The Incarnation, Merry CHRISTmas

5+ Things we should know about the Incarnation

What is the Incarnation? What does it literally mean? God becoming man, taking on flesh and being born of the virgin

Five Truths About the Incarnation

📷Article by Joseph Scheumann

Guest Contributor

Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus. Strip away the season’s hustle and bustle, the trees, the cookies, the extra pounds, and what remains is a humble birth story and a simultaneously stunning reality — the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.

This incarnation, God himself becoming human, is a glorious fact that is too often neglected, or forgotten, amidst all the gifts, get-togethers, pageants, and presents. Therefore, we would do well to think deeply about the incarnation, especially on this day.

Here are five biblical truths of the incarnation.

1. The Incarnation Was Not the Divine Son’s Beginning

The virgin conception and birth in Bethlehem does not mark the beginning of the Son of God. Rather, it marks the eternal Son entering physically into our world and becoming one of us. John Murray writes, “The doctrine of the incarnation is vitiated if it is conceived of as the beginning to be of the person of Christ. The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not” (quoted in John Frame, Systematic Theology, 883).

2. The Incarnation Shows Jesus’s Humility

Jesus is no typical king. Jesus didn’t come to be served. Instead, Jesus came to serve (). His humility was on full display from the beginning to the end, from Bethlehem to Golgotha. Paul glories in the humility of Christ when he writes that, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” ().

3. The Incarnation Fulfills Prophecy

The incarnation wasn’t random or accidental. It was predicted in the Old Testament and in accordance with God’s eternal plan. Perhaps the clearest text predicting the Messiah would be both human and God is : “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In this verse, Isaiah sees a son that is to be born, and yet he is no ordinary son. His extraordinary names — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — point to his deity. And taken together — the son being born and his names — point to him being the God-man, Jesus Christ.

4. The Incarnation Is Mysterious

The Scriptures do not give us answers to all of our questions. Some things remain mysterious. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God,” Moses wrote, “but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever” ().

Answering how it could be that one person could be both fully God and fully man is not a question that the Scriptures focus on. The early church fathers preserved this mystery at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) when they wrote that Jesus is “recognized in two natures [God and man], without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ.”

5. The Incarnation Is Necessary for Salvation

The incarnation of Jesus does not save by itself, but it is an essential link in God’s plan of redemption. John Murray explains: “[T]he blood of Jesus is blood that has the requisite efficacy and virtue only by reason of the fact that he who is the Son, the effulgence of the Father’s glory and the express image of his substance, became himself also partaker of flesh and blood and thus was able by one sacrifice to perfect all those who are sanctified” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 14).

And the author to the Hebrews likewise writes that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” ().

The incarnation displays the greatness of God. Our God is the eternal God who was born in a stable, not a distant, withdrawn God; our God is a humble, giving God, not a selfish, grabbing God; our God is a purposeful, planning God, not a random, reactionary God; our God is a God who is far above us and whose ways are not our ways, not a God we can put in a box and control; and our God is a God who redeems us by his blood, not a God who leaves us in our sin. Our God is great indeed!

10 Things You Should Know about the Incarnation

1. The person or active subject of the incarnation is the eternal Son.

1. The person or active subject of the incarnation is the eternal Son.

is clear: “The Word became flesh.” In other words, it was the Son from eternity who became incarnate, not the divine nature. The Son, who is in eternal relation to the Father and Spirit, willingly humbled himself and chose to assume a human nature in obedience to his Father and for our salvation ().

2. As the eternal Son, the second person of the triune Godhead, he is the full image and expression of the Father and is thus fully God.

Along with the Father and Spirit, the Son fully and equally shares the divine nature. As the image and exact correspondence of the Father (; ), the Son is fully God. All of God’s perfections and attributes are his since Christ is God the Son (). As the Son, he participates in the divine rule, receives divine worship, and does all divine works as the Son (; ; ; ; ; ).

3. As God the Son, he has always existed in an eternally-ordered relation to the Father and Spirit, which now is gloriously displayed in the incarnation.

It was fitting that the Son alone, who is from the Father by the Spirit, became incarnate and not the other divine persons (, , ). In the incarnation, the Son displayed his divine-filial dependence on the Father and always acted in relation to the Father by the Spirit (; ; ). From eternity and in the incarnation, the Son never acted on his own or independently but always in relation to and inseparably from his Father and the Spirit.

From eternity and in the incarnation, the Son never acted on his own or independently but always in relation to and inseparably from his Father and the Spirit.

4. The incarnation is an act of addition, not subtraction.

In the incarnation, the eternal Son who has always possessed the divine nature has not changed or set aside his deity. Instead, he has added to himself a second nature, namely a human nature consisting of a human body and soul.

Philippians 2:6–8 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

). As a result, the individual Jesus is one person—the Son—who now subsists in two natures, and thus is fully God and fully man.

As a result, the individual Jesus is one person—the Son—who now subsists in two natures, and thus is fully God and fully man.

5. The human nature assumed by the divine Son is fully human and completely sinless.

Christ’s human nature was unfallen and untainted by the effects of sin. Our inborn inclination to anti-God rebellion was not part of Jesus’s human makeup. Jesus fully experienced the effects of living in a fallen world, but he did not share the guilt or disposition of Adam’s sin passed on to the human race. In fact, Jesus never committed a sin, nor could he (; ; ; ; ). Although he was tempted like us, he perfectly obeyed his Father, even unto death, as our covenant mediator, thus accomplishing our salvation as the man Christ Jesus (; ).

