God in the Flesh (Incarnation)

A painting by an unknown artist in the 18th century. The book of Isaiah records that Jesus, who was born as a child, is God.

God’s coming in the flesh [Incarnation] is the essence of Christianity. Two thousand years ago, the early Church believed in Jesus, and now Christians, who are more than 30% of the world's population, believe in Him as God who came in the flesh. The reason the early Church believed in Jesus as the Savior was that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Bible concerning Christ. The Bible also prophesies that Christ will come again in human form for the salvation of mankind. The prophecy about Second Coming Christ Ahnsahnghong, whom the Church of God believes in, is also clearly recorded in the Bible just like His first coming.

Christianity Believing in God Who Came in the Flesh

Christianity is a religion based on faith in God who came as a man. The word Christ is a transliteration of the Greek word Χριστός (Christos), which means the anointed one. The Bible records many prophecies about God the Savior who comes as a man. One of them is the prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah. Around 700 B.C., Isaiah prophesied that God Almighty would be born as a child, meaning as a person. This prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus, who is the center of Christian faith.

God’s Power and Incarnation

People’s reluctance to the idea of God in the flesh comes from the thought, “Man cannot be God.” Of course, a man who is a creature cannot be God the Creator. However, God Almighty, who created all things through His word in the beginning and divided the Red Sea in the time of the Exodus, can come as a man at any time. In the Old and New Testaments, there are records of God who appeared as a man. In the Old Testament times, the LORD God appeared before Abraham as a passerby with two angels and ate food. In the New Testament times, Jesus was born as a baby from the Virgin Mary. God does not only exist as a spirit, but can also be manifested in the flesh.

A painting by the Dutch painter Paulus Potter depicting God who appeared before Abraham (1642)

• God appeared before Abraham as a passerby

The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.

Genesis 18:1–2

• Jesus was born through the body of Mary by the Holy Spirit

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. . . . ”She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:18–21

Jesus Christ, God in the Flesh

Christ Pantocrator, a painted wood panel dating back to the 6th century from St. Catherine's Monastery located in Sinai, Egypt

Figure of Christ, a painting of German painter Heinrich Hofmann in the 1880s. Jesus is depicted as majestic and mystic with light glowing from Him, but it is different from how the Bible describes Him.

In sacred paintings and movies, Jesus is portrayed as a very good looking handsome man with mystique. However, this is different from the biblical record about Jesus. According to the prophet Isaiah, Jesus looked like a root out of dry ground, so there was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him. This was one of the reasons the Jews, who had longed for a supernatural Messiah to save them from Roman oppression, rejected Jesus, who came as their Savior. Jesus’ life and living conditions too kept them from recognizing Him as the Savior. The Jews rejected their Savior while only looking at Jesus’ physical aspects, and they eventually crucified Him. However, the apostles, who looked at the prophecy of the Bible, received Jesus as their Savior though He came in human form.

Jesus’ Appearance, Life, and Living Conditions

The image of Jesus depicted in Western culture for centuries has been a white man with long hairs and blue eyes. Since the 4th century, the culture of the Byzantine Empire influenced the Eastern Church, and Byzantine artists borrowed the strong and powerful images of the gods in the Roman Pantheon to depict Jesus. Around the 6th century, Christ Pantocrator introduced Jesus as a man with shoulder-length hair and a beard. Later, during the Renaissance era, when the artworks were based on humanism, they began to depict Jesus who had the ideal beauty standards. The Renaissance culture had an influence on the image of Jesus in the Western society in the 20th century. A typical example is the portrait of Jesus, painted by Warner Sallman, an American commercial artist. This painting was used as an image for stained glass and calendars, and it gained great popularity.

“	The long-haired, bearded image of Jesus that emerged beginning in the fourth century A.D. was influenced heavily by representations of Greek and Roman gods, particularly the all-powerful Greek god Zeus. At that point, Jesus started to appear in a long robe, seated on a throne (such as in the fifth-century mosaic on the altar of the Santa Pudenziana church in Rome), sometimes with a halo surrounding his head.	“
— HISTORY, "The Ongoing Mystery of Jesus's Face"

Like this, Jesus’ majestic and mystic appearance and image with a halo has been fixed for a long time. Therefore, the typical image of Jesus that people think of is the distorted image created by the age and culture; it is different from the appearance of Jesus recorded in the Bible. The Bible describes that He was like a root out of dry ground and had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him.

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Isaiah 53:2

Although Jesus is God Almighty in nature, He came as a man and His appearance was not different from ordinary people. Physically, He was the son of Joseph and Mary, and his occupation was a carpenter. Also, Jesus ate food when he became hungry, and sat down and rested for a while when he got tired after a long trip. Thus, what He ate, dressed, or his daily routine were nothing special. Today, people believe in Christ, seeing the holy images and paintings that depicted Him. However, 2,000 years ago, Jesus was rejected by the Jews because He looked like an ordinary man. The Jews did not accept Jesus as their Savior because Jesus ate without washing His hands or He was with tax collectors and prostitutes, who were looked down on in their society.

