The answer from God’s word:
“When Jesus came among men, he did many works. But he only accomplished the work of redeeming all mankind and was only man’s sin offering, and he did not rid men of all their corrupt disposition. To completely save men from satan’s influence, it not only requires Jesus to be the sin offering to bear men’s sins, but also requires God to do a greater work to completely rid men of their disposition corrupted by satan. So, after men’s sins were forgiven, God has again returned in the flesh to lead men into the new age and begin the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought mankind into a higher state. All those who submit under his dominion will enjoy higher truth, receive greater blessings, truly live in the light, and receive the truth, the way, and the life.
The work God does when incarnated this time is to express his disposition mainly through chastisement and judgment; on this basis, he brings more truths to man and points out more practices to man, so as to achieve his purpose of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is the inside truth of the work God does in the Age of the Kingdom.”
from “Preface” to The Word Appears in the Flesh
“The final work is to speak words. Just through the words, people can attain a great transformation. The transformation these people have gained now after receiving these words is much greater than the transformation people gained after receiving the signs and wonders in the Age of the Grace. This is because although in the Age of the Grace demons were driven out of people through the laying on of hands and praying, their inner corrupt dispositions still remained. People were healed of their sicknesses and forgiven of their sins, but the work concerning how they could be rid of their corrupt satanic dispositions within was not done on them. People were only saved by faith and forgiven of their sins by faith, but their sinful nature was not removed and still remained within them. People are forgiven of their sins through God’s incarnation; it is not that they have no sins within. People, after sinning, can be forgiven through the sin offering, but they have no way to solve the problem of how to be free from sinning, to completely cast off their sinful nature, and to be transformed in their sinful nature. People are forgiven of their sins because of God’s work of crucifixion, but they are still living in their old corrupt satanic disposition. Thus, God has to save people completely from their corrupt satanic disposition, so that their sinful nature will be completely cast off and no longer develop and their disposition can be transformed. For this, God has to let people understand the way to grow in life, the way of life, and the pathway to be transformed in their disposition, and have them practice according to this way, so that they can be transformed in their disposition gradually and live under the shining of the light, and that everything they do can be after God’s heart, and they can cast off their corrupt satanic disposition, break away from satan’s influence of darkness, and come out of sins completely. Only then will they have received a full salvation. When Jesus did his work, people’s knowledge of him was still vague and obscure, and they always believed that he was the Son of David and said that he was a great prophet and he was the merciful Lord who atoned for man’s sins. Some were healed of their sicknesses by touching the edge of his garment by faith, the blind could receive sight, and the dead could be raised. But people could not discover the deep-rooted corrupt satanic disposition within them and did not know how to cast it off. People received a lot of grace, such as, fleshly peace and joy, the whole household being blessed through one member believing in the Lord, the healing of sicknesses, and so on. Besides that, they had good deeds and godly appearance. Those who could live by these would be qualified believers. Only such believers could go to heaven after their death, that is, be saved. But when these people were alive, they did not understand the way of life at all but just kept committing sins and confessing them, and they did not have the way to be transformed in their disposition. In the Age of the Grace people were just in such a situation. Have they been saved completely? No! So, after that stage of work has been accomplished, there is still a stage of work of judgment and chastisement. In this stage, it is to purify people through the word so that they can have ways to go on. If God still drove out demons in this stage, it would produce no results and would be meaningless, because people’s sinful nature could not be cast off and they could only remain at the basis of being forgiven of their sins. People have been forgiven of their sins through the sin offering, because the work of the cross has ended and God has triumphed over satan. But people’s corrupt disposition still remains within them and they still can commit sins and resist God, and God has not gained mankind. So in this stage, God discloses people’s corrupt disposition by his word and lets them practice according to proper ways. The work done in this stage is more significant and produces greater results than the work done in the former stage, because now the word directly supplies people’s life so that their disposition can be thoroughly renewed, and it is a more thorough work. So, the final incarnation has completed the significance of God’s incarnation and has completely accomplished God’s management plan of saving man.
So, it is not healing the sick and driving out demons that can completely save men from sins, nor is it performing signs and wonders that can fully make men complete. The authority of healing the sick and driving out demons only gives men grace, but their flesh is still of satan, and they still have corrupt satanic disposition within. In other words, that which has not been purified is still of sin and of filthiness. Only after they have been purified through the word can men be gained by God and become holy ones. Only driving demons out of men and redeeming them means that they have only been regained from satan’s hand and returned to God. But they have not been purified or transformed by God and are still corrupt men. They still have filthiness, resistance, and disobedience within. They have only returned before God after having been redeemed by God, but they do not know God at all and still can resist and rebel against God. Before men were redeemed, there had been a lot of satanic poisons planted in them. Having been corrupted by satan for thousands of years, they have already had the nature of resisting God within. So after they have been redeemed, they have only been ransomed, that is, have been bought back at a high price, but the poisonous nature in them has not been removed. Such filthy ones have to be transformed before they are qualified to serve God. Through this stage of work of judgment and chastisement, men will fully know their filthy and corrupt substance within and be completely transformed and become purified ones. Only then will they be qualified to return before God’s throne. All the works God does today are for the purpose that people can be purified and transformed, and that they can be rid of their corruptions and purified through the judgment and chastisement of the word and through refining. This stage of work is more a purifying work than a saving work. In reality, this stage is also a conquering work and the second stage of the saving work. People are gained by God through the judgment and chastisement of his word. Through the refining, judgment, and disclosing of his word, the impurities, notions, intents, or personal expectations in people’s heart are all exposed. Although people have been redeemed and forgiven of their sins, this only means that God does not remember their transgressions and does not treat them according to their transgressions. But as they live in the flesh and have not broken away from sins, they cannot but continue to commit sins and continually manifest their corrupt satanic disposition. This is their life of committing sins continually and being forgiven continually. Most people commit sins in the day and confess them at night. Thus, even if the sin offering is forever effective to them, it cannot save them from sins. This means that the work of salvation has only been half completed, because people still have corrupt disposition. … This is … the deep-rooted thing planted in man by satan, which is deeper than sin. People cannot easily discover their sins, and they have no way to discover their deep-rooted nature. The result has to be achieved through the judgment of the word. Only thus can people start to be transformed gradually.”
from “The Mystery of Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
