The answer from God’s word:
“God does not save man directly in the form of the Spirit or in the identity of the Spirit, because his Spirit is untouchable and invisible to man and also unapproachable to man. If he saved man directly in the position of the Spirit, man could not receive his salvation. If God did not put on a shell of a created man, man could not receive this salvation either. This is because man could in no way approach him, just as no one could approach the cloud of Jehovah. Only if he becomes a created man, that is, he puts his ‘Way’ into the flesh he will become, can he personally work the ‘Way’ into all his followers and can they personally hear his way and see his way and thus gain his way. Only in this way can they be completely saved. If God were not incarnated, no fleshly man could receive this exceedingly great salvation, and no one could be saved. If God’s Spirit directly worked among men, they all would be struck down, or they would be completely taken captive by satan because they had no way to contact God.
If God’s Spirit directly spoke to people, they all would submit before his ‘voice’ and would fall without his exposing them with the word, just as Paul fell in the light on his way to Damascus. If God still worked that way, people could never know their corruptions and thus be saved through the judgment of the word. Only if God is incarnated can he personally deliver his word to everyone’s ears, so that all those who have ears can hear his word and receive the work of the judgment of his word. This is the result produced by his word. It is not that the Spirit appears to people to ‘overawe’ them. Only through such practical and extraordinary work can the old dispositions hidden in people’s innermost being for many years be exposed completely, so that they can know them and have them transformed.The reason why God is incarnated is that his flesh can also have authority and can practically work among people, which is visible and touchable. Such working is much more practical than the direct working of God’s Spirit who has all the authority, and its results are obvious. This is because God’s incarnated flesh can speak and work practically, and the outer shell of his flesh does not have authority and all people can approach him, but his substance has authority and yet no one can see his authority. Even when he speaks and works, people cannot discover the existence of his authority. This is more helpful to his working practically. All his practical works can produce results. Although people do not know that he has authority and cannot see his not being to be offended or his wrath, he achieves the results of his speaking just through his hidden authority, hidden wrath, and open word. That is, he makes people sincerely convinced through the tones of his speaking, the severity of his speaking, and all the wisdom of his word. Thus, people will all become obedient under the word of the incarnated God who seems to have no authority. Then God’s purpose of saving man will have been achieved. This is another significance of his incarnation: to speak more practically and to make the reality of his word produce results in people so that they can see the power of God’s word.”
from “The Mystery of Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“The reason why God is incarnated is that the object of his work is man of flesh corrupted by satan, not the spirit of satan or anything that is not of flesh. Because man’s flesh is corrupted, he takes man of flesh as the object of his work. And even more because man is the object of corruption, no matter which stage of the work of salvation he does, he chooses man to be the only object of his work. Man is a mortal being and is of flesh, and God is the only One who can save man. So, for God to do his work, it is necessary for him to become flesh that has the same attribute as man, so that he can achieve better working results. Because man is of flesh and has no ability to overcome sin and break free from the flesh, for God to do his work, he has to become flesh. Although the substance and the identity of God incarnate are greatly different from those of man, he looks the same as man in appearance. He has a normal human appearance and has a normal human life. People cannot at all discover any differences between him and a normal man. This normal appearance and this normal humanity are adequate for him to do the work of divinity he does in his normal humanity. His flesh is advantageous to his work in his normal humanity and advantageous to his work among people. And his normal humanity is more advantageous to his work of salvation among people. Although his normal humanity causes many stirs among people, these stirs do not affect the normal results of his work. All in all, the work of his normal flesh is of great benefit to people. Although most people cannot accept his normal humanity, his work can still produce the results and such results are produced through his normal humanity. This is beyond doubt. The things that his working in the flesh causes people to gain are ten times or dozens of times more than the notions they have about his normal humanity. And all these notions will eventually be drowned by the work he does. The results produced by his work, that is, people’s knowledge of him, will far outnumber their notions about him.