Those Who Rejected Christ

Two thousand years ago, Israel was a colony of the Roman Empire. The Jews earnestly longed for the Messiah who would save them from Rome; that was their only hope. However, when Jesus, the Messiah, appeared before their eyes, they rejected Him, saying, “You, a mere man, claim to be God.” The image of the Messiah, which they expected at that time, was the Almighty One with supernatural power to save them from Roman oppression, but Jesus did not come as they had expected.

“	The Jews had been insulted by the Gentiles in everything, and their hearts were full of hatred and resentment. Moreover, they were materialistic and worldly, so they could not imagine the poor Messiah or the Messiah who was hated by people. Most people, except for the prophets, dreamed of the Messiah like a mighty angel.	“
— The Story of Jesus for the Atheist, Giovanni Pafini, Medici Media, 2014

Eventually, the Jews did not recognize the Messiah, whom they had longed for. They rejected Him and even crucified Him on the cross. At that time, the Jews and religious leaders only looked at the sky and waited for the coming of the Messiah. While they were doing so, the Messiah was already born and fulfilled all the prophecies of the Bible.

Those Who Received Christ

Apostle Paul, who is considered a holy saint by Christians today, was called a ringleader of the Nazarene sect 2,000 years ago. It was because he believed in Christ who came as a man. Not only Paul, but also the apostles such as John, Peter, and Philip, and the saints of the early Church, kept their faith in Jesus even though they were persecuted. Apostle John, who was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, wrote in the Bible that God, who was from the beginning, came in the flesh and made His dwelling among people. Apostle Paul said that Jesus appeared as a man, but that He was in very nature God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1,14

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped... And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!

Phillipians 2:5–8

The apostles accepted Jesus as their Savior because they believed that Jesus was the Savior who fulfilled the prophecies of the Bible. In the Old Testament, there are prophecies about God coming as a man hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The prophecies are as follows: The Savior would be conceived in the body of a virgin; the One whose origins are from of old, meaning God, would be born in Bethlehem; and the King of Israel, or the King of Zion (God) would come to Jerusalem by riding a donkey. In the Bible, Jesus is called Immanuel. It means God came in the flesh to save His people and be with them. According to this prophecy, Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies of the Bible as He was born in the form of a man, lived a life for the salvation of mankind, and died on the cross.

Jesus Comes Again in the Flesh

The Holy Supper of the Passover well-known as The Last Supper

The fundamental reason God came in the flesh is to save all mankind. In the Bible, it is written that the wages of sin is death, but that the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus. There is no way for sinners to pay the wages for their sins, which is death, on their own. Therefore, only God, who is free from sins, carried mankind’s sins and died on the cross instead, so that mankind could be atoned. The day before Jesus died on the cross, He established the Passover of the new covenant with bread and wine representing His flesh and blood, and granted us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The next day, He fulfilled the covenant that He promised through the Passover by enduring the sacrifice of His flesh being torn on the cross and His blood being shed.
In the Old Testament, the book of Micah prophesied that God would teach us the way of truth in the last days. In other words, Jesus will come a second time and tell us the truth, which will lead us to salvation. The truth that Jesus established for salvation is the New Covenant Passover. However, in A.D. 325, after the early Church era, the New Covenant Passover was abolished at the Council of Nicaea. The way to salvation, which Jesus opened at His first coming, disappeared. Therefore, Christ is to come a second time to restore the truth of life and save mankind.

Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him

Hebrews 9:28

The way to recognize Christ who comes again in the form of a man can be found in the history of the early Church. At that time, the religious leaders who saw the physical aspects of Jesus rejected Him, the Savior, but the apostles and the saints, who saw the prophecy and fulfillment of the Bible, received the Savior. In this age, the Bible is the only way to recognize Second Coming Christ because the Bible is the only book that testifies about the Savior. At His first coming, Jesus testified about Himself as Savior through the Bible. When John the Baptist asked, “Are you the One who is to come?” Jesus told the prophecies of the Bible. Moreover, when the disciples who were on their way to Emmaus did not recognize Him, Jesus testified about Himself through the Bible. The Bible prophesies when, in what form, and with what sign Christ will come again. The most important sign concerning His second coming is the Passover of the new covenant. The prophet Isaiah prophesied that in the future, God would hold a banquet with the aged wine, and that He would swallow up death forever.

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines. . . . he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, "Surely this is our God;

Isaiah 25:6–9

In the Bible, the wine of the New Covenant Passover is the only wine that destroys death, which means giving eternal life. It is God, the Second Coming Jesus, who restores the New Covenant Passover, which disappeared for 1,600 years after His first coming. Christ Ahnsahnghong was the One who restored the new covenant by being incarnated according to all the prophecies of the Bible.

See also

• Ahnsahnghong
• Christ
• Messiah
• Jesus Christ
• Life of Jesus
• Major Achievements of Jesus Christ
• Prophecies About Jesus in the Bible
• Miracles by Jesus
• Teachings of Jesus Christ
• Circumstances & Appearance of Jesus
• Parables by Jesus
• The Last Supper
• Suffering on the Cross
• Resurrection of Jesus
• Ascension of Jesus
• How Does Jesus Come a Second Time?
• Timing of Jesus’ Second Coming
• Where Does Jesus Come a Second Time?
• New Name on White Stone (New Name of Jesus)
• The Root of David
• Prophecy of King David’s Throne
• Mission of Elijah
• Melchizedek
• Seal of God
• Zion