Sis Melinda Song
In the book Stewarding Christmas,
author Scott Rodin pointed out that “the Incarnation is the greatest event in
the history of the human race!”
As we approach Christmas I would like us to take a closer look at
the Incarnation.
Text: John 1:1-3, 14, 18
A. WHAT IS THE
INCARNATION?
Like the Trinity, the Incarnation is an essential doctrine of the
Church. Like the Trinity, the word "Incarnation" does not occur in
the Bible. It is a word which has been coined to express the idea of Jesus
Christ coming to earth in human form.
It comes from the Latin words "in,"
which has the same meaning as our English word "in," and "carnis," which means "flesh."
Flesh is the solid part of our being, the part that we can see and touch, in
contrast to our mind, soul, and spirit.
The word is a Latin term that literally means "the act of being
made flesh." This Latin term was used in John 1:14, which speaks of Jesus
who "became flesh and dwelt among us."
Throughout human history, good men and women have been
deified. In mythology, it is not uncommon for gods take on human form and
walk among man. BUT there is nothing in fact or in fiction in the history of
man which matches the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Humanly speaking, no one anticipated God’s coming as baby born in a
humble manger. We would expect God to appear on earth like Mr Bean or
Terminator-style. Even the Jews who were looking for the Messiah did not expect
him to come in this way.
John 1:1-3, 14, NKJV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the
beginning with God.3 All things were made through Him, and without Him
nothing was made that was made.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth.
Our God is a God who speaks. Christ was called “the Word,” “the Word
of Life” and “the Word of God.” The LORD God who has spoken in times past has
revealed Himself fully in the coming of His Son.
John declares Jesus as fully God in John 1:1-3.
• “In the 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. Jesus was pre-existent before all things. He was “in the beginning
with God” (v.2) and He created all things (v. 3). Compare with Genesis 1:1.
Jesus himself declared “before Abraham was,
I am” (John 5:58)
•
“the Word was with God” - John affirms Jesus’ separate personality. An
awareness of a diversity within the Godhead.
•
“the Word was God” – Jesus was fully God. “I and the Father are one”
(John 10:30)
John declares Jesus as fully human.
•
The Word became flesh (v.14)
Galatians 4:4-7, NKJV
4 But
when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the law,
The Gnostics denied that Jesus was truly a human being. Yet the
Apostle John verified “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) by the fact that the
eyewitnesses of Jesus had heard, seen and touched Him (1 John 1:1-3).
John even went so far as to assert that these heretical Gnostics
were false prophets in the spirit of the antichrist when they denied that Jesus
had “come in the flesh” (1 John 4:1-3).
B.
UNDERSTANDING THE INCARNATION
Philippians 2:5-7, NKJV
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it
robbery to be equal with
God, 7 but made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Jesus did not give up any of his divinity in the incarnation. Christ
“was not now God minus some elements of his deity, but God plus all that he had
made his own by taking manhood to himself.” (Packer). Thus, Jesus did not give
up any of his divine attributes at the incarnation. He remained in full
possession of all of them. For if he were to ever give up any of his divine
attributes, he would cease being God.
Jesus veiled His glory as a sign of his humility. He voluntarily
makes Himself of no reputation. He sets aside His high position and waives His
divine prerogatives because He loves us. But while Christ surrenders His divine
glory, he does not surrender His divine attributes.
The Incarnation teaches that the eternal Logos (Word), the second person of the Trinity, without
diminishing His deity took to Himself a fully human nature. Specifically, this
doctrine teaches that a full and undiminished divine nature, and a full and
perfect human nature were inseparably united in the one historical and divine
person of Jesus of Nazareth.
C.
MISUNDERSTANDING THE INCARNATION
Theologians have grappled with the mind-boggling concept of our Lord
being both fully God and fully man at the same time. Millard Erickson
identified the following 6 Christological heresies in his book Christian Theology (Baker, 1985):
Heresies Regarding Christ’s Deity
•
Heresies which deny the genuineness of Christ’s deity: Ebionism
Jesus was human but possessed of unusual gifts through
God’s power that descended on him in a special way at his baptism.
•
Heresies which deny the completeness of Christ’s deity: Arianism
They believed that the Word was a created being, though
the first and highest created being. He was a demigod, an intermediate being,
not God (this is the theology of modern-day Jehovah’s Witnesses).
Heresies Regarding Christ’s Humanity
•
Heresies which deny the genuineness of Christ’s humanity: Docetism
Jesus was a hologram. He only seemed to have a physical
body and to physically die, but really he was a pure spirit and so could not
die.