The incarnated God comes into the flesh completely because of the need of corrupt man, because of man’s need but not God’s need. All the price and sufferings are for the sake of mankind, not for God’s own benefit. With God, there is no such thing as gain or loss or reward. What he gains is not what he later reaps but what he should have originally. All that he does and all the price he pays for mankind are not for the purpose that he can receive more rewards, but are only for the sake of mankind. Although when he works in the flesh, there are many difficulties unimaginable to man, in the end the results produced by the flesh’s working will far surpass the results of the Spirit’s working directly. Although when the flesh works, there are many difficulties and he cannot have the same great identity as the Spirit or do supernatural deeds as the Spirit, much less have the same authority as the Spirit, the working of this inconspicuous flesh is much higher in substance than the direct working of the Spirit. This flesh himself is the need of all people. For those to be saved, the use value of the Spirit is far lower than that of the flesh: The working of the Spirit can cover the entire universe and reach the mountains, rivers, and lakes; but the working of the flesh can more effectively touch everyone who contacts him, and the flesh who has form and image can better gain people’s understanding and trust and can better deepen their knowledge of God and deepen their impression of God’s practical deeds. The working of the Spirit is mysterious and unfathomable, and mortal beings can hardly foresee it, much less see it, but can only imagine it without any basis. The working of the flesh is normal and practical and full of wisdom and is a fact that mortal beings can see with their own eyes, and people can all personally taste God’s working wisdom, without any need to use their rich imagination. This is the exactness and the real value of the working of the God in the flesh. The Spirit can only do some things invisible and unimaginable to man, such as, the inspiration of the Spirit, the moving of the Spirit, and the guidance of the Spirit. However, to people with mind, these works of the Spirit cannot give them a clear idea but can only give them a moving or a roughly similar idea, and cannot give instructions with words. But God’s working in the flesh is quite different from that. The working of the flesh can give exact guidance of words, clear wills, and clear required goals, and people do not need to grope or imagine, much less guess. This is the clarity of the working of the flesh, which is quite different from the working of the Spirit. The working of the Spirit can only be applicable to a limited scope and cannot replace the working of the flesh. The exact goals for people required by the working of the flesh and the real value of the knowledge people gain through it far surpass the exactness and the real value of the working of the Spirit. To corrupt people, only exact words, clear goals to pursue, and visible and touchable works are the most valuable works. Only realistic works and timely guidance can fit people’s taste, and only practical works can save people from their corrupt and fallen disposition; these can only be fulfilled by the incarnated God. Only the incarnated God can save people from their corrupt and fallen old disposition. Although the Spirit is God’s original substance, such work can only be accomplished through the flesh. If the Spirit alone worked, the results of the work could not be achieved. This is an obvious fact.
God can save corrupt man from satan’s influence, but this work cannot be directly accomplished by God’s Spirit. Rather, it can only be done by the flesh God’s Spirit is clothed with, by the flesh God is incarnated in. This flesh is a man and is God, a man with a normal humanity and God with full divinity. So, although this flesh is not the Spirit of God and is greatly different from the Spirit, the One who saves man is still the incarnated God Godself, who is the Spirit and is a flesh. No matter how he is addressed, it is God Godself who saves mankind. This is because God’s Spirit and flesh are inseparable, and it is the work done by the flesh and is also the work done by the Spirit of God, which, however, is not done by him as the Spirit but as the flesh. A work that needs to be done directly by the Spirit does not need to be done through being incarnated, and a work that needs to be done by the flesh cannot be done by the Spirit directly but can only be done through being incarnated. All this is the need of the work and the need of corrupt mankind. Of the three stages of works, only one stage was done by the Spirit directly, while the other two stages are done by the incarnated God, not done by the Spirit directly. The work of the law done by the Spirit had nothing to do with transforming man’s corrupt disposition or man’s knowing God. But the works of the Age of the Grace and of the Age of the Kingdom done by the flesh have to do with man’s corrupt disposition and man’s knowing God. The works done by the flesh are the important and crucial works in the work of salvation. So, corrupt mankind needs even more the salvation of the incarnated God and needs even more the direct work of the incarnated God. Mankind needs the shepherding, sustenance, watering, feeding, judgment, and chastisement of the incarnated God and needs more grace and greater redemption of the incarnated God. Only the God in the flesh can be man’s intimate friend, man’s shepherd, and man’s ever-present help. All this is the necessity of God’s being incarnated today and before.”
