, and still less does He do so with the intention of allowing man to worship the incarnate flesh of God, thereby gaining great glory. None of these things is the intention of God in becoming flesh. Nor does God become flesh in order to condemn man, nor deliberately to reveal man, nor to make things difficult for him. None of these things is the intention of God. Every time God becomes flesh, it is a form of work that is unavoidable. It is for the sake of His greater work and His greater management that He acts as He does—it’s not as man imagines it to be. God comes to earth only as His work requires, and only as necessary. He does not come to earth with the intention of simply looking around, but to carry out the work that He ought to do. Why else would He assume such a heavy burden and take such great risks to carry out this work? God becomes flesh only when He has to, and always with unique significance. If it were only for the sake of allowing people to have a look at Him and to broaden their horizons, then He would, with absolute certainty, never come among people so lightly. He comes to earth for the sake of His management and His greater work, and in order that He might gain more of mankind. He comes to represent the age, He comes to defeat Satan, and He clothes Himself in flesh in order to defeat Satan. Even more, He comes in order to guide the entire human race in living their lives. All of this concerns His management, and it concerns the work of the whole universe. If God became flesh merely to allow man to come to know His flesh and to open up people’s eyes, then why would He not travel to every nation? Would this not be an exceedingly easy matter? But He did not do so, instead choosing a suitable place in which to settle and begin the work that He ought to do. Just this flesh alone is of considerable significance. He represents an entire age, and also carries out the work of an entire age; He both brings the former age to an end and ushers in the new. All of this is an important matter that concerns God’s management, and all of this is the significance of one stage of work that God comes to earth to carry out.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (3)

225. Though Christ on earth is able to work on behalf of God Himself, He does not come with the intention of showing all people His image in the flesh. He does not come so that all people may behold Him; He comes to allow man to be led by His hand, and man thereby enters into the new age. The function of Christ’s flesh is for the work of God Himself, that is, for the work of God in the flesh, and not to enable man to fully understand the essence of His flesh. No matter how He works, nothing He does goes beyond that which is attainable by the flesh. No matter how He works, He does so in the flesh with a normal humanity, and does not fully reveal to man the true countenance of God. Additionally, His work in the flesh is never as supernatural or inestimable as man conceives. Even though Christ represents God Himself in the flesh and carries out in person the work that God Himself ought to do, He does not deny the existence of God in heaven, nor does He proclaim His own deeds with great fanfare. Rather, He remains hidden, humbly, within His flesh. Apart from Christ, those who falsely claim to be christ do not possess His attributes. When juxtaposed against the arrogant and self-exalting disposition of those false christs, it becomes apparent what manner of flesh is truly Christ. The more someone is a false christ, the more they will flaunt themselves, and the more capable they are of working signs and wonders to mislead man. False christs do not have the attributes of God; Christ is not tainted by any element belonging to false christs. God becomes flesh only to complete the work of the flesh, not to merely allow man to see Him. Rather, He lets His work affirm His identity, and lets that which He reveals attest to His essence. His essence is not baseless; His identity was not seized by His hand; it is determined by His work and His essence.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of Christ Is Submission to the Will of the Heavenly Father

