To Follow Jesus is to Live by the Divine Life for the Manifestation of God in the Flesh

We need to uphold the truth and testify to the truth that the church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh; God was manifested in the flesh in the Lord Jesus, and to follow Jesus is to live by the divine life to become part of the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh.

This matter of God being manifested in the flesh first in the Lord Jesus and second in the church is a deep and profound matter.

For us to uphold the truth, for us to testify to the truth, is for us to uphold that Jesus the man manifested God in the flesh when He was incarnated.

As He testified to Pilate, He was born for this, to testify to the truth, and this He did.

After His death and resurrection, we as the church became the Body of Christ to be His continuation.

Once it was the only God-man, now we are His duplication, His continuation, His reproduction.

Today we continue to be the manifestation of God in the flesh, for we are constituted with His very being as we dive into the truth, and we express Him corporately.

Today the church is the enlargement of Christ, the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, to carry out the same commission for the manifestation of God in the flesh.

This word, flesh, is not a good term, for it refers to the man corrupted and seduced by Satan to become the flesh, the fallen human being.

Yet God chose to not only become a man bute ven the flesh, and He says that He is manifested not just in man but in the flesh.

There are two verses in the entire New Testament that speak concerning the flesh not in a negative sense.

First, it is in John 1:14 where we see that the Word, God Himself, became flesh; He didn’t just become a man but He became flesh.

When Jesus became flesh, He didn’t become the flesh of sin; rather, He had the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He knew no sin, nor was there sin found in Him.

Christ became a man in the flesh, and in Him God tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality.

Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, the eternal Word, one day became incarnated to be the flesh for the purpose of the manifestation of God in the flesh. Hallelujah!

The second verse that mentions the flesh not in a negative sense is 1 Tim. 3:15-16, where we see that God is manifested in the flesh.

Today the church is not just God manifested in humanity but God manifested in the flesh.

The church is the continuation of the manifestation of God – this manifestation continues from Christ as the individual Son of God to the church as the enlargement and multiplication of Christ, to continue to manifest God in the flesh. Hallelujah!

God was manifested in the Flesh first in Christ as His Individual Expression in the Flesh

It is very interesting that the New Testament doesn’t say that the Son of God was incarnated; it reveals that God was manifested in the flesh, and the Word of God became flesh (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:15-16).

When Christ was manifested, it wasn’t only the second of the DIvine Trinity that was manifested – it was the entire Triune God who came to be incarnated.

John 1:1 says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; this Word, who was God, became flesh (v. 14).

God was manifested in the flesh not only as the Son but as the entire God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

It is the entire Triune God who was manifested, not just God the Son; therefore, Christ in His incarnation was the entire God manifested in the flesh.

It is amazing to realize that Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man, for in Christ the infinite God and the finite man became one (John 8:58; 7:6; 12:24).

Our God is infinite; before Abraham was, He is – He is the eternal one, and yet Jesus Christ, who was a finite man, had God in Him, for the infinite God was mingled with the finite man.

When His brothers sarcastically said that He should go to Judea for others also to see Him and His miracles, the Lord clearly indicated in John 7:6 that He was a man restricted by time in His humanity, and He was also limited by God’s timing.

Who is this Christ? He is the mingling of the infinite God and the finite man to be the manifestation of God in the flesh.

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.

The incarnation of Christ was a profound matter – it wasn’t as simple as “a child born in a manger”.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are an incorporation, for they mutually coinhere each other, and they do all things as one.

This is why the Lord told Phillip, who asked Him to show them the Father, that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father, and when He does His work, it is the Father who does His work.

This divine incorporation was brought into humanity; Christ is the incorporation of the Triune God with the tripartite man.

He said that, in that day, we will know that He is in the Father and we, the believers, are in Him, and He in us; we are an incorporation of the Triune God with the tripartite man.

In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9); though we may not understand this fully, in Him, in this person, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.

This refers to all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ – the complete God dwells in Christ. Before the incarnation of Christ, the fullness of God dwells in Christ as the eternal Word (John 1:1); now, after His incarnation, all the fullness of God dwells in a man, Jesus Christ.

