In the stage of incarnation, Christ expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, and He accomplished His all-inclusive judicial redemption through His death on the cross.
Hallelujah for our wonderful Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!
No matter whether you are a Christian or not, if you read the Gospels – the first four books of the New Testament – you will be very much impressed with Jesus, the incarnated God-man.
The New Testament reveals that Christ has a full ministry in three stages – incarnation (from His human birth to His death), inclusion (from His resurrection to the degradation of the church), and intensification (from the degradation of the church to the New Jerusalem).
In other words, first God became a man and lived a human life on earth, accomplishing God’s purpose and having a particular kind of living; this is recorded in the Gospels.
The earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the four Gospels, is aromatic, wonderful, and mystical.
After His death, He entered into another stage when He resurrected: now He is the Spirit, even the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), to be a bountiful supply to those who believe into the Lord.
The Epistles reveal Christ in the stage of inclusion; in Him as the Spirit, all that God is and has, all that Christ has accomplished and attained, is included and compounded.
When we believe into the Lord Jesus, we receive Him as the Spirit into our spirit, and this Spirit is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit that gives life and imparts God into us in a bountiful way. Hallelujah!
We would think that this is good enough, for the Spirit produces the churches and builds up the Body of Christ.
However, the book of Revelation shows us the seven Spirits of God before the throne of God.
These seven Spirits are not seven individual Spirits but one Spirit of God who has been intensified sevenfold to counteract the degradation of the church, produce the overcomers, and consummate the New Jerusalem.
Today we are in this age of intensification, where all the elements in the Spirit have been intensified sevenfold to produce us as he overcomers and to consummate the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
In this article, we are focusing on the first stage, the stage of incarnation.
We have seen that through incarnation the infinite God was brought into the finite man, and the Triune God was mingled and incorporated with the tripartite man.
Now we need to go on to see more concerning Christ’s incarnation.
In His Incarnation Christ Expressed the Bountiful God in His Rich Attributes through His Aromatic Virtues
One thing that stands out about the Lord Jesus in His living on earth is that, in His incarnation, He expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues.
There was something aromatic about the Lord Jesus; there was something sweet yet mysterious about Him.
You can’t see the aroma but you can sense it; people sensed something aromatic and wonderful about the Lord Jesus.
In the Gospels we see the Lord’s human virtues of affection, kindness, patience, mercy, and understanding being displayed in His fellowship with a sinful woman (see Luke 8:36-50).
Furthermore, His divine attributes, especially the attributes of divine authority to forgive a person’s sins and His giving of peace to the forgiven sinners were also displayed.
![And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner, and when she learned that He was reclining [at table] in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And she stood behind [Him] at His feet weeping and began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped [them] with the hair of her head, and she kissed His feet affectionately and anointed [them] with the ointment...And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven...But He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Luke 7:37-38, 48, 50](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/And-behold-there-was-a-woman-in-the-city-who-was-a-sinner-and-when-she-learned-that-He-was-reclining-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner, and when she learned that He was reclining [at table] in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And she stood behind [Him] at His feet weeping and began to wet His feet with her tears and wiped [them] with the hair of her head, and she kissed His feet affectionately and anointed [them] with the ointment...And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven...But He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Luke 7:37-38, 48, 50")
For example, when the Lord walked by the tax office and called Matthew to follow Him, even though Matthew had never met the Lord before, he simply left everything and went after Him.
He didn’t ask the Lord to wait for him to tell his boss or maybe give a two-week notice; the Lord’s aromatic virtues attracted him.
There was some kind of aromatic power in the Lord’s countenance and voice which could really attract and captivate people.
There was some kind of aromatic power emanating from Him. His disciples didn’t just follow Him because they understood His mission and His goal; they were attracted, charmed, and captivated by the Lord, and they just followed the Lord Jesus, no matter what happened.
The Lord expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues.
For example, Peter failed the Lord so many times and was rebuked by Him many times, but he did not cease following the Lord.
After Peter had a great revelation from the Father concerning Christ, the Son of God, he also expressed his own opinion – which came out of Satan, so the Lord rebuked him, Get behind Me, Satan. Wow.
