1. He who was manifested in the flesh

Have you meditated on what it means that Jesus was manifested in the flesh? Have you thought about what “flesh” actually is? If you do not understand this mystery, you won’t be able to appreciate the true value of Christ’s work as highly as it ought to be. You say, “I believe that He was born of the Virgin Mary more than 1900 years ago.” That is not a mystery, and certainly not a great mystery. It is simply a fact and has nothing to do with faith.

A person who is God-fearing will take up his cross daily and follow Jesus. As he walks on this way of the cross, he will encounter resistance in his own flesh to the leading of the Spirit. He will discover that the Spirit strives against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. This flesh causes him much trouble and sorrow. Then one day it becomes clear to his inner eye that Christ also was manifested in the flesh, and this becomes a profound comfort to him. Jesus was tried and tempted in all things as we are. He received power from the Father to overcome, and we know that in Jesus Christ we, too, will now receive abundant power to overcome. This is why the sufferings that arise in our flesh as a result of being led by the Spirit are called the sufferings of Christ, and the death that takes place in our flesh is called the death of Christ. Isn’t this a mystery? Ask any theologian if he understands this. Ask religious people who spend their lives living very comfortably and contentedly in some Christian assembly. They have absolutely no understanding of Christ manifested in the flesh. But if you ask a God-fearing man—one who may not be regarded as God-fearing by religious people, but who knows what it means to be led by the Spirit—he will give the right answer, regardless of who he is according to the flesh.

Some people—those who are religious according to the flesh, but ungodly according to the spirit—want a Jesus with a flesh like Adam’s before the fall. They also maintain that Jesus bore the cross so we do not have to bear it. A natural conclusion of such logic must be that since Jesus was obedient, we don’t have to be, and since Jesus was blessed, we don’t have to be! You can see that the end of this line of thinking is perdition.

However, the Scriptures tell us, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil . . . . For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Heb. 2:14-18.

These verses clearly show that Christ became like His brethren in all things, and as such, He was tempted as they were, and in these temptations He suffered.

In Hebrews 4:15, we read that He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. Everyone who reads this chapter carefully will understand that even though Jesus was as one of us and was tempted as we, He overcame in the trials. He did not commit sin; no guile was found in His mouth.

In Jesus Christ, sin was condemned in the flesh. Rom. 8:3. God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin and condemned sin in the flesh. Now sin will be condemned in the flesh of anyone who wants to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. That is why Jesus went ahead of us, suffering death according to the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit. Those who follow Him on the way of the cross will also be made alive in the spirit, because the second Adam became a life-giving spirit. That is why this also belongs to the mystery of godliness:

2. Justified in the Spirit

Note that it says, “Manifested in the flesh.” It is not written that Jesus was justified in the flesh. On the contrary, He was justified in the spirit. The hypocrites and Pharisees wanted to be justified according to the flesh before people so they could receive praise from man. But about Jesus, it is only written that He was manifested in the flesh. We are also manifest and manifested in the flesh, but because we know that we cannot be justified in the flesh, we do not seek to make a good impression according to the flesh. Instead, we have set our hearts on pleasing God, whom we serve in our spirit through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Look among Christians and you will usually find people who go to great lengths to present a religious flesh. If you disregard their flesh in order to get contact with them according to the spirit, you will almost invariably discover that they are enemies according to the spirit. However, God’s Word says, “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.” “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” It is horrible wretchedness, poverty, nakedness and blindness to rely on your religious flesh as a basis for fellowship. “Justified in the spirit” has a totally different ring to it. The flesh has to be put to death! The Spirit of God takes what belongs to Christ and declares it to us. The Spirit does not produce a religious flesh; He makes our human spirit alive. The Spirit is at enmity with the flesh, and if we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit, the third witness (the blood) will be revealed. This is the blood of the covenant. In the power of this blood, God raised that great Shepherd of the sheep, the Overseer—our Lord Jesus—from the dead. Heb. 13:20. In the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear. Heb. 5:7.

Can you see that He was heard because of His godly fear? The entire person of Christ is a mystery that came into being through godly fear. Though He was a Son, He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. Death could not hold Him, because through His own death He destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. David, foreseeing this, spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. Acts 2:31. This is also a part of the mystery of Christ. These were the things He prayed about with vehement cries and tears, and He was heard because of His godly fear. The ruler of this world had nothing in Him; therefore he could not hold Him captive in Hades. On the contrary, Jesus destroyed Satan within the confines of His own flesh by His own blood, so the Father could raise Him up from the dead in the power of the blood of this everlasting covenant.

3. Seen by angels

It happened, while the women stood by the grave, greatly perplexed, that two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!” Luke 24:4-6.

The Spirit testified to the prophets of old about the sufferings of Christ and His death, and also of the glory that would follow. Even the angels desired to look into these things. If Jesus had taken upon Himself the nature of angels, they could have understood these things, but He took upon Himself the seed of Abraham. So now the seed of Abraham—his seed by faith—can comprehend the work of Christ by faith as soon as they become partakers of what the prophets called the sufferings of Christ. God’s manifold wisdom is now to be made known by the church to the powers and principalities in heavenly places. The angels are in heaven, and they can see how Christ was exalted after His sufferings. They also see how His followers enter into glory through sufferings. They see and comprehend things from the outside. But the church is the work itself.

4. Preached among the Gentiles

Is it not a mysterious power that constrains tens of thousands of people to go to the mission fields, gladly leaving everything that is dear to them in order to serve the Lord Jesus in the light they have received? However, another Helper has already gone ahead of them to the Gentiles and has spoken to their consciences. For it is possible for the mystery of Christ to be at work in someone without that person consciously being a part of this work. The more we are able to embrace and comprehend Christ with our understanding, the deeper our awe and admiration of this wisdom which God has manifested in order to create something as glorious as Christ and the church. The love of Christ constrains us to proclaim this gospel among the nations.

5. Believed on in the world

The Spirit convinces with such straightforward clarity and simplicity that we simply have to believe. Even if a person believes nothing else, he is compelled to believe that he is condemned because he does not believe. This is also a faith worked by the Spirit of God. Many people have allowed themselves to be convinced. They have the faith of Christ and they believe in Christ. It is a mystery that Christ can be believed on in the world. If He had been an ordinary man, He could not have sent His Spirit to testify of Himself. The difference between Christianity and other religions is this: Christ sent the Spirit of Truth into the whole world. This is a Spirit that testifies of Him and everything He has spoken, a Spirit that convicts every man who does not believe in Him of sin, because he does not believe. Which founder of any other religion has been able to send such a powerful Spirit into the world to testify of Himself? None of them have been able to do that. Therefore, it is a mystery of godliness that Christ is believed on in the world.

6. Received up in glory

Is it any wonder that a righteous, truth-loving Father took His beloved Son to Himself in glory, after He had been mistreated and crucified so shamefully by ungodly men who had been provoked to do so by envious, religious people? The Son had fulfilled all His Father’s requirements so perfectly during the days of His flesh that a voice even came down from heaven to testify: “This is My beloved Son, hear Him!”

The glory was that the Father conquered Satan’s power in the flesh, so that Christ triumphed over principalities and powers on the cross. The Father proved that He had ample power and wisdom to drive Satan out of man. Could there be any greater glory than to be one with the Father? That is why He is called the Lord of glory. To understand this glory, however, a person must be godly, for it differs as much from the glory of silver and gold as the spirit differs from matter. If we suffer with Him now, in the days of our flesh, we will also be glorified together with Him.