On Christmas Day I Understood the Meaning of the Lord Jesus’ Method of Working

On every Christmas Eve, people will arrange for all kinds of activities in commemoration of the Lord Jesus. Some put up beautiful Christmas trees earlier; some prepare a variety of gifts; some make a sumptuous dinner. There are still some young people who preach the gospel by singing and playing guitar, thereby drawing people to worship the Lord Jesus. Whenever I saw these, I would thank and praise the Lord Jesus in my heart, thanking Him for becoming flesh as the Son of man to do the work of redeeming mankind, and praising Him for His love and sacrifices for man. But at the same time, I had a doubt within: In the Age of Law, God did His work through the means of the Spirit; why did the Lord Jesus not do so? Why did He do the work by becoming flesh as the Son of man? Why did God do two stages of works by different means? Then, in what way will God do His work in the last days? This question really confused me. It was not until the Christmas day of 2006, a day I would never forget, that the puzzle that had perplexed me for years was finally resolved.

That day, my aunt came to my home, and I asked her this long-standing question. Then, she read the words of Almighty God to me. Almighty God says, “The first stage of work was done directly by the Spirit because, under the law, man only knew to abide by the law, and did not have more truth, and because the work in the Age of Law hardly involved changes in the disposition of man, much less was it concerned with the work of how to save man from the domain of Satan. Thus the Spirit of God completed this supremely simple stage of work that did not concern the corrupt disposition of man. This stage of work bore little relation to the core of the management, and had no great correlation to the official work of the salvation of man, and so it did not require God to become flesh to personally do His work.” “…only the flesh of God incarnate could redeem man through His crucifixion, whereas it was not possible for the Spirit of God to be crucified as a sin offering for man. God could directly become flesh to serve as a sin offering for man, but man could not directly ascend to heaven to take the sin offering that God had prepared for them. As such, God must ‘journey to and fro between heaven and earth,’ rather than letting man ascend to heaven to take this salvation, for man has fallen and cannot ascend to heaven, much less obtain the sin offering. Therefore, it is necessary for Jesus to come among men and personally do the work that simply cannot be accomplished by man. Every time that He became flesh, it was absolutely necessary to do so. If any of the stages could have been carried out directly by the Spirit of God, He would not have endured the indignities of being incarnated.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)

The words of Almighty God made me understand that God did the work of the Age of Law directly through the means of the Spirit, because the work at that time was only to lead man to live on earth and to make them know what sins were, which hardly involved changes in the disposition of man. So, it was unnecessary for God to do that work through incarnation. And then, my aunt fellowshipped, “At the end of the Age of Law, because of Satan’s corruption, people gradually lost reverence for God, failed to keep the laws, and did a lot of things that were wicked in the eyes of Jehovah God. So, what awaited them was the condemnation of the law. If the condition continued, all would have been put to death for violating the law, and the creation of humanity would have been for naught. Against such a background, what man needed was an eternal sin offering. But God’s Spirit, who is formless, invisible, and intangible, couldn’t be nailed to the cross, and man is also incapable of ascending to heaven to take the sin offering. So, the only solution was that God was incarnated as the Son of man to accomplish the work of crucifixion and redeem man from sin, so that man could be forgiven of their sins by praying and would not be condemned for failing to keep the law.” I nodded at her fellowship.

Then my aunt continued talking to me, “Today, according to the needs of mankind, God is incarnated again as the Son of man and does a stage of work of judgment and purification.” On hearing that God is incarnated again and does a new work, I felt perplexed and asked her, “The Lord Jesus has been the sin offering and borne the sins of man; we have been forgiven of our sins. Why is God incarnated again to do work?” Then my aunt found out a passage of Almighty God’s words for me, “For, in the Age of Grace, the demons went away from man with the laying on of hands and prayer, but the corrupt dispositions within man still remained. Man was healed of his sickness and forgiven his sins, but the work for just how the corrupt satanic dispositions within man could be cast away was not done in him. Man was only saved and forgiven his sins for his faith, but the sinful nature of man was not taken away and still remained within him. The sins of man were forgiven through God incarnate, but it does not mean that man has no sin within him. The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but man has been unable to resolve the issue of just how he can no longer sin and how his sinful nature can be cast away completely and be transformed. The sins of man were forgiven because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live in the old, corrupt satanic disposition. As such, man must be completely saved from the corrupt satanic disposition so that the sinful nature of man is completely cast away and never again develops, thus allowing the disposition of man to be changed. This requires man to understand the path of growth in life, the way of life, and the way to change his disposition. It also needs man to act in accordance with this path so that the disposition of man can gradually be changed and he can live under the shining of the light, and that he can do all things in accord with the will of God, cast away the corrupt satanic disposition, and break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation.” “For all of those who live in the flesh, changing their disposition requires goals to pursue, and knowing God requires witnessing the real deeds and the real face of God. Both can only be achieved by God’s incarnate flesh, and both can only be accomplished by the normal and real flesh. This is why the incarnation is necessary, and why it is needed by all corrupt mankind.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)

Almighty God’s words enlightened me as to the reason God has become flesh again and done the work of judgment and purification: The work the Lord Jesus did in the Age of Grace is the redemptive work. He only served as the sin offering and borne man’s sins, but didn’t take away man’s sinful nature. So man is still sinning in the day and confessing in the evening, not free from the bondage of Satan, and remaining unsaved. The Bible says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14) So, if man wants to achieve a holy state, they need God to do another stage of work of ridding man of their corrupt disposition and give them the path to the transformation of life disposition. Only God is incarnated personally and expresses truth to reveal man’s corruption and judge man’s disobedience, can man know Satan’s means to corrupt them and realize their own nature and substance; and thus they will betray their flesh and Satan, practice the truth, cast away their corrupt disposition, and have a true knowledge of God at last. As Almighty God says, “God’s saving of man is not done directly through the means of the Spirit or as the Spirit, for His Spirit can neither be touched nor seen by man, and cannot be approached by man. If He tried to save man directly in the manner of the Spirit, man would be unable to receive His salvation. And if not for God putting on the outward form of a created man, they would be unable to receive this salvation. For man can in no way approach Him, much like how none could go near the cloud of Jehovah. Only by becoming a man of creation, that is, putting His ‘word’ into the flesh He will become, can He personally work the ‘word’ into all who follow Him. Only then can man hear for himself His word, see His word, and receive His word, then through this be fully saved. If God did not become flesh, no fleshly man would receive such great salvation, nor would a single man be saved. If the Spirit of God worked directly among man, man would be smote or completely carried away captive by Satan because man is unable to associate with God.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)

Thank Almighty God for becoming flesh as the Son of man and doing the work of judgment with word, so that my long-standing question was resolved, and I also understood that God does every stage of work based on the needs of mankind. God’s endurance of so many sufferings and humiliations during His incarnation is all for saving us, the deeply corrupted men. This made me see more clearly God’s humbleness and supremacy. Later, I accepted the end-time work of Almighty God—the returned Lord Jesus. Through eating and drinking Almighty God’s words, I knew that the incarnation of God this time is of vital importance to the destination of mankind. Without God’s incarnation this time, we would never know God or have the chance to behold the face of God, and we would still live in sin, be devoured by Satan, and eventually go to destruction. As almighty God says, “…and if not for the coming of this flesh, God would have long ago ended the age of old. As such, can you still reject the second incarnation of God? Since you can so greatly profit from this ordinary man, then why would you not accept Him readily?” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)