Why Didn’t God Perform the Redemption Work in the Spirit?

[James Brown]

A brother in our Bible Study group raised such a question yesterday: Jehovah God did the work of leading the Israelites in the Spirit, while the Lord Jesus was incarnated as the Son of man to appear and do the work of the redeeming mankind. Why didn’t God perform the redemption work in the Spirit?
As we all know God is Spirit, formless and amorphous, so if He doesn’t become flesh, He can’t be nailed to the cross and can’t be mankind’s sin offering. Just as Jehovah God said to Moses: “You can not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). The corrupt mankind can’t come into direct contact with God’s Spirit. If man were to come into contact with God’s Spirit, they would be smitten by God. If so, how could God redeem mankind? Moreover, since man can’t see God’s Spirit, he can only use his brain to imagine what kind of God God is, what disposition He has, and what His essence is. However, such understanding is not practical or precise. Besides, if God’s Spirit worked on man, giving man enlightenment, illumination, moving, and guidance, this would give man a sense of the mysterious and the unimaginable. So it wouldn’t be easy for man who has a mind and has been deeply corrupted by Satan to accurately understand God’s will, so man would feel a sense of estrangement from God. In this way, it would be impossible for God’s redemption work to be effective.
Just as God’s words say, “The work of the Spirit is shrouded in mystery, it is difficult for mortal beings to fathom, and even harder for them to see, and so they can only rely on hollow imaginings. The work of the flesh, however, is normal, and based on reality, and possessed of rich wisdom, and is a fact that can be beheld by the physical eye of man; man can personally experience the wisdom of the work of God, and has no need to employ his bountiful imagination. This is the accuracy and real value of the work of God in the flesh. … The work of God in the flesh, however, is greatly different: It has accurate guidance of words, has clear will, and has clear required goals. And so man does not need to grope around, or employ his imagination, much less make guesses. This is the clarity of the work in the flesh, and its great difference from the work of the Spirit.”

 

[Who Me]

You are complaining that God's demonstration of love was un neccesary.
For most people the historical facts that Jesus lived, died, was burried and that he rose to life are esential facts of Christianity.

Why should people believe in an unseen spiritual action?
Why should they trust in the results of an unproveable spiritual action?
Historically people have believed because of the reality of Christianity.

Why did God incomprehesible become man. contract to a span. as Wesley put it.

Because it was neccesary to redem us, is why.

 

[Christ_empowered]

i guess its sort of an interesting 'why?' question....atheists are forever asking believers 'why would God need to kill His son for you?,' so this to me is sort of the Christian version of the same line of inquiry. and yet...

God becoming Flesh, God-Man...fully human, fully God...is a big, big part of Christian belief and outlook. He entered the human realm as a human....and fulfilled the law and then died a horrible, stigmatized form of execution...

for us, for humanity. then, He was resurrected, then He ascended into Heaven...

where He went off to prepare a place for mankind, so that where He is, we might be, also (paraphrase).

 

[for_his_glory]

Hi James Brown and welcome to CF

God worked through the faith Moses had in Him to lead the Israelites to Mt Sina, but many turned away from God to go after other gods as they had no Spiritual understanding, Exodus Chapters 19-24.

Jesus being the word of God incarnate (Diety/Spirit) came as a light unto the world as He is fully God and was fully man when He walked the earth. His coming was to fulfill God's prophecy given to the prophets in the OT and to fulfil the sacrificial law as all who will believe in Him will have everlasting life with Him and God.
John 1:1-5; Matthew 5:17, 18; Luke 5:17, 18; John 3:16-21

John 3:11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

Revelation 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

BTW, I am going to move this to the Lounge for further discussions.

 

[Bull of the Woods]

Seems to me the "method" of redemption and reconciliation performed by God through Christ was the one that satisfied His attributes. Through the work, death, and resurrection of Christ along with the offer of adoption as joint heirs we see God's justice, mercy, righteousness, grace, and power.
How else could perfect justice be satisfied and mercy bestowed in one act? It's not justice without the penalty for sin met through death and shedding of blood. It's not mercy unless we receive mercy. It's not grace if not given.

 

[Michael74]

...and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Hebrews 9:22b KJV