INCARNATION OF WHAT?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 1, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 18.

INCARNATION OF WHAT?

GOD designed that man's body should be the dwelling-place of His Spirit. The body, the flesh, of every man is rightfully the temple of God. In the holiness of primitive man God was incarnate. He dwelt in the flesh. He was manifest in the highest form that earth knew, in earth's highest creature, man.

This indwelling of God in the flesh was the one essential thing. That lost, all was lost. And when man permitted Satan to enter, he by that very thing bade God depart. Sin can not reign where the presence of the Infinite is cherished; but Infinite Love will not stay where the enemy of all good is admitted on equal terms.

When man yielded to the temptations of the deceiver, sin became incarnate, or enfleshed. Satan thru sin took the place which belonged to God. The mind submitted to sin, became carnal, and the will yielded to sin, became enslaved.

This was the battle Satan won in the stronghold of this world. Winning it, he became “god of this world,” “the spirit that worketh in the sons of disobedience.”

The world must be won back in the very field where it was lost, in the temple of God in man. God must come again into the flesh to reign. Holiness must become incarnate. It was here that our Lord Jesus Christ won His victory. He took upon Himself our nature, was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh,” was partaker of flesh and blood even as the children of men, was in all points tempted like as we are, and in sinful flesh He won and held every moment of His life the glorious victory. He was “God manifest in the flesh.” He rescued the body of the flesh, the temple of God, from the power of sin.

The hope of every child of earth lies in this victory and in no other. He must, in the strength of Christ's presence, in “the power of an endless life” which Christ alone can give, win and hold the same victory. He can do this—every soul can do this—by accepting Jesus Christ. “And as many as received Him to them gave He power [right, authority] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” John x:12. This is the privilege of every soul to receive the Son of the living God, to let Him reign in the flesh of each as He did in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth.

O soul, accept Him, hold Him, by living faith. Be yourself the incarnation of our blessed Lord, not the incarnation of sin. Let Christ dwell in you, the hope of glory.