God created the heavens and the earth and then He created Adam. Then four thousand years later, God became flesh. Today most Christians rarely hear the truth concerning God’s incarnation. Mostly they just sing some Christmas carols or announce the good news on Christmas Eve. Although they have a very good hymn (Hymns, #84) written by Charles Wesley concerning the birth of Christ, there is not one place in that hymn that definitely and solemnly tells people that, through His birth, the Lord Jesus brought God into man that God and man may be joined as one. It mainly tells us that an angel announced the good news, saying, “Today a Savior has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
The angel’s announcement of the good news is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, telling us that the Lord Jesus was born to be a Savior. But the Gospel of John does not announce the glad tidings of the Savior’s birth; rather, it says, “The Word became flesh” (1:14). This is the good news in the Gospel of John. The Word became flesh, and this Word was God (v. 1), not just a partial God, but the entire God, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Word was God, and this God became flesh. This is the amazing good news. This good news is not just that the Savior, Christ, was born to us, but it is that God became flesh. If this word were not in the Bible, and if it were merely my own speaking, I am afraid that none of you would believe it.
“The Word became flesh” is not a sweet expression. According to the fact, it is sweet, but according to the word flesh, it is not sweet. Yet, who was Christ? Christ was God becoming flesh. Who was the One who was born? The One who was born was God who entered into man that divinity and humanity might be united, and not only united but mingled together to become one entity, one person. He is a person, yet within this person are two natures, not only joined but mingled together.
Today in Christianity there is still a great heresy that opposes the truth concerning mingling. I pointed out in the book Concerning the Person of Christ that in the first few centuries a heretical group advocated that when divinity and humanity were mingled, the two natures merged into one and became a third nature. This has stirred up those who oppose the truth concerning mingling, even to the present time. I also referred to the type of mingling in the Old Testament, that is, oil being mingled with fine flour to make the unleavened cakes to be offered to God (Lev. 2). Bible readers know that oil denotes the divine nature, while fine flour denotes the human nature. When oil and fine flour are mingled, each still retains its own characteristics, yet they are mingled to become one entity, the unleavened cake. Hence, the unleavened cake is one entity with two natures; both natures still exist, yet they are mingled together, without a third nature being produced. This marvelous thing typifies the mingling of divinity with humanity. We must see that after we are saved, God has come into us not only to be joined but also to be mingled with us.
Perhaps some will say that the Bible tells us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). The Bible indeed says these things, but Christ’s becoming the propitiation to save sinners is a procedure to reach the goal, which is for God to enter into man. In order to enter into man, God must remove the obstacles between Him and man. The first obstacle is sin; hence, sin must be removed. Otherwise, God cannot enter into man. Hence, God became flesh, and with the flesh and in the flesh He became the offerings (cf. Heb. 10:5-10), such as the sin offering (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3) and the trespass offering (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18) as sacrifices of propitiation to completely remove the most serious obstacle between God and man. Thus, God can enter into man to be joined and even mingled with man. This is His greatest accomplishment through incarnation.
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