What’s the Big Deal About the “Incarnation”?
“Infinite, and an infant. Eternal, and yet born of a woman. Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast. Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms. King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph. Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son. Oh, the wonder of Christmas.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
Sometimes around churches we hear people use the term “incarnation” especially around Christmas time.
Exactly what is “the Incarnation”, is it important and what has it got to do with me? I’m not a theologian, I’m just a regular guy.
I guess first we have to define what the Incarnation is and what it is not.
The Incarnation of the Son of God is the terminology used to describe what happened when the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, “became flesh” as he was miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary according to the Bible.
In the incarnation, the divine nature of the Son was perfectly united with human nature in one divine Person. This person, Jesus Christ, was both “truly God and truly man.”
Ok, so Jesus was born part man and part God?
No ! This is where the problem began for the early church. Right off the bat within a few years after the death of the last Apostle John, the deceivers began to crawl out from under their rocks and started propagating their distorted and corrupted versions of what the Incarnation was. These are called heresies.
A heresy is:
1. A fundamental error in religion, or an error of opinion respecting some fundamental doctrine of religion. ………….The Scriptures being the standard of faith, any opinion that is repugnant to its doctrines, is heresy.
2. Heresy, in law, is an offense against christianity, consisting in a denial of some of its essential doctrines, publicly avowed and obstinately maintained.
3. An untenable or unsound opinion or doctrine in politics. Webster’s Dictionary 1828
The word “heresy” comes from the Greek hairesis which means “choosing,” or “faction.” At first, the term heresy did not carry the negative meaning it does now. But, as the early church grew in its scope and influence throughout the Mediterranean area, various teachers proposed controversial ideas about Christ, God, salvation, and other biblical themes. It became necessary for the church to determine what was and was not true according to the Bible. Matt Slick
You see this is the rub. The church rises and falls on the fundamentals. If the fundamentals can be destroyed or weakened then the entire faith crumbles.
My favorite football coach was Vince Lombardi. Lombardi was a fanatic over fundamentals. His Packer teams of the 60′s were champions because they executed every play with perfection. His teams did not have a bunch of complicated fancy plays. They had very few plays in comparison to today’s teams, but every play had been rehearsed hundreds of times till every move, every block, every run and pass was choreographed perfectly. In practice if a block was not executed with exact precision, that player would be forced to repeat it, until under the watchful eye of “Coach”, it met his standard of perfection. ”Do it again, do it again, do it again until you get it right.” Fundamentals are the foundation which define winners and losers.
Satan is determined to destroy what God has established, and as the father of lies, his favorite tactic is to attack the fundamentals of the faith with distortion and untruth. He didn’t waste time.
Genesis 3:1-5 (NKJV) Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
“Hey Eve old girl, are sure you got the message straight”, “Maybe you misinterpreted what God said”, “Maybe God misspoke”, “You’re not really going to die, God just said that because He’s keeping the best fruit for Himself “. “I think if you eat the fruit you will have a better understanding of the situation” “Maybe you didn’t get the memo………..”
Satan always mixes truth with lies. He doesn’t deny the birth of Jesus, there were witnesses, written accounts, and His existence is acknowledged by even the most hardened skeptic, so the next best thing is to attack what the Incarnation is and what it means to us. Maybe just skew the meaning a bit. The problem is, doctrine is not like playing horseshoes. Close doesn’t get it when it comes to the person of Christ. When we stand before God and asked about Jesus, we better have the correct understanding. “I don’t know” is counted as a wrong answer and the identity of Jesus is one of the biggies.
Romans 10:10 (BBE) For with the heart man has faith to get righteousness, and with the mouth he says that Jesus is Lord to get salvation.
“Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than truth itself.” Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.2
Satan began his assault on the Incarnation from every conceivable (no pun intended) direction.
Adoptionism – God granted Jesus powers and then adopted him as a Son.
Albigenses – Reincarnation and two gods: one good and other evil.
