In 1 Timothy 3:15-16 Christ is presented as God manifested in the flesh. This is one of the greatest aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. 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.
In verse 16 Paul says, “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” The word godliness in this verse 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. Godliness is God manifested in the flesh; the mystery of godliness is God manifested 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).
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 God who the Word is, is not a partial God but the entire God-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. The Word is God’s definition, explanation, and expression. Hence, 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.
God desired to become a man, and one day He became a man in the person of Christ, living on earth as a God-man. Christ lived in His humanity on the earth to express God for thirty-three and a half years. He is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). He is the faithful Witness of God (Rev. 1:5), and He witnessed God.
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).
The incarnation of Christ produced a God-man who lived on the earth not by His human life but by His divine life. All of His days on earth, He 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. This was the life of the first God-man as a prototype. 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.
God being manifested in the flesh is God living a human life. We should not try to be angels, because God is not manifested in the angels but in the flesh. This means that God is living a human life. The Lord Jesus was a real, perfect man to express the complete God. He was God manifested in the flesh to express the eternal, infinite, invisible, glorious, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God through the mortal, finite, visible, inglorious man, limited in power, knowledge, and presence. Mortal is versus eternal, finite is versus infinite, visible is versus invisible, and inglorious is versus glorious. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere, but man is limited in power, knowledge, and presence.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He expressed the divine attributes as His human virtues in all His actions. That expression of His virtues was the manifestation of God in the flesh. Outwardly, people saw Him as Jesus from Nazareth, but He was God manifested in the flesh. For example, after the Lord Jesus fed the five thousand, there were many leftovers. If those leftovers had been left there as a mess, this would have been a poor testimony. But the Lord instructed His disciples to gather the broken pieces left over that nothing would be lost (John 6:12). After all the leftovers were picked up, everything was clean and in order. This was the virtue of the One who is resurrection (11:25). When the Lord left the things in the tomb in good order, this was also a testimony of His resurrection (20:7). When we exercise our spirit and do things in resurrection, this is a display of our Christian virtues. These Christian virtues are expressions of the divine attributes and are the manifestation of God in the flesh. This is God’s living in man.
If we do things in resurrection, many virtues will be exhibited, and those virtues will be the expression of the divine attributes. Thus, what we do will be a manifestation of God in the flesh. In the church life God should be manifested in the flesh. Even though we are in the flesh, we should not live by the flesh. We should live in and by resurrection so that God may live in our living, making us Him in His attributes as our virtues for His manifestation.
First Timothy 3:15-16 indicates that not only Christ Himself as the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh but also that the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God is the manifestation of God in the flesh-the mystery of godliness. According to the context, godliness in verse 16 refers not only to piety but also to the living of God in the church, that is, to God as life lived out in the church. Both Christ and the church are the mystery of godliness, expressing God in the flesh. The church life is the expression of God; therefore, the mystery of godliness is the living of a proper church (1 Cor. 14:24-25). God is manifested in the church-the house of God and the Body of Christ-as His enlarged corporate expression in the flesh (Eph. 2:19; 1:22-23).
The manifestation of God in the flesh began with Christ when He was on earth (John 14:9). The manifestation of God in the flesh continues with the church, which is the increase, enlargement, and multiplication of the manifestation of God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). Such a church becomes the continuation of Christ’s manifestation of God in the flesh-Christ lived out of the church as the manifestation of God. This is God manifested in the flesh in a wider way according to the New Testament principle of incarnation (1 Cor. 7:40; Gal. 2:20). The principle of incarnation is that God enters into man and mingles Himself with man to make man one with Himself (John 15:4-5). The principle of incarnation means that divinity is brought into humanity and works within humanity (1 Cor. 6:17; 7:40; 1 Tim. 4:1). The great mystery of godliness is that God has become man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce a corporate God-man for the manifestation of God in the flesh (Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4; Eph. 4:24).
Although we were sinners, we have been redeemed out of our sinful position and sinful situation. We are now redeemed ones. God has imparted Himself into us, making us one with Him and also making Him one with us. First Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This is the great mystery of godliness-God manifested in the flesh. We are the same as God in the divine life, the divine nature, the divine element, and the divine essence but not in the Godhead. Today we are the flesh in which God can be manifested. God is manifested in the flesh, but we need to realize that God can never be manifested by the flesh. The flesh is merely the earthen vessel. It is not the key to carry out God’s manifestation; the key to God’s manifestation in us is our spirit.
In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul goes on to tell us that we should exercise ourselves unto godliness. To exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit so that we may express the mystery of godliness-God manifested in the flesh. This is indicated by Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 1:6-7, which says, “For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.” Second Timothy 4:22 tells us that the Lord is with our spirit. Since the Lord Jesus as the mystery of godliness is in our spirit, in order to express and practice this mystery, we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness by exercising our spirit.
Before we do anything, we should exercise our spirit. Then our spirit will lead us, and whatever we do will be godliness, God manifested in the flesh. This is the exercise unto godliness. In everything we need to exercise ourselves unto godliness. Before we speak, we should exercise our spirit unto godliness. Therefore, we must live, walk, have our daily life, and have our whole being according to our spirit (Rom. 8:4). Paul exhorted Timothy to pray for those “who are in high position; that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity” (1 Tim. 2:2). If we are godly, it will affect the choice of pictures we hang in our bedroom, the kind of clothes that we wear, our hair style, and our conversation. The inward life of godliness has an outward expression. Such a manifestation of godliness is a testimony and has an impact on those who meet us. In whatever we say, whatever we do, whatever we wear, there should be an impression that God is manifested in us.
In the church life there should be the manifestation of God in the flesh. In order for this to be the situation, there must be in the church the glorious union of God and man. Inwardly we should have God, but God is manifested in the flesh through a normal and proper humanity. All those in the church life-the brothers and the sisters, the elderly ones and the young ones-should behave in a way that is normal and fitting for their respective ages. Instead of pretense, there should be a genuineness that is both human and divine. This is the condition of God being manifested in humanity.
The church as the house of God is the living God becoming flesh and being manifested in the flesh. In the four Gospels God was manifested in the flesh in Jesus as a single individual. But in 1 Timothy 3 God’s manifestation in the flesh is in the entire church corporately. Not only is Christ the great mystery of godliness, but in principle the church is also God manifested in the flesh.
Christ is the manifestation of God in the flesh, but so is the church. We are the church, but we are still in the flesh. When we meet together in the Spirit, God is manifested among us; this is the manifestation of God in the flesh. Just as Christ the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh, so also is His Body. If the whole church is gathered together in a proper way, and an unbeliever comes in, “falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring that indeed God is among you” (1 Cor. 14:23-25). God’s presence is known whenever the church meets together properly. We admit that we are still flesh, but the God who lives in our spirit will be manifested, expressed, in our flesh. This manifestation must be not merely individual but corporate. Because the proper church life is the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh, the church of the living God is the consummate mystery of godliness. For the church to be the corporate expression of God in the flesh, everyone in the church must be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18).
Ultimately, God will be manifested in the New Jerusalem as the consummated corporate expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-2, 10-11). The church as the manifestation of God in the flesh is the house of God, but the New Jerusalem will be the city of God, signifying that the New Jerusalem, as the manifestation of God in the new creation, will be the enlargement and consummation of the church to express God in eternity.