The second item was incarnation. Without creation there would have been no way for God to be incarnated. Creation prepared the way and afforded Him the means to be incarnated. Creation brought things into being, and incarnation brought God into His creation. God waited approximately four thousand years after the creation of Adam before becoming incarnated. One day, He was incarnated, and there was on earth the little man Jesus with God in Him. God was wrought into that man. That was the greatest miracle of all. By incarnation, God was brought into mankind and became one with man. Divinity and humanity became one unit.
Between eternity in the past and eternity in the future is a gap, with time as a bridge to span it. On this bridge called time, Christ as the Word of God, through whom all things were created, was incarnated as a man. Creation was the first event on the bridge of time, and incarnation was the second. Creation means that things not being are brought into being through the Word. Before creation, nothing existed, but by Christ’s creation all things came into existence. Incarnation is God coming into His creation. Although everything created by God was perfect and good, yet nothing of creation had been joined to God. Creation was but a preparatory step for incarnation. God firstly brought all created things into existence so that He could later become one with His creation. This is the reason that God created the heavens, the earth, and man as the center of the universe. It was His design to prepare creation so that He could join Himself to it. “The Word became flesh” means that God joined Himself to His creation by His incarnation. In incarnation, the flesh which God put on became His tabernacle (1:14). This tabernacle was the building of God on a small scale; it was a miniature of the New Jerusalem, God’s tabernacle in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3). By creation, God brought all things of the universe into existence; by incarnation, He mingled Himself with man, who is the center of His creation. The purpose of God in creation and incarnation is to fulfill His desire of mingling Himself with humanity and to make humanity a living habitation for Himself. He is not satisfied with heaven as His abode. He desires to build a living dwelling place with living people. Thus, He created man as the center of His creation and mingled Himself with man by incarnation so that He might make man His living habitation in the universe.
Incarnation is not only to bring God into His creation, but also to declare God to man in the Word, in life, in light, in grace, and in truth. In the incarnation, the Word, which is Christ as God, became flesh. The Word is God expressed, explained, and defined so that man may understand God. Life is God imparted that man may receive Him. Light is God shining that man may be enlightened to apprehend Him. Grace is God enjoyed by man that man may share His riches. Truth is God realized by man that man may have Him as reality. In total, it is through these five things that God is fully declared to man in order that man may partake of and enjoy Him as everything.
The third item on the bridge of time is redemption. After living on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, the Lord went to the cross as the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God is for redemption. Through redemption, the Lord recovered fallen man and separated him from sin. By means of redemption, God not only removed sin, but also terminated the entire old creation. The very Jesus who was crucified on the cross took the old creation with Him into the tomb. When He was raised from the dead, He left the old creation in the tomb and came out in resurrection as the head of the new creation.