The Son is also the One who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “The church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” That the church is the Body, the fullness, of Christ means that through the enjoyment of the riches of Christ the church becomes the fullness of Christ for His expression. This Christ as the infinite God is not limited by anything. He is so great that He fills all in all. All includes being so extensive that it is beyond our imagination. In His divinity, Christ is the unlimited One.
Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since therefore the children have shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same.” John 1:14 says that “the Word became flesh.” First John 4:2 says that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” These three verses tell us clearly that in His humanity Christ became flesh, partaking of blood and flesh. His body of blood and flesh is a real body; it is not merely a phantasm, as taught by the Docetists.
The body of blood and flesh is not a good entity; it is the flesh of sin. However, according to Romans 8:3 the Lord Jesus did not become the flesh of sin itself; rather, He became a man of flesh “in the likeness of the flesh of sin.” This matter is typified by the bronze serpent (Num. 21:9). John 3:14 says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The Lord Jesus was lifted up like the bronze serpent, which had the form, the shape, of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison, the serpent’s nature. Furthermore, the bronze serpent is joined to Satan, just as the likeness of the flesh of sin is joined to the fallen man. However, the Lord only had the form but not the real substance, the poison. Hence, when He was put to death on the cross, in God’s eyes, Satan was there and a sinner was there. This is what Hebrews 2:14 says: “He...Himself in like manner partook of the same [blood and flesh], that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.” This means that, because the devil is in the flesh, when the Lord dealt with the flesh on the cross, He also dealt with and destroyed Satan, who belongs to the flesh. How could the Lord destroy Satan by becoming the flesh? The reason is that the flesh is involved with Satan-Satan is in the flesh of the fallen man and is the poison in the flesh of man.
First Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The Lord Jesus was God from eternity (John 1:1). In time He became a man through incarnation (v. 14). While He was living on earth, He was a man and He was also God (1 Tim. 3:16). After His resurrection He is still a man (Acts 7:56) and also God (John 20:28).
Philippians 2:6-8 says that He, existing in the form of God, emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. When the Lord Jesus became a man, He became a bona fide man. He humbled Himself, lowering His status from that of God to that of a man. He had the likeness of a man, the outward appearance of humanity. He was also found in fashion as a man, having the outward guise, the semblance, of humanity. He humbled Himself even to the extent that, instead of being a high-class person, He became a slave to serve people (Mark 10:45). There is only one thing that was in man but not in Him, and that thing is sin. He did not have the poison of sin that is in man; in Him Satan has nothing (John 14:30). Although the creeds mention that the Lord Jesus was incarnated to become a man, even a perfect man, Christianity does not have much appreciation of the Lord Jesus’ taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. In the Lord’s recovery we should treasure and appreciate this matter.
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