Another time the Jews asked Peter if the Lord paid the temple tax, and Peter immediately said yes; but the Lord, who is the Son of God and should not pay such a tax, shepherded Peter, explained this to him, and instructed him to go catch a fish in whose mouth was the coin to pay the temple tax.
Peter was very much dealt with by the Lord, and he represents all of us.
Even after the Lord’s death and resurrection, Peter took the lead to go back to his old profession of fishing, and some brothers went with him.
So the Lord came to where he was and shepherded him back to his first love for the Lord, then the Lord commissioned him to shepherd His sheep and feed His lambs (John 21:15-17).
How sweet the Lord was toward Peter, even when he failed!
If you read the Gospels you cannot deny that the human virtues of Christ were aromatic; His living was sweet and fragrant.
In Luke 7:36-50 we see a sinful woman who came into the home of a Pharisee who had invited the Lord Jesus to eat with Him.
She wept at His feet, wetting His feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair, and she anointed His feet.
The Lord in His humanity was not bothered by the sinful woman; the Pharisee was bothered, but the Lord was not.
The Lord realized that she was convicted of her sins, so He displayed His human virtue of mercy toward her.
He not only loved her but also had mercy on her; mercy goes further than love. He sympathized with her in her low estate.
He was kind to her, had mercy on her, and exercised patience and wisdom toward her; His divine attributes enriched His human virtues and were expressed through them.
The divine attributes He exercised in this matter were first the divine forgiveness; only God can forgive sins (vv. 47-48).
Then, He gave her peace; He told the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.
God can give the inner peace, and He can forgive our sins. He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues.
He was the God-man, possessing all the human virtues created by God, and He also had divine attributes.
In all He did and said, in all His work and living, Christ acted in the highest standard of morality, or His human virtues expressed His divine attributes.
![Jesus, taking up [the question,] said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who having both stripped him and beaten [him,] went away, leaving [him] half dead...But a certain Samaritan, who was journeying, came upon him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion; And he came to [him] and bound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on [them.] And placing him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:30, 33-34](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Jesus-taking-up-the-question-said-A-certain-man-was-going-down-from-Jerusalem-to-Jericho-and-he-fell-among-robbers-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Jesus, taking up [the question,] said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who having both stripped him and beaten [him,] went away, leaving [him] half dead...But a certain Samaritan, who was journeying, came upon him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion; And he came to [him] and bound up his wounds and poured oil and wine on [them.] And placing him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:30, 33-34")
Another situation is when the Lord was on the cross, crucified between two criminals; while there, the two criminals were arguing about the Lord over Him, and one of them asked the Lord to remember him when He comes in His kingdom (Luke 23:42).
Instead of rebuking them or correcting them, the Lord said, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise (v. 43).
He loved man to the end, and the first person saved in His death on the cross was a criminal, a robber.
Here was a man, Jesus Christ, who lived in such a way that He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues.
He acted in His human virtues with His divine attributes.
In Luke 10:25-37 we see the story of the good Samaritan; the Man-Savior, as the good Samaritan, came down to the place where the wounded victim of the Judaistic robbers lay in his miserable and dying condition.
He was moved with compassion in His humanity with His divinity and rendered the one who was hurt the tender healing and saving care, fully meeting his urgent need.
This story is so touching; the Lord was called by the Jews, Samaritan, so He gave the illustration of the good Samaritan.
We are wounded, hurt, and in bad shape; we need someone who is kind and tender, someone who understands us and who cares for us in love.
The Lord Jesus is the good Samaritan. We need to learn from Him.
We need to let Him minister to us and dispense oil and wine into us for us to be healed and enlivened.
May we enjoy and appreciate such a One who now lives in us.
He lived a perfect and aromatic human life by expressing the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues.
Lord Jesus, we love You. You are the most wonderful One. You are so attractive and so charming. We love to read the Gospels, Lord, and see how You expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through Your aromatic human virtues. Thank You for coming to us in affection, kindness, patience, mercy and understanding. Thank You for loving us as we are, reaching to us in Your mercy, and forgiving our sins. Oh Lord, You forgave all our sins and You dispensed Your peace into us. Thank You for Your loving care toward us in our pitiful condition. Oh Lord, You were moved with compassion in Your humanity toward us, and You love us, care for us, and bring us into the church life to be cared for until You return. We love You, Lord Jesus! Live in us such a life today. Repeat in us this wonderful, aromatic, perfect human living for the Father’s satisfaction!
