I

For everyone who seeks the truth and longs for the appearance of God, the Spirit's work can only provide moving or inspiration, and a sense of wonder that this work is marvelous, unfathomable, and unimaginable, and a sense that it is great and transcendent. Man and the Spirit of God can only look upon each other from afar, as if there were a great distance between them. So man does not have need of the Spirit, for the Spirit cannot directly do the work most needed by man.

II

The work of the flesh offers man practical objectives to pursue, explicit words, and a sense that He's practical and normal, that He is humble and ordinary. Man can behold His face, and hear His voice, and he does not need to look upon Him from afar. This flesh feels near to man, not distant, or unfathomable, but visible and accessible, for this flesh is in the same world as man.

III

For all of those who live in the flesh, pursuing dispositional change requires goals, and pursuing knowledge of God requires witnessing the practical deeds and the real face of God. Both can only be achieved by God's incarnate flesh, and both can only be accomplished by the normal and tangible flesh. This is why the incarnation is necessary—it is needed by all corrupt mankind.

IV

Since people are required to know God, the images of the vague and supernatural gods must be dispelled from their hearts, and since they are required to cast off their corrupt dispositions, they must first know their corrupt dispositions. If only man does the work to dispel the images of the vague gods from people's hearts, then he will fail to achieve the intended effect. Only by replacing these vague and supernatural things with the practical God and the inherent image of God, and making people gradually know them, can the due effect be achieved.

from The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Corrupt Mankind Is in Greater Need of the Salvation of the Incarnate God