•
Heresies which deny the completeness of Christ’s humanity:
Apollinarianism
Jesus had a human body and soul, but a divine mind.
Heresies which divide Christ’s
person: Nestorianism
Jesus was two “persons” – Jesus the human son of Mary
and Jesus the divine Son of God - rendering him somewhat schizophrenic.
Heresies which confuse Christ’s
natures: Eutychianism
Jesus’s nature was a hybrid of divine and human, and
therefore a third, altogether new nature.
Jesus’ apostles were Jewish monotheists; nevertheless they were
convinced that in Jesus Christ of Nazareth they had encountered none other than
God in human flesh.
The doctrine of the Incarnation is the result of the Christian
church’s sustained and critical reflection upon the overwhelming Scriptural
evidence that Jesus is indeed both God and man.
D. THE MYSTERY
OF THE INCARNATION
Like the Trinity, the incarnation is often considered to be
logically incoherent.
1 Timothy 3:16, NKJV
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was
manifested in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up in glory.
How do we understand the mystery of the Incarnation itself?
Mystery is theology's label for any divine reality that we know is
actual (because the Bible tells us so) while not knowing how it is possible
(since it outstrips our minds). We know it by faith, taking God's Word for it,
and see it as above (but not against) reason. The Trinity, God's sovereignty
over human freedom, and our union with the risen Christ in new birth are
examples. So is the incarnation of the Son of God.
Deuteronomy
29:29, NKJV
The secret things
belong to the Lord our God, but those things which
are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,
that we may do all the words of this law.
Isaiah
55:8-9, NKJV
8 “For My thoughts
are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways
My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher
than your ways,
And My thoughts than
your thoughts.
The things that are of God are far beyond the capabilities of our
finite mind to comprehend, much less explain.
We have to leave room for the mysteries of God in order for God to be
God.
E. THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE INCARNATION
1.
The Incarnation reveals the humility of our Servant King
Jesus is no typical king. Jesus didn’t come to be
served. Instead, Jesus came to serve (Mark 10:45). His humility was on full
display from the beginning to the end, from Bethlehem to Golgotha. Paul glories
in the humility of Christ 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” (Philippians 2:6–8).
2. The Incarnation fulfils prophecy
The incarnation 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 Isaiah 9:6: “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.”
Isaiah prophesied that a son is to be born with
extraordinary names that point to his deity. And taken together they point to
him being the God-man, Jesus Christ.
3.
The Incarnation is necessary for salvation
The Son of God came in the flesh in order to be the
Saviour of mankind. First, it was necessary to be born “under the law”
(Galatians 4:4). All of us have failed to fulfill God’s Law. Christ came in the
flesh, under the Law, to fulfill the Law on our behalf (Matthew 5:17; Galatians
4:5).
Secondly, the shedding of blood is necessary for the
forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). A blood sacrifice, of course, requires a
body of flesh and blood.
If Jesus were only divine, or like an angel, He would
not be flesh and blood. Only because He took on human flesh could He be the
sacrifice to atone for our sins (Matt. 26:28, Acts 2:38).
An early church father, Gregory of Nazianzus, said,
“That which was not assumed is not healed.” By that, he meant that had Jesus
not taken on (assumed) human flesh, our sins would not be forgiven (healed).
Because Jesus did take on human flesh, lived a sinless life (Heb. 4:15) and
offered His sinless life on the cross of Calvary, He can provide forgiveness,
atonement, salvation and eternal life for us (Rom. 5:1-21).
Without the Incarnation, Christ could not really die,
and the cross is meaningless.
4.
The Incarnation shows the love of God for us
The Incarnation reveals a God who loves us so much that
He came to earth and took on a human form on our behalf, ultimately to give up
His life to pay for our sins and offer us eternal life with Him (John 3:16).
5.
The Incarnation reveals a God who is both transcendent and immanent
He is different from us, free of our frailties and, at
the same time, like us, deeply aware of our struggles, attuned to our needs, in
our skin.
A god who is only transcendent is incapable of loving
us. A god who is just like us may care,
but is incapable of delivering us. A god who is both transcendent and immanent
is the only kind of God who can help us: different enough to be capable of
saving us — enough like us to understand our needs. Both are necessary to the Christian message.
ILLUSTRATION: There was once a man who didn't believe in the
Incarnation and was skeptical about God. He and his family lived in a farm
community. His wife was a devout believer and diligently raised her children in
her faith. He sometimes mocked her faith and her religious observances.
One snowy morning around Christmas time, she was taking the children
to a church service. She pleaded with him to come, but he firmly refused. He
ridiculed the idea of the incarnation of Christ and dismissed it as nonsense.