In His Incarnation Christ Accomplished His All-inclusive Judicial Redemption through His Death on the Cross
In the stage of His incarnation, Christ accomplished His all-inclusive judicial redemption through His death on the cross.
The soul that sins must die; the punishment for sin is death.
But the Lord Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, came and fulfilled all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, and He accomplished redemption for us.
The redemption the Lord accomplished was all-inclusive; it covered all the matters that needed to be taken care of before God.
The wage of sin is death (Rom. 6:23); because God is righteous, though He loves us, He needs to satisfy the requirements of His righteousness.
He did this by coming in the Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us.
Christ’s judicial redemption is according to the righteousness of God as the procedure of God’s salvation to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteous law on sinners (Rom. 1:17a; 3:21-26; 9:30-31).
Christ came and paid the wages of sin on the cross. He died as our substitute; we should have died, but He died for us, on our behalf (1 Pet. 3:18).
When we believe into the Lord Jesus, we are grafted into Him, and we also have died with Him on the cross.
Christ died for us and we died in Him and with Him; we are now dead with Christ, and God is satisfied. Christ’s redemption is for us sinners to be forgiven by God and before God (Luke 24:47).
Through His redemption, we are washed and cleansed from our sins (Heb. 1:3). We have been justified (Rom. 3:24-25) and reconciled to God (5:10).
Through the all-inclusive redemption of Christ, we are sanctified unto God positionally (1 Cor. 1:2; Heb. 13:12), thereby being qualified and positioned to enjoy God’s organic salvation and enter into God’s higher grace for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy and the attainment of God’s ultimate purpose (Rom. 5:10, 17, 21). Hallelujah!
Not only did the Lord Jesus live a perfect human life on earth in which He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, but He also died for us.
He loved us to the uttermost and laid down His own life for us so that we may be redeemed.
The one act of Jesus Christ in selflessly dying for us on the cross has brought in millions of believers in Christ into the kingdom of God to partake of God’s organic salvation.
It is very rare for someone to lay down his life for his friend, but here we have Jesus Christ, the friend of the sinners, the perfect Lamb of God, who laid down His life for us.
When we see His dying love, when we realize that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for you and for me, we cannot but love Him and believe into Him.
Just a look at the crucified Savior causes us to believe and changes us.
When we believe into the Lord Jesus, we are forgiven before God, washed, justified, reconciled to God, and sanctified unto God positionally.
It is all by faith, and He has done it all; He accomplished everything, and now we just need to believe.
Praise You, Lord Jesus, for accomplishing Your all-inclusive judicial redemption through Your death on the cross. Hallelujah, Christ’s judicial redemption is according to the righteousness of God as the procedure of God’s salvation! We believe into You, Lord, and we believe that Your all-inclusive redemption satisfies the requirements of God’s righteous law on us, the sinners. Praise the Lord, by believing into Christ and accepting His redemption, we are forgiven before God, washed, justified, reconciled to God, and sanctified unto God positionally! Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You! We believe into You! Thank You for dying for us, for each one of us. Thank You for Your dying love. You paid the ultimate price by sacrificing Yourself for us. Now we can believe into You and have the judicial redemption of God applied to us by faith. Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, pp. 90-92, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 9, entitled, The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– The ministry of Christ in the stage of incarnation, article by John Campbell in, Affirmation and Critque.
– The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages, English – Prophesying Outline JSTS23 Week 09 via, The Church in Chennai.
– Cooperating with God to Carry Out His Move in His Economy by Knowing This Age and by Knowing the Present Truth, newsletter via, The Church in Regina.
– The full ministry of Christ – the accomplishments of Christ in the stage of His incarnation, a portion from, The Vital Groups, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee.
– The mystery of God – Christ, article by Witness Lee in, Affirmation and Critique.
