In the Age of Grace, the incarnate Jesus had the image of a Jew. Why does God incarnate in the last days have the image of an Asian?
“God is the greatest in the entire universe, so could He fully explain Himself using the image of a flesh? God puts on the flesh in order to do a stage of His work. There is no significance to the image of the flesh, and it bears no relation to the passing of ages, and has nothing to do with God’s disposition. Why did Jesus not allow the image of Him to remain? Why did He not let man paint His image, so that it could be passed on to later generations? Why did He not allow people to acknowledge that His image was the image of God?
… He becomes flesh only so that the Spirit can have somewhere appropriate to reside when doing His work, so that He can achieve His work in the flesh—so that people can see His work, come into contact with His disposition, hear His words, and know the wonder of His work. His name represents His disposition, His work represents His identity, but He has never said that His appearance in the flesh represents His image; that is merely a notion of man. And so, the key points of the incarnation of God are His name, His work, His disposition, and His gender. He uses these to represent His management in this age. His appearance in the flesh has no bearing on His management, and is merely for the sake of His work at the time. Yet it is impossible for God incarnate to have no particular appearance, and so He chooses the appropriate family to determine His appearance. If the appearance of God has representative significance, then all those who possess similar facial features to Him also represent God. Is that not an egregious error? … God is Spirit, and man will never be capable of summing up exactly what His image is. His image can only be represented by His disposition. … You cannot use the language of man to fully epitomize the image of God, for God is too exalted, too great, too wondrous and unfathomable!”
… He becomes flesh only so that the Spirit can have somewhere appropriate to reside when doing His work, so that He can achieve His work in the flesh—so that people can see His work, come into contact with His disposition, hear His words, and know the wonder of His work. His name represents His disposition, His work represents His identity, but He has never said that His appearance in the flesh represents His image; that is merely a notion of man. And so, the key points of the incarnation of God are His name, His work, His disposition, and His gender. He uses these to represent His management in this age. His appearance in the flesh has no bearing on His management, and is merely for the sake of His work at the time. Yet it is impossible for God incarnate to have no particular appearance, and so He chooses the appropriate family to determine His appearance. If the appearance of God has representative significance, then all those who possess similar facial features to Him also represent God. Is that not an egregious error? … God is Spirit, and man will never be capable of summing up exactly what His image is. His image can only be represented by His disposition. … You cannot use the language of man to fully epitomize the image of God, for God is too exalted, too great, too wondrous and unfathomable!”
from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“… it is imperative that God’s incarnate flesh depart the earth on completion of the work that He needs to do, for He comes only to do the work He ought to do, and not to show people His image. Though the significance of incarnation has already been fulfilled by God twice becoming flesh, still He will not openly make Himself known to any nation who has never before seen Him. Jesus will never again show Himself to the Jews as the sun of righteousness, nor will He ascend the Mount of Olives and appear to all peoples; all the Jews see is the picture of Him during His time in Judea. This is because the work of Jesus become flesh long ended two thousand years ago; He will not return to Judea in His previous image, much less show His image from that time in any Gentile nations, for the image of Jesus become flesh is merely the image of a Jew, and not the image of the Son of man that John had seen. Though Jesus promised His followers that ‘He would come again,’ He will not simply show Himself in the image of a Jew to all those in Gentile nations. … This is identical to how the image of Jesus as a Jew can represent only the image of God as He worked in Judea, and He could only do the work of crucifixion. During the time Jesus was in flesh, He could not do the work of bringing an age to an end or destroying mankind. Therefore, after He had been crucified and concluded His work, He ascended on high and forever concealed Himself from man. From then on, those faithful believers in Gentile nations could see only the picture of Him that they pasted to the walls, and not the manifestation of the Lord Jesus. This picture is but one drawn by man, and not the image that God Himself showed to man. God will not openly show Himself to the multitude in the image from when He twice became flesh. The work He does among mankind is to allow them to understand His disposition. This is all accomplished by showing man through the work of the different ages, as well as the disposition He has made known and the work that He has done, rather than through the manifestation of Jesus. That is to say, the image of God is not made known to man through the incarnate image, but rather through the work carried out by the incarnate flesh, a God of image and form; and through His (Her) work, His image is shown and His disposition is made known. This is the significance of the work He wishes to do in the flesh.”
from “The Mystery of the Incarnation (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“Jesus and I come from the same Spirit. Though Our fleshes have no relationship, Our Spirits are one; though what We do and the work We bear are not the same, We are alike in essence; Our fleshes take different forms, and this is because of the change in era and the need of Our work; Our ministries are not alike, so the work We bring forth and the disposition We reveal to man are also different. That is why what man sees and receives this day is unlike that of the past; this is so because of the change in era. Though the gender and form of Their fleshes are different, and though They were not born of the same family, much less in the same time period, Their Spirits are one. Though Their fleshes share no blood or physical relationship in any way, this does not deny that They are the incarnate fleshes of God in two different time periods. It is an undeniable truth that They are the incarnate fleshes of God, though They do not share the same bloodline or a common human language (one was a male who spoke the language of the Jews and the other is a female who speaks only Chinese). It is for these reasons that They do the work They ought in different countries, and in different time periods as well. Despite the fact that They are the same Spirit, possessed of the same essence, there are no absolute similarities at all between the outward shells of Their fleshes. They merely share the same humanity, but the appearance and birth of Their fleshes are not alike. These have no impact on Their respective work or the knowledge that man has of Them, for, after all, They are the same Spirit and none can separate Them. Though They are not related by blood, Their entire beings are directed by Their Spirits, so that They undertake different work in different time periods, with Their fleshes not sharing a bloodline. Similarly, the Spirit of Jehovah is not the father of the Spirit of Jesus, much as the Spirit of Jesus is not the son of the Spirit of Jehovah. They are the same Spirit. Just like the incarnate God of this day and Jesus. Though They are not related by blood, They are one; this is because Their Spirits are one. He can do the work of mercy and lovingkindness, as well as that of righteous judgment and of chastisement of man, and that of bringing curses on man. In the end, He can do the work of destroying the world and punishing the wicked. Does He not do all this Himself? Is this not the almightiness of God?”
from “The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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