Completing Ministry of Paul - Five Aspects of the Church - 3

According to the context, we may say that the truth in 1 Timothy 3:15 denotes the mystery of godliness, the manifestation of God in the flesh, in verse 16. The unique truth, the unique reality, in the universe is the manifestation of the Triune God in the flesh.…This manifestation is not only in Christ but also in the church. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2232-2233)

First Timothy 3:15 and 16 imply that not only Christ Himself as the Head is the manifestation of God in the flesh but also that the church as the Body is the manifestation of God in the flesh. When the church grows in Christ with the growth of God (Col. 2:19), it will function as the house of the living God for His move on earth and as the supporting pillar and holding base of the truth, bearing the divine reality of Christ and His Body as a testimony to the world.Then the church will become the continuation of Christ’s manifestation of God in the flesh. This is the great mystery of godliness: Christ lived out of the church as the manifestation of God in the flesh.…The church, then, is the increase, the enlargement, of the manifestation of God in the flesh.This is God manifested in the flesh in a wider way according to the New Testament principle of incarnation.