from “Corrupt Mankind Needs Even More the Salvation of the God Incarnated in the ‘Flesh’”in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“Man’s flesh is corrupted by satan, and the flesh is most deeply blinded and is the one deeply afflicted. The most basic reason why God personally works in the flesh is that the object of salvation is man of flesh and that satan uses man’s flesh to disturb God’s work. The war against satan is actually a work of conquering man, and at the same time man is the object of salvation. Thus, it is very necessary for God to work through being incarnated. Satan corrupts man’s flesh, so man becomes the embodiment of satan and becomes the one to be defeated by God. Thus, the works of warring against satan and saving mankind are on earth, and God has to become a man to war against satan. This is the most realistic work. When he works in the flesh, actually he is warring against satan in the flesh. When he works in the flesh, he is doing his work of the spiritual realm. He has all his work of the spiritual realm realized on earth. The one he conquers is man who disobeys him. The one he defeats is satan’s embodiment (of course, also man) which is hostile to him. And the one who will be saved in the end is still man. Thus, it is even more necessary for him to become a man who has the outer shell of a created being, so that he can war against satan practically, conquering man who disobeys him and who has the same outer shell as his, and saving man who has the same outer shell as his and who is afflicted by satan. His enemy is man, the one he conquers is man, and the one he saves is still created man, so he has to become a man. In this way, his working is much more convenient, being not only able to defeat satan, but also to conquer mankind, and even more to save mankind. Although the ‘flesh’ is normal and practical, he is not a common flesh or a flesh only with humanity, but a flesh with humanity and divinity. This is his difference from man, and this is the mark of his identity as God. Only such a flesh can do the work he wants to do, can fulfill the ministry of the God in the flesh, and can complete his work among men thoroughly. Otherwise, his work among men will forever be a blank and a hole. Even if God can war against satan’s spirit and win, the old disposition of corrupted men can never be resolved, and men who disobey and resist him can never truly become subject under his dominion. That is, he can never conquer mankind and can never gain all mankind. If his work on earth could not be settled, his management could not end, and the whole mankind could not enter into rest. If God and all created beings could not enter into rest, such a management work would never produce the results, and God’s glory would also disappear. Although his flesh does not have authority, the work he does will have produced the results. This is the sure trend of his work. Whether he has authority or not, as long as he can do God’s own work, he is God Godself. No matter how normal and ordinary this flesh is, he can do the work he ought to do, because this flesh is God and not just a man. The reason why this flesh can do the work man cannot do is that his inner substance is different from that of any man. He can save man because his identity is different from that of any man. The reason why this flesh is very important to mankind is that he is a man and even more God, that he can do the work a common man in the flesh cannot do, and that he can save corrupt men who live with him on earth. Although he is also a man, the incarnated God is more important to mankind than any other man of value. Because he can do the work the Spirit of God cannot do, he is better able to bear God’s own testimony than the Spirit of God, and he is better able to gain mankind completely than the Spirit of God, therefore although this flesh is ordinary and normal, as far as his contribution to mankind and his significance to mankind’s existence are concerned, he is much more precious. The real value and significance of this flesh cannot be measured by anyone. Although this flesh cannot directly destroy satan, he can conquer mankind and defeat satan by means of working and cause satan to completely become subject under his dominion. Because God is incarnated, he can defeat satan and can save mankind. He does not directly destroy satan but works through being incarnated to conquer mankind corrupted by satan. In this way, he can better bear his own testimony among created beings and can better save corrupted man. It is a more powerful testimony and is more convincing for God’s incarnated flesh to defeat satan than for God’s Spirit to destroy satan directly. The God in the flesh is more beneficial to man’s knowing the Creator and can better bear his testimony among created beings.”
from “Corrupt Mankind Needs Even More the Salvation of the God Incarnated in the ‘Flesh’”in The Word Appears in the Flesh