226. The greatest strength of His work in the flesh is that He can leave accurate words and exhortations, and His precise intentions for mankind to those who follow Him, so that afterward His followers can more accurately and in more practical terms pass on all of His work in the flesh, and His intentions for the whole of mankind, to those who accept this way. Only God in the flesh working among man truly makes God’s being together and living together with man a reality, and fulfills man’s desire to behold the face of God, witness the work of God, and hear the personal word of God. The incarnate God brings to an end the age when only the back of Jehovah appeared to mankind, and He also concludes the age of mankind’s belief in the nebulous gods. In particular, the work of God’s last incarnation brings all mankind into an age that is more realistic, more practical, and more beautiful. This work not only concludes the age of law and regulations but, more importantly, it makes known to mankind the God who is practical and normal, who is righteous and holy, who unlocks the work of the management plan and who demonstrates the mysteries and destination of mankind, who created mankind and brings to an end the management work, and who has remained hidden for thousands of years. This work brings the age of nebulousness to a complete end, it concludes the age in which the whole of mankind wished to seek God’s face but was unable to, it ends the age in which the whole of mankind served Satan, and it leads the whole of mankind all the way into a completely new era. All this is the outcome of the work of God in the flesh in place of God’s Spirit. Only when God works in His flesh, do those who follow Him no longer seek and grope after those things which seem to both exist and not exist, and cease to guess at the intentions of the nebulous gods. When God spreads His work in the flesh, those who follow Him shall pass on the work that He has done in the flesh to all religions and denominations, and they shall disseminate all of His words to the ears of the whole of mankind. All that is heard by those who receive His gospel shall be the facts of His work, and shall be things personally seen and heard by man—it shall be facts and not hearsay. These facts are the evidence with which He spreads the work, and they are also the tools that He uses in spreading the work. Without the existence of facts, His gospel would not spread across all countries and to all places; without facts but only with man’s imaginings, He would never be able to do the work of conquering the entire universe. The Spirit is impalpable to man, and invisible to man, and the work of the Spirit is incapable of leaving for man any more evidence or any more facts of God’s work. Man would never behold the real face of God, he would always believe in a nebulous god that does not exist. Man would never behold the face of God, nor would man ever hear words personally spoken by God. Man’s imaginings are, after all, empty, and cannot replace the true face of God; the inherent disposition of God, and the work of God Himself, cannot be impersonated by man. The invisible God in heaven and His work can only be brought to earth by God becoming flesh and coming among man to personally do His work. This is the most ideal way for God to appear to man, and for man to see God and come to know the true face of God, and it cannot be achieved by a non-incarnate God. Having carried out His work to this stage, God’s work has already achieved the optimal effect, and has been a complete success. The personal work of God in the flesh has already completed ninety percent of His entire management work. This flesh has led all of His work into a better beginning, and this flesh has brought all of His work to a conclusion, has promulgated all of His work, and has made the last thorough replenishment to all of this work. Henceforth, there will not be another incarnate God to do the fourth stage of God’s work, and never will there be any wondrous work of a third incarnation of God.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

227. Although this flesh is normal and practical, He is no common flesh: He is not flesh that only has humanity, but flesh that has both humanity and divinity. This is the difference between Him and man, and it is the mark of the identity of God. Only flesh such as this can do the work that He intends to do, and fulfill the ministry of God in the flesh, and fully complete His work among man. If it were not thus, His work among man would always be empty and flawed. Even though God can do battle with the spirit of Satan and emerge victorious, the old nature of corrupted man can never be resolved, and those who are rebellious to God and oppose Him can never truly become subject to His dominion, which is to say, He can never conquer mankind, and can never gain the whole of mankind. If His work on earth cannot be resolved, then His management shall never be brought to an end, and the whole of mankind will not be able to enter rest. If God cannot enter rest with all of His created beings, then there shall never be an outcome to such management work, and the glory of God shall consequently disappear. Although His flesh has no authority, the work He does will have achieved its effect. This is the inevitable direction of His work. Regardless of whether or not His flesh is possessed of authority, as long as He is capable of doing the work of God Himself, then He is God Himself. Regardless of how normal and ordinary this flesh is, He can do the work He should do, for this flesh is God and is not just a human. The reason this flesh can do the work that man cannot is that His inner essence is unlike that of any human being, and the reason He can save man is that His identity is different from that of any human being. This flesh is so important to mankind because He is human and, even more so, He is God, because He can do the work that no ordinary man of flesh can do, and because He can save corrupt man, who lives together with Him on earth. Though He is also human, the incarnate God is more important to mankind than any person of value, for He can do the work that cannot be done by the Spirit of God, is more able than the Spirit of God to bear testimony to God Himself, and is more able than the Spirit of God to fully gain mankind. As a result, although this flesh is normal and ordinary, in terms of His contribution to mankind and His significance to the existence of mankind, He is highly precious, and the actual value and significance of this flesh is immeasurable to any human being. Although this flesh cannot directly destroy Satan, He can use His work to conquer mankind and defeat Satan, and make Satan fully yield to His dominion. It is because God is incarnated that He can defeat Satan and is able to save mankind. He does not directly destroy Satan, but instead becomes flesh to do the work to conquer mankind, who has been corrupted by Satan. In this way, He can better bear testimony to Himself among His created beings, and He can better save corrupted man. God incarnate’s defeat of Satan bears greater testimony, and is more convincing, than the direct destruction of Satan by the Spirit of God. God in the flesh is more beneficial for man knowing the Creator and is better able to bear testimony to Himself among His created beings.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God