Christ embodies and contains all the fullness of God as the eternal Word, and when He came to be incarnated as a man in the flesh, in His human body was embodied not just the riches of Christ but the entire fullness of the Godhead. Wow!

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

This is what God manifested in the flesh means. The entire Triune God was embodied in Christ; as the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, Christ is not only the Son of God but also the entire God!

May the Lord take away all the veils of our religious concepts and the natural view we may have so that we may see these divine things.

When we look at the man Jesus, we see that, through His incarnation and human living, God was manifested in the flesh. What a Christ!

Lord Jesus, we want to uphold the truth and testify to the truth by declaring that Christ is the individual manifestation of God in the flesh and the church is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh! Hallelujah, God not only became a man – He became the flesh so that God may be manifested in the flesh! Wow, the Triune God became a man, and the entire God was manifested in the flesh in this one man, Jesus Christ! How mysterious yet how wonderful that Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man! We praise You, Lord, for the divine incorporation was brought into humanity to manifest God in the flesh. Amen, Lord, thank You for bringing the Triune God into us and for bringing us into the Triune God, so that where You are we would be also!

To Follow Jesus is to live by the Divine Life for the Manifestation of God in the Flesh

What we see in the Lord Jesus with His God-man human living is that He didn’t live by Himself to express Himself; He lived by the divine life to express God.

He constantly denied Himself and lived by the life of the Father, taking the Father as the source and everything for His life and service.

In His human living, He denied His perfect human life, rejecting Himself, and always putting Him aside, so that He would live by the divine life.

This is the manifestation of God in the flesh spoken of by Paul in 1 Tim. 3:16. Such a life needs to be lived out by us today; as His continuation, we are the manifestation of God in the flesh.

We need to follow the Lord Jesus by living the life of a God-man; we do this not by living by our human life but by the divine life.

When we deny ourselves and do not live by the human life but by the divine life, God can be manifested through us.

For us to live the life of a God-man is to live not by our human life but by the divine life so that God may be expressed and manifested in the flesh.

When we do this, His divine attributes are becoming the human virtues, and we become His manifestation in the flesh.

May we realize that we are God-men, those who are regenerated by God with His divine life, and we should follow in the Lord’s footsteps.

May we live a life not expressing ourselves or being in ourselves but living by another One.

May we live not by our human life but by His divine life so that His divine attributes may be expressed through our human virtues.

The Lord Jesus is our pattern: in this One the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell, and the entire Triune God was embodied in Him.

However, He didn’t take this for granted but rather, He denied Himself and remained daily on the cross so that He might live by God to express God.

He didn’t live by His perfect human life, neither did He do a work in and by Himself; He simply manifested God in the flesh by denying Himself and living by the life of the Father to express the Father.

May we as the many God-men, the members of the church, be the manifestation of God in the flesh today by living not by our human life but by the divine life so that He may be expressed through us.

This is what it means to follow Jesus; it is to live by the divine life so that we may be part of the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh.

Lord Jesus, we want to follow You to live the life of a God-man. We want to follow in Your footsteps to live not by our human life but by the divine life so that God may be expressed in the flesh. Amen, Lord, have a way in us. May Your divine attributes become our human virtues. May we realize that, as God-men, we should live a life not by ourselves but by Christ who lives in us! Remind us to turn to You and take You as our life and person so that You may be expressed through us in Your divine attributes becoming our human virtues!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 13, 363), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 5, Upholding the Truth and Testifying to the Truth that the Church is the Pillar and Base of the Truth and the Corporate Manifestation of God in the Flesh.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The fulness of God dwells in Thee; / Thou dost manifest God’s glory; / In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought; / As Spirit, oneness with me sought. (Hymns #501)
  – Flesh He became, the first God-man, / His pleasure that I God may be: / In life and nature I’m God’s kind, / Though Godhead’s His exclusively. / His attributes my virtues are; / His glorious image shines through me. / His attributes my virtues are; / His glorious image shines through me. (Song on, What miracle! What mystery!)
  – Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / In all things Thy will be done; / I but a transparent vessel / To make visible the Son. (Hymns #403)