"Why would God lower himself and become a human like us?! It's such a
ridiculous story!" He said. So she and the children left to worship while
he stayed home.
After they left, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a
blizzard. As he looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He
sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.
Then he heard a loud thump, something hitting against the window.
Another thump. He looked through the window but couldn't see. So, he ventured
outside. In the field near his house he saw a strange sight: a flock of geese!
They had apparently been flying south to a warmer climate when they got caught
in the snow storm. The snow had become too blinding and the wind too violent
for the geese to fly or see their way. They were lost and stranded on his farm,
with no food or shelter. They fluttered their wings and flew around the field
in circles blindly and aimlessly.
The man had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He thought
to himself, "The barn would be a great place for them to stay! It's warm
and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm." He
tried many things to get them to go into the barn. In frustration, he went over
and tried to run after them and chase them toward the barn. They only got
scared and scattered into every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he
did could get them to go into the barn where there was warmth, safety, and
shelter.
Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they
follow me! Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the
storm! How can I possibly get them into the one place to save them!" He
thought for a moment and realized that they just won't follow a human. He said
to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The only way would be for me to
become like those geese. If only I could become like one of them! Then I could
save them! They would follow me and I would lead them to safety."
Then he began to understand the Incarnation... We are like the geese
-- blind, gone astray, perishing. God became like us so He could show us the
way and make a way available to save us. That is the meaning of the
Incarnation, he realized in his heart.
Jesus is Emmanuel —
God with us.
• It means that God is on our side.
He is not a distant deity, judging us from heaven. He made himself weak and
vulnerable. He is infinitely above us, but he came alongside us.
• It means that God identifies with and understands us. The Creator entered into His own creation and participated in
humanity along with the rest of us. Jesus experienced the challenges of growing
up (Luke 2:42) and of being tempted (Matt. 4:1-11, Heb. 4:15). He knows what it
means to be hungry (Matt. 4:2, 21:18; Mark 11:13; Luke 4:2) and thirsty (John
4:7, 19:28).
The author of Hebrews writes, “Since therefore the
children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same
things. . . . For because he himself has suffered when tempted,
He is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:14).
Hebrews 4:15 says, "We do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been
tempted in every way just as we are – yet was without sin."
E. THERE IS A
MAN IN HEAVEN TODAY
One of the lesser-known biblical doctrines concerns Jesus as a man
right now. Jesus did remain a man, is still a man today, and will remain a man
for eternity.
Many do not know that right now in heaven Jesus is a man though
in a glorified body. He forever joined our humanity to his divinity and
for all eternity will be fully God and fully man.
1 Timothy 2:5, NKJV
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and
men, the Man Christ Jesus,
In Philippians 3:20–21, Paul writes, “Our citizenship is in heaven,
and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our
lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to
subject all things to himself.”
Jesus didn’t shed his human skin. He still has a body—a “glorious
body,” a perfected human body, a body like we haven’t yet experienced but one
day will experience when he transforms us.
F. CONCLUSION
It was a quiet Saturday morning on March 5, 1994 at the Salt Lake
City Library as eighty people quietly watched a Tibetan sand-painting ceremony.
Then suddenly, a bearded man carrying a handgun and a bomb leapt onto a
table.
"Don't anybody leave! Don't anyone go anywhere! I've got a
bomb!" he shouted, waving his .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun.
Stunned and confused, people began screaming.
The gunman, Clifford Draper, then began clearing the room. Hearing
the commotion in the library room next door was Lt. Lloyd Prescott, who was
teaching a class for police officers. As he stepped into the hallway he noticed
a gunman herding 18 hostages into a room. With a flash of insight, Prescott,
who was dressed in street clothes, joined the group as the nineteenth
hostage.
There was a five-hour standoff. Then the gunman began making
preparations to execute one of the hostages.
At this, Prescott sprang to his feet, identified himself and
shouted, "Everybody hit the floor!" The plainclothes officer then
fired five shots at the gunman and subdued him.
One of the hostages was Michael Greer, who said, "I do believe
Lloyd Prescott is a hero. Part of being a hero was his absolute humanity."
God dressed himself in street clothes of this world and joined us
who are being held hostage to sin. On the cross, Jesus Christ defeated Satan
and freed us from the power of sin. Are you grateful for Christ's becoming a
man and dying for your sins? Today in prayer, praise Christ for His selfless,
heroic act and freeing us from sin's power.
Jesus is our Emmanuel. He is God with us. Let us rejoice and know
that He walks alongside us in all our circumstances.
Many thanks to Sis Melinda for her sermon notes.
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