The Bible shows us that because man has fallen into the flesh and lives in the flesh, if God wants to save man, He must save him out of the flesh. For this reason God Himself became flesh, and this God who became flesh was the Lord Jesus. He came to the place into which we have fallen. We have fallen into the flesh, so He came into the flesh. He came into the flesh to save us out of the flesh.
Although God prepared a body for us when He created us in the beginning, His intention was not for us to live according to the body and be controlled by the body. Rather, His intention was that we live according to the spirit. The body is just a vessel to contain the spirit. But since our spirit is deadened, we live according to the body and have fallen into the flesh. Therefore, God became flesh and came into the flesh to save us.
Although He became flesh, He Himself was Spirit. What He put on outwardly was the flesh, yet what He was inwardly was Spirit. The reason that He put on the flesh is that He might save us out of the flesh. The reason that He came as the Spirit is that He might save us into the spirit. Because of sin we have fallen from the spirit into the flesh. Through redemption He saved us from the flesh into the spirit. By His Spirit He put on our flesh and was put to death on the cross, on the one hand, crucifying and dealing with our flesh that we might be freed from our flesh, and on the other hand, through His resurrection, releasing and imparting Himself as the Spirit into us so that our spirit can be made alive and we can enter into our spirit.
Brothers and sisters, this is the center of God’s salvation. God’s salvation is to save us out of our flesh into our spirit. The Lord Jesus became flesh and died on the cross in order to attain this goal. Through His death in the flesh He dealt with our flesh, and through His resurrection He imparted Himself as the Spirit into us. When we receive Him as our Savior, we receive Him as such a Savior. We do not merely receive Him as our Redeemer to deal with our sins, still less as a rabbi, a teacher, to teach us, as Nicodemus did. He did not come merely to solve the problem of sins for us, still less to teach us. Instead, He came to save us from our flesh and impart Himself as the Spirit into us to make our spirit alive. Of course, He also dealt with our sins, but this is only on the negative side. On the positive side, He came to impart Himself as the Spirit into us to save us from our flesh.
The salvation of God is absolutely not an outward teaching, nor is it only an objective redemption. In His salvation, on the one hand, God dealt with our flesh and, on the other hand, as the Spirit He entered into us, saving us and making us alive in our spirit. Therefore, God’s salvation is to save us inwardly in our spirit, thereby causing us to be freed outwardly from our flesh. Such a salvation is very subjective to us.
We must not receive the Lord Jesus only as an objective Savior, a Savior who was put to death on the cross. We need to know that He came in order to impart Himself as the Spirit into us and enter into us as the Spirit. Therefore, we must also receive Him as a subjective Savior, a Savior who is in our spirit. He saves us not by teaching us or by correcting and adjusting us outwardly, as Nicodemus thought. Furthermore, He did not merely make redemption for our sins outwardly. Rather, He wants to come into us as the Spirit that we may be saved inwardly.
It is true that the Lord Jesus was once in the flesh outwardly and was able to be with man that man might receive His teaching, but even more as the Spirit He wanted to enter into man to enliven the spirit of man. It is true that in His crucifixion He bore our sins on the cross to solve the problem of sins for us, but even more He dealt with our flesh and released and imparted Himself as the Spirit into us. He wants to enliven our deadened spirit by Himself as the Spirit. He wants to be our Savior inwardly to save us from within.