6. The virgin conception was the glorious means by which the incarnation took place.

The incarnation was thoroughly supernatural and a demonstration of our triune God’s sovereign and gracious initiative to redeem his people (; ). The virgin conception was the time and means by which the divine Son added to himself a human nature. By the virgin conception, the triune God created a new human nature for the Son, and as a result of this action, in Jesus, we truly meet God face-to-face, not indwelling or overshadowing human flesh but in full undiminished glory. Although we behold Jesus as a man, he is much more; he is the Lord, the divine Son who humbles himself and veils his glory by becoming one with us.

7. From conception, the Son limited his divine life in such a way that he did not override the limitations of his human nature.

As a result of the incarnation, the divine Son lives as a true man with the normal physical, mental, volitional, and psychological attributes and capacities of original humanity. As the incarnate Son, he experienced the wonder and weaknesses of a completely human life. He grew in wisdom and physical stature (), experienced tears and joy, and suffered death and a glorious resurrection for his people and their salvation (, ; ; ).

8. But the Son was not limited to his human nature alone since he continued to act in and through his divine nature.

This truth is best demonstrated in the incarnate Son’s continuing to sustain the universe (; ), alongside Christ’s other divine actions during his life and ministry. In Christ, there are two natures which remain distinct and retain their own attributes and integrity, yet the Son is able to act through both natures. For this reason, the Son is not completely circumscribed by his human nature; he is also able to act outside of it in his divine nature.

📷

God the Son Incarnate

Stephen J. Wellum

Laying out a systematic summary of Christology from philosophical, biblical, and historical perspectives, this book leads to the ultimate conclusion that Christ is God the Son incarnate.

When and how the Son acts through both natures is best explained in terms of Trinitarian relations worked out in redemptive history for the sake of our salvation. The Son, who has always inseparably acted from the Father and by the Spirit, continues to do so but now as the obedient Son acting as our covenant representative and substitute. In the incarnation, neither the Son’s deity nor his humanity is diminished.

9. By taking on our human nature, the Son became the first man of the new creation, our great mediator and new covenant head.

As the Son incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ in his life, death, and resurrection, reverses the work of the first Adam and forges ahead as the last Adam, our great trailblazer and champion (). As a result of the incarnation, God the Son becomes perfectly qualified to meet our every need, especially our need for the forgiveness of our sin (; ; ).

10. God the Son incarnate is utterly unique and alone Lord and Savior.

Jesus is in a category all by himself. Given who God is in all of his glory and moral perfection, and what sin is before God, apart from the Son’s incarnation and his entire work for us, there is no salvation (; ). As the divine Son, he alone satisfies God’s own judgment against us and the demand for perfect obedience (). As the incarnate Son, he alone can identify with us as our representative and substitute (). Our salvation hope for the payment of our sin and our full restoration as God’s image-bearers is only accomplished in Jesus Christ our Lord (; ).

Where My List Begins

God’s Plan is Unimaginable—The incarnation of Christ, is not something a human mind could conceive, pun intended. How could we make something like this up, there is no frame of reference. The god’s impregnating human women and making god/men like Achilles or something we can make up. But how could we ever come up with the idea that the power of the Most High would come upon Mary and overshadow her and somehow impregnate her???

God’s Mercy is Incomparable—How do the man made gods treat humans? Inferior and undeserving. What do they demand of them? Perfection and complete servitude. How are they made happy? With sacrifices of appeasement. What is the human response to disobedience and rebellion, to personal offense? Anger, revenge, eradication. Not our God, He chooses to become human and live for us.

God’s Grace is undeserving—The incarnation of Jesus is miraculous in that the Creator God of the Universe deals with human rebellion and evil different than any human would. Humans would situationally either pervert justice or exact justice however they see fit, however it benefitted them. When we screw up we want mercy, when we are offended by someone we want justice. God does both. But before we get to the cross, we must fist have the cradle. If the penalty for sin is death, separation from the Holy God who put the standards in place, then each of us, all of humanity is deserving of death. As we live life, as we take an honest assessment of ourselves and how we live and just are, we prove over and over again how undeserving we are of God’s grace, but that is the definition of grace, undeserved favor. God does not need us, He has no negative quality, He extends first mercy, not getting what we deserve, and then grace, giving us what we don’t deserve, because He wants to. Because it most reflects how unique and glorious He is, but we must not forget how undeserving we are.

God’s is letting us know that “good” will never be good enough—Where do most people think they will spend eternity? They would say “heaven” I think. When asked, “Why”? Most would respond by saying something to the effect of, “Well, I’m a pretty good person, I’ve never done,” fill in the blank. That’s fine for a moralistic life, but entrance into the eternal presence of perfection and holiness??!!! How could we think such a thing? Well the incarnation of Christ lets us know, good enough will never be enough. If we could earn our way into heaven then Jesus would never have had to come and live and die. There is no such thing as good enough, that’s an insult and slap in the face of God and the lengths He went through to save us.

God is letting us know how desperate our situation is, and at the same time how loved we are—Why would God Himself come? Because there was no other way, but also because we were in such a desperate situation we needed Him to come. (Pulp Fiction, you’re sending the Wolf?) If I were the only person alive, God would still have come and lived and died for me because of His great love for each of individually. But He also would’ve had to come because of the great sin debt of each of us. In matters of love, you don’t send someone to speak or do for you, you do it yourself. Well God did, He did come, He did live, He did die, all as the greatest demonstration of His love.

By the incarnation God is letting us know that there is no other way—there are not many roads that lead to heaven. It is not by human effort, or random chance. Salvation is by Jesus and Jesus alone and the incarnation show’s us that. Again, why would God come and take on flesh to live perfectly for us and then die the death we deserved. Yes, God loves us, but there was no other way. Look at the Garden of Gethsemane, if anyone’s prayers “deserve to get answered, is it not Jesus? And yet when He asks for this cup to be taken, the answer is “NO”. Jesus had to die, meaning there was no other way for man to be made right with God.