Whether in this stage God incarnate is enduring hardship or performing His ministry, He does so to complete the meaning of incarnation, for this is God’s last incarnation. God can only be incarnated twice. There cannot be a third time. The first incarnation was male, the second female, and so the image of God’s flesh is completed in man’s mind; moreover, the two incarnations have already finished God’s work in the flesh. The first time, God incarnate possessed normal humanity in order to complete the meaning of incarnation. This time He also possesses normal humanity, but the meaning of this incarnation is different: It is deeper, and His work is of more profound significance. The reason God has become flesh once more is to complete the meaning of incarnation. When God has wholly ended this stage of His work, the entire meaning of incarnation, that is, God’s work in the flesh, will be complete, and there will be no more work to be done in the flesh. Which is to say, from now on God will never again come into the flesh to do His work. Only to save and perfect mankind does God do the work of incarnation. In other words, it is by no means usual for God to come into the flesh, except for the sake of the work. By coming into the flesh to work, He shows Satan that God is a flesh, a normal person, an ordinary person—and yet He can reign triumphant over the world, can vanquish Satan, redeem mankind, conquer mankind! The goal of Satan’s work is to corrupt mankind, while the goal of God’s is to save mankind. Satan traps man in a bottomless pit, while God rescues him from it. Satan makes all men worship it, while God makes them subject to His dominion, for He is the Lord of creation. All this work is achieved through God’s two incarnations. In essence, His flesh is the union of humanity and divinity, and is possessed of normal humanity. So without God’s incarnate flesh, God could not achieve the results of saving mankind, and without the normal humanity of His flesh, His work in the flesh still could not achieve these results. The essence of God’s incarnation is that He must possess normal humanity; for it to be otherwise would run counter to God’s original intention in being incarnated.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God