– What is Redemption? How is Salvation Different? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– Doing a work of three sections, a portion from, Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee. - Hymns on this topic:
– He called me long before I heard, / Before my sinful heart was stirred, / But when I took Him at His word, / Forgiv’n, He lifted me. / His brow was pierced with many a thorn, / His hands by cruel nails were torn, / When from my guilt and grief, forlorn, / In love He lifted me. (Hymns #320 stanzas 2-3)
– Let us stand up in Jesus / In His full human life, / Human virtues prevailing / ’Gainst corruption so rife; / In this wickedness concerted, / In this age perverse, perverted, / The humanity of Jesus / Must the church now display. (Hymns #1172 chorus)
– No condemnation now I dread; / Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! / Alive in Him, my living Head, / And clothed in righteousness Divine, / Bold I approach the eternal throne, / And claim the crown, through Christ my own. / Bold I approach the eternal throne, / And claim the crown, through Christ my own. (Hymns #296 stanza 5)
About aGodMan
Life-study of Luke, pp. 90-92, by Witness Lee
Don’t you love the Lord Jesus?
He is the most wonderful One! He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic human virtues.
He loves us, has mercy on us, reaches out to us, and forgives us and gives us peace.
There’s an aroma about the Lord, something indescribable.
I appreciate our Christ in the stage of His incarnation is the Man Savior, as a man divinity was expressed through His humanity in an aromatic, cherishing way to save. Hallelujah!
He saves through bringing God to man! He saves In his virtues, He saves by coming down into our situation, He saves by His eternal and indiscrimate love and He saves through His all-inclusive judicial redemption through His death on the cross!
Yes, His divine attributes entered into human virtues and made humans very aromatic.
To start His first ministry, divinity came into humanity and lived to His highest standard of morality.
All these procedures are to bring us to God so that we can dwell in Him and He in us in life. What a merciful Lord we have!
From today’s verse, I also enjoyed faith, love, and peace which are given by Him not by our good deeds.
We simply love You, our wonderful Lord!
Dear brother, in the four gospels we see the divine, rich attributes of the Triune God expressed in the humanity of Jesus in His aromatic virtues.
The one who is love, light, holiness and righteousness was expressed in the one who forgave sinners and provided tender care and cherished them in their miserable condition.
This relates to the first stage of incarnation, where not only was the infinite God brought into the finite man but His divine attributes were expressed in the aromatic virtues of Jesus in His humanity.
This is so marvellous that even non-Christians are touched by such a sweet and fragrant one! Amen!
Amen! Lord Jesus, we love You!!! 🤗
Amen brother. Yes, we cannot help but be captured by our sweet & tender Saviour.
Our attributes are what we are, and God’s attributes are rich because He is great & bountiful.
He is love, light holiness & righteousness.
Jesus expressed these rich attributes in His humanity, and so can we.
Like Jesus, we can minister with our human virtues when we are filled with God’s divine attributes.
Praise the Lord! 😃🙋🏽🙏 Amen!
Amen brother!
The forgiven woman had not only love toward the Savior but also faith in Him, which operated through love and issued in peace.
The faith that saved her brought her to the Savior in love and resulted in her going forward in peace.
Oh may we experience this faith, love and peace as our virtues in our mingled spirit as his attributes and enjoy him for our growth and maturity!
Hallelujah!😃
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Amen! Lord we love You!
Thank you Lord for the process you went through.
Lord we just want to give our love to You. We don’t want to do anything else but to love You.
Amen… God is the only one who can give inner peace.
Amen, Lord Jesus we love you. Thank you for expressing the riches of God to us.
Ammmeenn!!!!
We love You Lord Jesus.
Thank You for bringing the infinite God to the finite man. For uniting, mingling, and incorporating the Triune God with the tripartite man and for expressing God’s rich, divine attributes in his aromatic, human virtues through which You attracted and captivated people.
Thank You for Your divine attributes of authority to forgive a person’s sins and Your giving of peace to the forgiven sinner to display the human virtues of affection, kindness, patience, mercy, and understanding. Thank You for Your divine tender healing and saving care and Your compassion in Your humanity.
Even the thief on the cross was charmed by You. You are altogether lovely, sweet, kind, lovable, and every positive item.
Lord thank You for winning us over.
More life!
Because Christ “lives in me (us)” and He is divine, His living in me/us makes me/us divine in Him. Praise the Lord that we are not stuck with a natural fallen life. We also have an uplifted, resurrected, and divine life.