In His economy, God became a man in the flesh through His incarnation so that man might become God in the Spirit through transformation for the corporate expression of God in man; for this, God moved in man by the transformations of the Triune God for the accomplishment of His eternal economy. Hallelujah!
In Christ, in the person of this first God-man, God was constituted into man and man was constituted into God; in Christ God and man were mingled together to be one entity, the God-man.
According to the entire revelation of the Bible, the highest peak of the divine revelation in the word of God is that God became man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead (2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Matt. 22:41-45; John 14:6a; 10:10b; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 6:63; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16a).
In 2 Sam. 7:12 we see how God promised David to raise up his seed after him, and this seed will be the Son of God.
The son of a man is the son of God. Wow! A seed in the Bible means a descendent; it means a son.
The seed of David is the son of David, and that is not just Solomon but Christ Himself, the reality of the Seed of David.
In His humanity, Christ had God as His Father, and He was the Son of God; however, He was also the Son of God, for His very essence was divine, the divine life.
Christ was the Only Begotten Son of God from eternity, and as such a One He put on humanity; in His humanity, He was not the Son of God until He became the firstborn Son of God through death and resurrection.
Through incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ brought His humanity in resurrection, and in resurrection, His humanity was designated to be the Son of God.
Now Christ is not only the Only Begotten Son of God but also the Firstborn Son of God in His humanity, and we as believers in Christ are the many sons of God, following Him and being conformed to His image as the prototype.
Here we see the mystery spoken of in 2 Sam. 7:12 – a human seed become a divine Son; a man becoming God, and a son of man becoming a Son of God.
This is how God wants to accomplish His economy.
Based on such a mystery, the Lord asked His opposers a question, even the question of questions: what do you think concerning the Son of Man, whose son is He? If we say that He is the Son of David, then why does David call Him, in spirit, Lord? If we say that He is the Son of God, then how can He also be the son of David?
This is mysterious and wonderful, for the Son of God became a son of man through incarnation, and this son of man became a Son of God through resurrection.
Now we as the many sons of God are being conformed to His image as we are going through the process of transformation to become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead.
God became Man through Incarnation so that Man may become God in the Spirit through Transformation for God’s Building
![He deified men by Himself becoming man...He deified that which He put on...Being God, He [the Son] has taken to Him the flesh, and being in the flesh deifies the flesh...For He was made man that we might be made God. Athanasius](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/He-deified-men-by-Himself-becoming-man.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "He deified men by Himself becoming man...He deified that which He put on...Being God, He [the Son] has taken to Him the flesh, and being in the flesh deifies the flesh...For He was made man that we might be made God. Athanasius")
God has an economy, an eternal economy; this economy was hidden throughout the ages, and not even such seeking ones as Job could not see it – he knew there was something hidden in the heart of God concerning him, but he couldn’t pinpoint what was it.
God’s economy is God becoming a man in the flesh through incarnation so that man might become God in the Spirit through transformation for the building of God into man and man into God to gain a corporate God-man.
This is what the Bible shows us from the very beginning to the end of the divine revelation: God’s desire is not merely to create man to fellowship with Him; rather, God created man in His image and according to His likeness with the intention that man would become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.
This is the highest peak of the divine revelation.
Athanasius, one of the most well-known and respected church fathers, said some things in this respect, “He was made man, that we might be made God….the Word was made flesh, that we partaking of His Spirit might be deified.”
This is the revelation in the holy word of God, and we say this with utmost reverence to God; His desire is to be our life, our nature, and our everything, so that we may be a corporate God-man.
This is the principle of God’s move on earth; His move is not just among men (as in the Old Testament) but even more, in man.
God’s move is in man today; this is a great and wonderful matter!
Yes, He did move among men, He led man, He spoke to men, and He did great things for His people in the Old Testament, but after the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ, God’s move is now in man.
In His economy, God Himself became a man, lived a perfect human life, died an all-inclusive and all-terminating death on the cross, resurrected to become a life-giving Spirit and the Firstborn Son of God, and was ascended to the heavens to be enthroned over all things. Hallelujah!
Now whoever repents, believes in the gospel, and receives the Lord as his Savior by calling on His name becomes a child of God, one born not of the will of man (not of the will of those who preach the gospel to him) but of God – born of God!
All genuine believers are children of God with the divine life and nature of God in them; we are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
As children of God, we are going through the process of transformation so that all our inward being would be reconstituted and remade with Christ, rebuilt with the divine element, until we are filled with Christ; the consummation of this process is that we are conformed to the image of Christ, so that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).
We, men, are being made the same as Christ, who is the first God-man; we are God-men by the divine birth at our regeneration, and we are in the process of being made the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
For us to say that we are made God in His Godhead as an almighty being or as an object of worship is heresy; however, for us to say that we are not becoming God in life and nature is unbelief in the word of God.
When we truly see this highest peak of the divine revelation, our Christian life will be revolutionized, for we will realize that all things that happen to us are for this, for God’s economy – for us to be made the same as God through transformation to become a corporate God-man for His expression!