Apollinarianism – Jesus divine will overshadowed and replaced the human.
Arianism – Jesus was a lesser, created being.
Docetism – Jesus was divine, but only seemed to be human.
Donatism – Validity of sacraments depends on character of the minister
Gnosticism – Dualism of good and bad and special knowledge for salvation.
Kenosis - Jesus gave up some divine attributes while on earth.
Modalism – God is one person in three modes.
Monarchianism – God is one person.
Monophysitism – Jesus had only one nature: divine.
Nestorianism – Jesus was two persons.
Patripassionism – The Father suffered on the cross
Pelagianism – Man is unaffected by the fall and can keep all of God’s laws.
Semi-Pelagianism – Man and God cooperate to achieve man’s salvation.
Socinianism – Denial of the Trinity. Jesus is a deified man.
Subordinationism – The Son is lesser than the Father in essence and or attributes.
If it were possible to distort and cloud the Incarnation, Satan and his hired hands tried it. They threw everything they could up against the wall to see what would stick. Thank God Jesus is the truth and he always shines through the darkness to those who open their eyes.
As a result this became a huge fight within the early church which went on for many years until orthodox Christianity developed creeds which clearly defined what the Incarnation means.
You see if people don’t get their fundamentals straight, you end up with people knocking at your door handing you a Watchtower and claiming Jesus was the created angel Michael and if you work real hard you too can be one of the 144,000. Total gnostic nonsense.
Or you get young men from the local Mormon church riding around the neighborhood on bikes telling the “great unwashed masses” how they too can become a god like the billions of other gods out there in the universe who own their own planets. Polytheism another heresy.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ~ C. S. Lewis
Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end……………….
Athanasian Creed
Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.
The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, above measure, having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell; to the end that, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety. Which office He took not unto Himself, but was thereunto called by His Father, who put all power and judgment into His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.
Early church writers on the Incarnation:
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians by St. Ignatius (35-108) In this very early document, St. Ignatius argues that the Bible teaches that the unity of God and divinity of Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho by St. Justin Martyr (103-165O In this dialogue, St. Justin Martyr argues that the Scripture prophesied Christ’s incarnation; he also demonstrates, using several arguments, why Christ is Lord.
Book III Against Marcion by Tertullian (160-220) Tertullian defends the Christian view of Christ against an early heretic Marcion. In particular, Tertullian argues that Christ really was the incarnate God.
On the Incarnation of the Word by St. Athanasius (297-373) In this classic work, St. Athanasius provides a stimulating account of the Incarnation. A pleasant feature of St. Athanasius’ account is that it does not simply defend the doctrine; it provides a theological backing for it, explaining the theological motivations of the Incarnation.
Nicene Creed (325) The Nicene is the classic statement of orthodox belief, and contains an early formulation of the doctrine of the Incarnation.
A Treatise Against Eutyches and Nestorius by St. Boethius (480-525) In this long treatise, St. Boethius argues for the orthodox view of Christ—two natures, one person. He critiques both the view of Eutyches that Christ was one person with one nature, and the view of Nestorius that Christ was two persons with two natures.
Athanasian Creed Although not actually penned by St. Athanasius, the Athanasian Creed provides a clear statement of the doctrine of the Incarnation, which was important for the Middle Ages.
Cur Deus Homo by St. Anselm (1033-1109) Translated as “Why God Became Man,” St. Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo focuses on the why of Christ’s Incarnation, not the how. St. Anselm argues that Christ became incarnate to atone for human sins, and offers the first “satisfaction” theory of atonement.
Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (1509-1564) John Calvin argues, first, that Christ had to become incarnate for the salvation of humanity, second, Christ truly had a human nature, and, third, that heresies which deny Christ’s dual-nature misconstrue the nature of the Incarnation. Written and compiled by Tim Perrine, CCEL Staff Writer http://www.ccel.org/node/7393
Athanasius probably more than any other stood on the front lines and battled for the correct understanding of what the Incarnation was and ultimately meant to us. I love this guy. He was like a “a dog with a bone”. No matter what they did to him he managed to come back to “fight the good fight”.