228. This time, God comes to do work not in a spiritual body, but in a very ordinary one. Moreover, it is the body of God’s second incarnation, and it is also the body through which God returns to the flesh. It is a very ordinary flesh. Looking at Him, you cannot see anything that makes Him stand out from others, but you can gain from Him previously unheard-of truths. Just this insignificant flesh is the embodiment of all God’s words of truth, the bearer of God’s work in the last days, and the expression by which man understands God’s whole disposition. Do you not desire greatly to see the God in heaven? Do you not desire greatly to understand the God in heaven? Do you not desire greatly to see the destination of mankind? He will tell you all these secrets—secrets that no man has ever been able to tell you—and He will also tell you the truths that you do not understand. He is your gate to the kingdom, and your guide into the new age. This ordinary flesh holds many mysteries unfathomable to man. His deeds are inscrutable to you, but the entire goal of the work He does is sufficient to enable you to see that He is not, as people believe, a simple flesh, because He represents God’s intentions in the last days, and God’s care for mankind in the last days. Though you cannot hear His words seeming to shake the heavens and earth, though you cannot see His eyes as a flame of fire, and though you cannot receive the discipline of His iron rod, nevertheless you can hear from His words that God is angry and know that God is showing mercy to mankind, and see the righteous disposition of God and His wisdom, and, even more so, appreciate God’s solicitude for all mankind. The work of God in the last days is to allow man to see on earth the God in heaven living among man, and to enable man to know, submit to, fear, and love God. This is why He has returned to the flesh for a second time. Though what man sees this day is a God that is the same as man, a God with a nose and two eyes, and a very unremarkable God, in the end, God will show you that if this person did not exist, the heavens and earth would undergo a tremendous change; if this person did not exist, the heavens would grow dim, the earth would be plunged into chaos, and all mankind would live amid famine and plagues. He will show you that if God incarnate of the last days did not come to save you, then God would have long ago destroyed all mankind in hell; if this flesh did not exist, then you would forever be arch-sinners, and you would be corpses evermore. You should know that if this flesh did not exist, it would be impossible for all mankind to escape a great calamity, and impossible for it to escape the even more severe punishment that God metes out to mankind in the last days. Had this ordinary flesh not been born, you would all be in a state where you beg for life without being able to live and beg for death without being able to die; if this flesh did not exist, then you would not be able to gain the truth and come before the throne of God today, but rather, you would be punished by God because of your grievous sins. Did you know that were it not for the return of God to the flesh, none would have a chance at salvation; and were it not for the coming of this flesh, God would have long ago put an end to the age of old? This being so, will you still reject the second incarnation of God? Since you can derive such great benefits from this ordinary person, why would you not gladly accept Him?

