Ⅲ
We need to uphold the truth and testify to the truth that the church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:15-16:
A
God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh—v. 16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14:
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The New Testament does not say that the Son of God was incarnated; it reveals that God was manifested in the flesh—1 Tim. 3:15-16:
ａ
God was manifested in the flesh not only as the Son but as the entire God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
ｂ
The entire God and not only God the Son was incarnated; hence, Christ in His incarnation was the entire God manifested in the flesh:
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In His ministry in the stage of incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man; in Christ the infinite God and the finite man became one—John 8:58; 7:6; 12:24.
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Through incarnation the divine incorporation—God in His Divine Trinity coinhering mutually and working together as one—was brought into humanity; Christ is therefore the incorporation of the Triune God with the tripartite man—14:10-11.
２
In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily—Col. 2:9:
ａ
All the fullness of the Godhead refers to the entire Godhead, to the complete God.
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Since the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead must be the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
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That all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily means that the Triune God is embodied in Him—John 14:10.
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As the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, Christ is not only the Son of God but also the entire God.
Morning Nourishment
1 Tim. 3:16 …Great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.
In 1 Timothy 3:15-16 Christ is presented as God manifested in the flesh…. Not only was the Lord Jesus the manifestation of God in the flesh in the past; the church today should also be the manifestation of God in the flesh. The word godliness in verse 16 means “God-likeness.” Hence, this verse indicates that human beings may have the appearance, the expression, and the manifestation of God. In the context of this verse, the phrase the mystery of godliness means that God in His mystery can be manifested and expressed in the flesh, in human beings….The transition from the mystery of godliness to He implies that Christ as the manifestation of God in the flesh is the mystery of godliness (Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 3661)
Today’s Reading
God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9; John 1:1, 14). The New Testament does not say that only the Son of God was incarnated. Rather, it reveals that God was manifested in the flesh, indicating that the entire God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—was incarnated. Therefore, Christ in His incarnation was the entire God manifested in the flesh. According to the Gospel of John, the Word, who is God, became flesh (vv. 1, 14)….The Word who became flesh—God manifested in the flesh—is God’s definition, explanation, and expression in the flesh (v. 18). God was manifested in the flesh not only as the Son but as the entire Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.Through incarnation and human living (vv. 1, 14), God was manifested in the flesh. The expression in the flesh means “in the likeness, in the fashion, of man” (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:7-8). Christ appeared to people in the form of man (2 Cor. 5:16), yet He was God manifested in a man.
When He lived on earth as the God-man, He did not live by His human life but by His divine life. He lived a human life not by His humanity but by His divinity. He lived as a God-man yet not by the life of man but by the life of God. Hence, His human living was not lived out by the human life but by the divine life. He lived by always rejecting His human life, by always putting His human life under the cross. From the first day He lived on earth, He lived a crucified human life, not by His human life but by His divine life. His human living did not express humanity but divinity in the divine attributes becoming the human virtues. This is what Paul meant in 1 Timothy 3 when he spoke of Christ as God manifested in the flesh (v. 16).
All of His days on earth, [Christ] put Himself on the cross. He remained on the cross to die so that He might live by God, not to express man but to express God in His divine attributes becoming man’s virtues…. Since today we are His reproduction, we should live the same kind of life. To follow Jesus is to live the life of a God-man, not by the human life but by the divine life, in order that God may be expressed, or manifested, in the flesh in all His divine attributes becoming the human virtues. This is the intrinsic significance of what it is to follow Christ. As God-men, we need to live a life not by ourselves but by another One, not by our human life but by His divine life, not to express ourselves but to express His divinity in His divine attributes which become our human virtues. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3661-3663)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 13, 363; CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “Crucial Elements of God’s Economy,” ch. 5