Sunday 4 December 2016

The Word Made Flesh

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. He was in the beginning with God.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
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
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with Godbut 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
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“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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