Athanasius got it. He understood how all Christianity stood or fell on the Incarnation.
He describes in On the Incarnation of the Word The Divine Dilemma and its Solution in the Incarnation, the great problem for mankind and the ultimate unthinkable solution.
The Problem:
The law of death, which followed from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and from it there was no escape. The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into non-existence through corruption. It was unworthy of the goodness of God that creatures made by Him should be brought to nothing through the deceit wrought upon man by the devil; and it was supremely unfitting that the work of God in mankind should disappear, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of evil spirits. As, then, the creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning? Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation, and that far more than if He had never created men at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of Himself.
The Unthinkable Solution:
The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet He Himself, as the Word, being immortal and the Father’s Son, was such as could not die. For this reason, therefore, He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all, and, itself remaining incorruptible through His indwelling, might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection. It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human brethren by the offering of the equivalent.
Wait a minute! Satan didn’t figure on this. Isn’t this against the rules! You can’t do that…………
A brilliant and revolutionary solution which no human (or angel) could fathom. God taking the initiative to come to earth and do what no human could do. It would put an end to the pride issue because no man could claim he had any part in this “work”. Two birds with one stone. Solve the sin/death thing and eliminate prideful man from claiming he is on his own merits worthy of life.
The Application:
it was necessary for God the Word and none other to become Man: “For it became Him, for Whom are all things and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” He means that the rescue of mankind from corruption was the proper part only of Him Who made them in the beginning. He points out also that the Word assumed a human body, expressly in order that He might offer it in sacrifice for other like bodies: “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself assumed the same, in order that through death He might bring to nought Him that hath the power of death, that is to say, the Devil, and might rescue those who all their lives were enslaved by the fear of death.” For by the sacrifice of His own body He did two things: He put an end to the law of death which barred our way; and He made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection. By man death has gained its power over men; by the Word made Man death has been destroyed and life raised up anew. That is what Paul says, that true servant of Christ: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Just as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,” and so forth. Now, therefore, when we die we no longer do so as men condemned to death, but as those who are even now in process of rising we await the general resurrection of all, “which in its own times He shall show,” even God Who wrought it and bestowed it on us.
Luke 2:9-14 (NKJV) And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 ”Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Goodwill toward men? Is this one of those Kumbaya, “we are the world things”, “why can’t we all get along” platitudes? I don’t think so. Dr. J. Vernon McGee captures some of what this verse means.
Our Authorized Version gives the wrong impression here. The angels did not say, “on earth peace, good will toward men.” What they actually said was, “peace to men of good will,” or “peace among men with whom He is pleased.” The angels did not make the asinine statement that many men make today which goes, “Let’s have peace, peace, peace.” My friend, “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked” (Isa. 48:22). We live in a day when we need to beat our plowshares into swords—not the other way around. We live in a wicked world. We live in a Satan–dominated world, and therefore there is no peace. There is, however, peace to men of good will. If you are one of those who has come to Christ and taken him as Savior, you can know this peace of God. Romans 5:1 states: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When Christ came the first time, this is the kind of peace He brought. At His second coming He will come as the Prince of Peace; at that time He will put down unrighteousness and rebellion in the world. He will establish peace on the earth. But until He comes again, there will be no peace on this earth.
McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary: The Gospels (Luke). electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1991 (Thru the Bible Commentary 37), S. 41
I think Hal Lindsey said it best. “Now God ain’t mad at us no more”. God Himself provided the perfect sacrifice for sin, “without spot or blemish” and He poured out all of His wrath upon Him. This leaves God legally and practically free to deal with His children in love. Cool!
1 John 2:2 (NKJV) And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
The Incarnation provided the offering. If there were no Incarnation, we would still be dead in our sins.
So what does it have to do with me?……………………………..duh !
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