The work of God is something that you cannot comprehend. If you can neither fully grasp whether your choice is correct, nor can you know whether the work of God can succeed, then why not try your luck and see whether this ordinary person may be of great help to you, and whether God has indeed done great work? However, I must tell you that in the time of Noah, man had been eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage to such an extent that it was unbearable for God to witness, so He sent down a great flood to destroy mankind, sparing only Noah’s family of eight and all kinds of birds and beasts. In the last days, however, those spared by God are all those who have been loyal to Him until the end. Though both ages are times of great corruption unbearable for God to witness, and mankind in both ages is so corrupt and denies that God is their Lord, God destroyed only the people in the time of Noah. Mankind in both ages causes God great distress, yet God has remained patient with the people of the last days until now. Why is this? Have you never wondered why? If you truly do not know, then let Me tell you. The reason that God is able to accord grace to people in the last days is not that they are less corrupt than people in the time of Noah, or that they have the intention to repent to God, much less is it that technology in the last days is so advanced that God cannot bring Himself to destroy them. Rather, it is that God has work to do upon a group of people in the last days, and that God intends to do this work Himself in His incarnation. Furthermore, God intends to choose a part of this group to become the objects of His salvation and the fruit of His management plan, and bring these people into the next age. Therefore, no matter what, this price paid by God is entirely in preparation for the work His incarnated flesh does in the last days. The fact that you have arrived at today is thanks to this flesh. It is because God lives in the flesh that you have the chance to survive. All these blessings have been gained on account of this ordinary person. Not only this, but in the end, the myriad nations shall worship this ordinary person, as well as give thanks to and submit to this insignificant person, because it is the truth, the life, and the way He brought that has saved all mankind, eased the conflict between man and God, shortened the distance between them, and opened up a connection between the thoughts of God and man. It is also He who has obtained even greater glory for God. Is such an ordinary person unworthy of your trust and adoration? Is such an ordinary flesh unfit to be called Christ? Can such an ordinary person not become the expression of God among man? Does such a person, who has spared mankind from disaster, not deserve your love and your desire to hold on to Him? If you reject the truths expressed from His mouth and detest His existence among you, then what will become of you in the end?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Did You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Man

229. All of God’s work in the last days is done through this ordinary person. He will bestow everything upon you, and what is more, He is able to decide everything relating to you. Can such a person be as you believe Him to be: a person so simple as to be unworthy of mention? Is His truth not enough to utterly convince you? Is seeing His deeds with your own eyes unable to convince you? Or is it that the path He leads people along is unworthy of being walked upon by you? When all is said and done, what is it that causes you to feel antipathy toward Him and to reject Him and give Him a wide berth? It is this person who expresses the truth, it is this person who provides the truth, and it is this person who gives you a path to follow. Could it be that you are still unable to find the traces of God’s work within these truths? Without the work of Jesus, mankind could not have come down from the cross, but without the incarnate God of today, those who come down from the cross could never gain God’s approval or enter into the new age. Without the coming of this ordinary person, you would never have the opportunity to see the true countenance of God, nor would you be qualified to, for you are all objects that should have long ago perished. Because of the coming of the second incarnation of God, God has forgiven you and shown you mercy. Regardless, the words I must leave you with in the end are still these: This ordinary person, who is God incarnate, is of vital importance to you. This is the great thing that God has already done among man.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Did You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Man

230. Those who wish to gain life without relying on the truth spoken by Christ are the most ridiculous people on earth, and those who do not accept the way of life brought by Christ are lost in fantasy. And so I say that those who do not accept Christ of the last days shall forever be loathed by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom in the last days, and there are none who can bypass Him. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and submit to His way. Do not only think of gaining blessings while being unable to accept the truth and the provision of life. Christ comes in the last days so that He may provide all those who sincerely believe in Him with life. This work exists for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and this work is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you do not acknowledge Christ, and moreover condemn, blaspheme, or persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity and shall never enter the kingdom of God. This is because this Christ is Himself the expression of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God, the One whom God has entrusted to do His work on earth, and so I say that if you cannot accept all that is done by Christ of the last days, then you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The due retribution for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you this: If you resist Christ of the last days, if you reject Christ of the last days, then no one else can bear the consequences for this on your behalf. Furthermore, from that point onward you will never have the chance to gain the approval of God; even if you wish to redeem yourself, you won’t be able to behold the face of God again. This is because what you are resisting is not a human being, what you are rejecting is not some insignificant person, but Christ. Do you know what the consequences of this are? You are not making a small mistake, but committing a heinous sin. And so I advise every person to not bare your fangs and brandish your claws or make arbitrary comments before the truth, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can enable you to be reborn and behold the face of God again.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life