Thank You Lord Jesus for becoming a man through incarnation so that man might become God in the Spirit through transformation! Hallelujah, we human beings can be born of God to have the life and nature of God! Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ are children of God, the partakers of the divine nature. Keep us in the process of transformation, Lord, until we are metabolically changed to be the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in His Godhead! Amen, Lord Jesus, keep moving in us by mingling Yourself with us day by day. Sanctify us, transform us, renew us, conform us, and glorify us until we become the many sons of God who are the same as our elder Brother, Jesus Christ, for the expression of God in man! Praise the Lord!
Seeing the Transformations of the Triune God in His becoming a God-man to bring God into Man and Man into God
Micah 5:2 prophesies concerning the birth of Christ in Bethlehem; it says that His goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity.
Christ’s goings forth, which are from the ancient times, are plural; these include all the processes He went through when He stepped out of eternity onto the bridge of time.
The processes that Christ went through are the transformations of the Triune God, the transformations that God went through to bring God into man and man into God.
The goings forth of Christ include Christ’s incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension; they also include the outpouring of the Spirit, the preaching of the gospel to the whole inhabited earth, and His goings forth in us, our organic salvation, all the way until we are being glorified to become the bride of Christ.
These transformations are the processes through which the Triune God passed in His becoming a God-man, bringing divinity into humanity and mingling divinity with humanity as a prototype for the mass reproduction of many God-men.
Christ became the embodiment of God, bringing God to man and making God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable, enterable, and enjoyable (John 1:14; Col. 2:9; Rom. 8:28-29).
We all know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever; there’s no way to improve Him, perfect Him, or make Him better, for He is God Himself (Heb. 13:8).
However, in His economy, the Triune God went through some transformations.
For example, God as the Word became flesh (John 1:14) and tabernacled among us; this is part of the transformations of the Triune God.
This is a deep mystery, for, on one hand, God is perfect and unchangeable, but on the other hand, the Bible reveals the transformations of the Triune God!
Christ became the embodiment of the Triune God to bring God into man and make God contactable, touchable, receivable, experienceable and enjoyable. Wow!
As a man, God lived a human life in which He didn’t live by His human life but by the divine life, expressing the divine attributes through His human virtues.
The God-man living of Jesus was so wonderful yet mysterious because it was part of the transformations of the Triune God; such a living is the model of the human living of His mass reproduction of the many God-men (see 1 Pet. 2:21).
Christ became the flesh of sin in its likeness (without its sin – see Rom. 8:3; 1 John 3:5) and, through His death (another process He went through) He became sin (2 Cor. 5:21) condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3).
First, He was God; then, He became the embodiment of God, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and a serpent in form but not with its poison (Num. 21:4-9; John 3:14).
As a Man in the flesh, He was the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world.
As a serpent in form but without its sinful poison, Christ judged and destroyed Satan, the serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2) who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14) and He also judged the world and its ruler, the devil (John 12:31). Hallelujah!
Furthermore, Christ was the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) to end the old man; He crucified the old man (Rom. 6:6) to terminate the old creation, of which the old man was the head and the centre.
The transformations of the Triune God include His incarnation, His death, and His resurrection.
In His resurrection, Christ accomplished three main things: He uplifted His humanity for Him to be begotten as God’s Firstborn Son (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29), He regenerated and became the many sons of God as His many brothers (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:29), and He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Wow!
In His transformations, the Triune God became a man, died an all-inclusive and all-terminating death on the cross, and He had an all-conquering resurrection!
In His resurrection Christ in His humanity was begotten of God to be the firstborn Son of God, we also were begotten to be the many brothers of Christ and the many sons of God for the Body of Christ, and Christ became the all-inclusive compounded Spirit who gives life. Hallelujah!
These transformations are the processes through which the Triune God passed in His becoming a God-man to bring God into man and man into God for the producing of a corporate God-man!
Praise You Lord Jesus for the processes You went through in order to bring God into man and man into God. Hallelujah for the transformations of the Triune God, the processes He went through in His becoming a God-man! We can now contact God, touch God, receive God, experience God, enter into God, and enjoy God, for God went through the processes of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension! Thank You, Lord, for becoming a man to bring God into man and man into God for the producing of a corporate God-man to express God in humanity. Thank You for dying an all-inclusive and all-terminating death on the cross to deal with everything and everyone negative in the universe. Amen, Lord, we thank and praise You for the transformation of the Triune God for the mingling of divinity with humanity as a prototype for the mass reproduction of the many God-men! Hallelujah!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” msg. 17, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 6, Gaining God to Be Transformed by God for the Purpose of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– God’s eternal purpose / Is to join with man, / Causing man, His vessel, / To be born again, / His own life imparting, / Filling to the brim; / Man may thus express Him, / And be one with Him. (Hymns #971)
– In the flesh by incarnation, / Into man He God hath brought; / By His death and resurrection, / Into God He man hath brought; / God and man together mingled, / In Himself is fully wrought. (Hymns #277)
– How real it is that God is now the Spirit / For us to touch, experience day by day! / Astounding fact, with God we are one spirit, / And differ not in life in any way! (Hymns #608)
