A Glimpse Into the Mystery of Godliness

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 last 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.