Incarnation of Christ

I Timothy 3:16

Incarnation, although not a Biblical term but definitely a Biblical truth, is the historic Christian doctrine that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Second Person of the Trinity...that He has, in a set time, taken upon himself a complete human nature by being born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. The doctrine teaches that through the work of the Holy Spirit, God the Son has become fully human in time in order to die for the sins of humanity and defeat death by the power of His resurrection. Why do we spend this month examining the incarnation of Jesus? Not just because it is the Advent season but, more so, because of what John wrote in II John verse 7, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

This short poetic paragraph is a concise summary of the gospel! In it is confirmed the humanity and deity of Christ, “As man, He fulfilled human duties; as Word, He [made alive] all things; as Son, He was with the Father.” Athanasius in his On the Incarnation of the Word of God said, “The Eternal Word of God, therefore, who had originally made man after God’s image, came down, and, as Man, fulfilled the law of death, while, as God, He implanted in human nature an antidote to the corruption, and by His resurrection afforded the promise of life eternal.”-

Since we are to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19), let us sing this is a great hymn of confession. Our text contains part of an early church hymn. We know it to be a hymn by its uniformity (start with 3rd person singular), rhythm, parallelism (flesh and Spirit; angels and nations; world and glory/earth and heaven). These six lines are a concise summary of the truth of the gospel. This hymn was sung in the early church, “By common confession…” Here we find a unity/agreement in the earliest churches. In Paul’s day, they said the same thing about Jesus. In this song, we find the declaration regarding the person of Jesus Christ by the church in worship. The early church was confessional--statement of faith. However, it didn’t take long for heresies to arrive. In the first 300 years after the church was formed, Irenaeus believed that Jesus was not equal to the Father. Origen believed that Jesus is the image of God but not truly God. Arius would come on the scene to say, Jesus was merely human although of greater spiritual refinement and higher status than other human beings. In 325 AD, the Nicene Council affirmed the full divinity of the God-man, Jesus, and saved the church from the theological imbalances and heresies of Greek philosophy and a Hellenistic worldview. The council determined the trinity: God fully present in Jesus and that the reality of God’s love for mankind is demonstrated in Jesus. Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, said that only one who was fully human could atone for human sin; only one who was fully divine could have the power to save us--"Those who maintain 'There was a time when the Son was not' rob God of his Word, like plunderers." Our common confession today is Jesus Christ is perfect God and perfect man dwelling together in one body “...in Whose person is effected the reconciliation between God and man (1963).

This song reveals the heart of the gospel, “...the mystery of godliness…” Godliness” refers to the truth of salvation and righteousness found in Christ which produces holiness in the believer. So what is the mystery? In the ancient world, a musterion/mystery was any religious cult that demanded secrecy from its members who undergo sacred rites for membership. However, the New Testament draws from the book of Daniel in its use of this word mystery--it is a revealed secret, something that could not be understood apart from God’s revealing and explaining. Jesus used the word only once in Matthew 13 and then only to say He had revealed and explained the mysteries or secrets of the kingdom to His disciples. Paul uses the word 21 times in his writings and each time says the secret is already known for the secret has been revealed in Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation of true and perfect righteousness. Yes, every line of this hymn contains that which is a mystery to the world but to we who believe the mystery/secret has been revealed in our faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let’s examine the first line.

The first line: “He who was revealed in the flesh...” Revealed means to “make visible”. Philippians 2:6-7 says it well, “...although He existed in the form [exactly the same] of God…[He} emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” While Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels imply the incarnation of Jesus the Christ/Messiah, John states it explicitly (1:1-4, 14--TURN TO, AND READ)…

HE WAS REVEALED IN THE FLESH BECAUSE, The Word became flesh. Because of this, He makes God personal. Jesus said, (14:9), “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” Jesus is fully God in the flesh and, therefore, not a transcendent representation of God. Jesus, God in the flesh is fully human: He grew as a child (Luke 2:40, “The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.’); He experienced fatigue (John 4:6, “So, Jesus being wearied from His journey, was sitting...by the well.”); His body required sleep (Matt. 8:24, He slept during a storm), food (fig tree in Matthew 21:18); water (John 19:28, “I am thirsty”). His emotions: joy (John 15:11, to His disciples, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”); sorrow (Matt. 26:37, grieved and distressed as He prayed at Gethsemane); compassion (Matt. 9:36, Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”); love (John 15:9, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you…”); was moved to righteous indignation (Mark 3:5, “[Jesus] looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…”).

He Dwelt among us in the flesh

to explain God (John 1:17-18, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”)…

to seek the lost (Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”) (I John 3:5, “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin...)

He revealed the completeness of grace and truth. He was full of it! All religions and philosophies which deny the reality or significance of the material, the fleshly, the earth-bound, are themselves denied. Jesus was not bound by the legalism and traditional rituals loosely based on the Old Testament law and devised by the Jews. Nor did He teach His disciples to be bound. They didn’t ritually wash their hands. They ate with sinners and tax collectors. They learned to interact with “strangers”. Jesus requires His disciples to look to grace and truth found in faith. “For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached [the Good News of Jesus Christ] to save those who believe.” (I Corinthians 1:21) Today