In the foregoing message we saw that God’s good pleasure, God’s heart’s desire, is to have many sons for the expression of His Son so that He may be expressed in the Son through the Spirit. For this purpose, God has manifested Himself, first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh and then in the church, the Body of Christ, as the enlarged corporate expression in the flesh. Ultimately, God will be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the consummated corporate expression in the new heaven and new earth. In this message we shall consider God’s manifestation in these three stages.
God’s manifestation was first in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh. Concerning this, Colossians 2:9 says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” In this verse “fullness” does not refer to the riches of God; instead, it refers to the expression of the riches of God. What dwells in Christ is the expression of the riches of what God is. We need to see that the fullness of the Godhead is the expression of the Godhead and that this expression is in Christ individually.
Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead. This means that the fullness of the Triune God dwells in Christ in a bodily form. The fact that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily means that it dwells in Him in a way that is both real and practical. This implies the physical body which Christ put on in His humanity. It indicates that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ as the One who has a human body. Before His incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but it did not dwell in Him bodily. After He became incarnate, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in Him in a bodily way. Thus, He is the manifestation of God, the individual expression of God, in the flesh.
The expression “the fullness of the Godhead” refers to the entire Godhead, to the complete God, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Because the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, it would not be correct to say that the fullness of the Godhead includes only God the Son and not also God the Father and God the Spirit. 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. As the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, Christ is not only the Son of God but the entire God.
John 1:1 and 14 also reveal that God was manifested in Christ as an individual expression in the flesh. Verse 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In verse 14, this Word, which is God, became flesh. This refers to the incarnated Christ. In the beginning He was not only with God but He is the very God. The incarnated Christ is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).
John 1 further says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (v. 18). This tells us that Christ, being the only begotten Son of God, is the expression of God. No one has ever seen God, yet He declares God. The Father is the invisible God, the hidden God; Christ is the manifested God.
When we say that Christ is the Word, we are saying that He is the expression of God. I may have a great deal of feeling within me, but if I have no words, my feelings cannot be expressed. But when my feelings are expressed in words, then you are able to understand them. Christ is the Word of God. Although no one knows God, Christ as the Word speaks for God, defines God, and even declares God.
Because God is abstract, mysterious, and invisible, there is the need for God to be the Word in order to explain Himself, define Himself, and reveal Himself. The Word in John 1:1 refers to the defined God, the explained and expressed God, the God revealed and made known to human beings. This Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. The Word is the embodiment of the Triune God. Although the Triune God is mysterious, He is nonetheless embodied in the Word. The Word is the definition, explanation, and expression of the mysterious and invisible God. The Triune God embodied in the Word is explained, defined, and expressed.
In John 1:14, the Word, the embodiment of the Triune God, became flesh. In the incarnated Christ God is expressed in a man in the flesh. This is according to God’s plan. God’s plan is to manifest Himself in man and through man in the flesh.
John 1:14 continues to say that the Word, after becoming flesh “tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from a father), full of grace and reality.” This indicates that the Word was incarnated to declare God. As the manifestation of God, Christ declared God in a way that was full of grace and reality. He declared God by presenting Himself as grace and reality. God, the very God of enjoyment, becomes grace and reality to us in Christ for our enjoyment. Through enjoying Him we gain Him as grace and reality. He declares God to man in the way of enjoyment.
When we enjoy God in Christ as grace and realize Him in Christ as reality, we find the unsearchable riches of Christ. John 1:16 says, “Of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.” In the incarnated Christ dwells all the fullness, the expression of the riches of God (Col. 2:9). Through His incarnation in Christ, we can receive the riches of grace and reality out of His divine fullness.
Christ as the Father’s only begotten Son declared God by the Word, life, light, grace, and reality (John 1:1, 4, 9, 14). The Word is God expressed, life is God imparted, light is God shining, grace is God enjoyed, and reality is God realized. It is by these things that God is declared in the Son as His individual expression. Christ explained, defined, declared, and expressed God, by being the Word incarnated to be life and light to man with grace and reality for man’s enjoyment. It is in this way, God was declared to man in the Son.
Home | First | Prev | Next