Pathen
thu kholgiljep na dia Theologian hokihilna
Why
God Became Man
The
Incarnation of Jesus Christ
The
word incarnation does not occur in the Bible. It is derived from the
Latin in and caro (flesh), meaning clothed in
flesh, the act of assuming flesh. Its only use in theology is in reference to
that gracious, voluntary act of the Son of God in which He assumed a human
body. In Christian doctrine the Incarnation, briefly stated, is that the Lord
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became a man. It is one of the greatest
events to occur in the history of the universe. It is without parallel.
The
Apostle Paul wrote, ‘’And without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh . . . ” (I Timothy
3:16).
Confessedly,
by common consent the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is outside the range of human
natural comprehension and apprehension. It can be made known only by Divine
revelation in the Holy Scriptures, and to those only who are illumined by the
Holy Spirit. It is a truth of the greatest magnitude that God in the Person of His
Son should identify Himself completely with the human race. And yet He did, for
reasons He set forth clearly in His Word.
Incarnation
and the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ
Before
we examine those reasons, it would be well at the outset to distinguish between
the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth of our Lord, two truths sometimes confused
by students of Scripture.
1.The
Incarnation of the Son of God is the fact of God becoming Man;
2.the
Virgin Birth is the method by which God the Son became Man.
These
two truths, while distinct and different, are closely related to each other and
stand in support of each other.
If
Jesus Christ was not virgin born, then He was not God in the flesh and was
therefore only a man possessing the same sinful nature that every fallen child
of Adam possesses.
The fact of
the Incarnation lies in the ever-existing One putting aside His eternal glory
to become a man. The method of the Incarnation is the manner by
which He chose to come, namely, the miraculous conception in the womb of a
virgin.
A
noteworthy passage pertinent to the Divine purpose in the Incarnation is
recorded in the Gospel according to John— ‘’And the Word was made 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’’ (John 1 :14).
Cerinthus,
a representative of the system which arose in the early church under the name
of Docetism, claimed that our Lord had only an apparent human body. But the
statement, ‘’the Word became flesh,” indicates that He had a real body.
John
1:14 cannot
be fully appreciated apart from verse one: ‘’In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word became
flesh.”
He
who was one with the Father from all eternity became Man, taking upon Him a
human body.
He ’’was
with God’’ (vs. 1); He ’’became flesh” (vs. 14). He ”was
with God”’ (vs. 1); He ’’dwelt among us’’ (vs. 14).
From the infinite position of eternal Godhood
to the finite limitations of manhood! Unthinkable but true!
Paul
gives another significant passage on the Incarnation in his Galatian Epistle:
‘’But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons’’ (Galatians 4:4, 5). In these verses
Paul establishes the fact of the Incarnation— “ God sent forth His Son, made of
a woman.”
God
sending His Son presupposes that God had a Son. Christ was the Son in His
eternal relationship with the Father, not because He was born of Mary. Since a
son shares the nature of his father, so our Lord shares the Godhead coequally
with His Father. Yes, “God sent forth His Son,” from His throne on high, from
His position of heavenly glory. God did not send one forth who, in His birth,
became His Son, but He sent One who, through all eternity, was His Son.
Centuries
before Christ was born, the Prophet Isaiah wrote of Him, ‘’For unto us a Child
is born, unto us a Son is given . . . ’’ (Isaiah 9:6).
The
Son was given in eternity past before we knew Him. His human birth was merely
the method of coming to us.
Again,
Paul records the following noteworthy statement in the Epistle to the
Philippians: ‘’Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God also bath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every
name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’’ (Philippians
2:5-1 1).
Before
His Incarnation Jesus Christ was ’’in the form of God’’ (vs.
6). From the beginning He had the nature of God, He existed (or subsisted) as
God, and that essential Deity which He once was could never cease to be. If He
seems Divine, it is only because He is Divine. He is God.
He ’’thought
it not robbery to be equal with God’’ (vs. 6). The eternal Son did not
consider it a thing to be seized unlawfully to be equal with the Father.
Equality with God was not something He retained by force or by farce. He
possessed it in eternity past and no power could take it from Him. But in the
Incarnation He laid aside, not His possession of Deity, but His position in and
expression of the heavenly glory.
One
of the purposes of the Philippian epistle was to check the rising tide of
dissension and strife growing out of Christians thinking more highly of
themselves than they ought to think. Being a general letter, it exposes no
false doctrines but does enunciate our Lord Jesus Christ as the believer’s
pattern in humiliation, self-denial, and loving service for others. This is
evident in the seven downward steps of the Saviour’s renunciation of Himself.
(1)
‘’He made Himself of no reputation.” God emptied Himself!
He did not lose His Deity when He became Man, for God is immutable and
therefore cannot cease to be God. He always was God the Son; He continued to be
God the Son in His earthly sojourn as Man; He is God the Son in heaven today as
He will remain throughout eternity. He is ‘’Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
(2)
‘’He took upon Him the form of a servant.’’ His was a
voluntary act of amazing grace, the almighty Sovereign stooping to become
earth’s lowly Servant. Instead of expressing Himself as one deserving to be
served, He revealed Himself as one desiring to serve others. He did not boast
His eternal glory and right to be ministered to, but instead evinced His humility
and desire to minister. ‘’The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many’’ (Matthew 20:28).
(3)
“He was made in the likeness of men.” This phrase expresses
the full reality of His humanity. He participated in the same flesh and blood
as man (Hebrews 2:14). Although He entered into a new state of being,
His becoming Man did not exclude His possession of Deity, for He was and is
today a Person who is both God and Man, Divine and human, perfect in His Deity
and perfect in His humanity.
(4)
‘’And being found in fashion as a man.” When He came into the
world, Christ associated with His contemporaries and did not hold Himself
aloof. Thus He manifested to all that He was a real Man. One obvious distinction
marked our Lord’s humanity; His perfection and sinlessness. As a Man He was
made under the law, yet He never violated the law. As a Man He was tempted in
all three points in which we are tempted (I John 2:16), yet His
temptation was apart from any thought, word, or act of sin.
(5)
“He humbled Himself.” The world has never witnessed a more
genuine act of self-humbling. So completely did our Lord humble Himself that He
surrendered His will to the will of His Father in heaven. His desire was to do
the will of the Father, therefore He could testify, “I do always those things
that please Him” (John 8:29). It was humiliation for the eternal Son of
God to become flesh in a stable, and then to dwell in a humble home in
subjection to a human parent. God was ‘’sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin’’ (Romans 8:30). Only eternity will reveal the
depth of meaning for Him and for us found in those words, “ He humbled
Himself.”
(6)
“He became obedient unto death.” Remarkable indeed!
Here the God-man dies. Did He die as God, or did He die as Man? He died as the
God-Man. The first Adam’s obedience would have been unto life, but because he
disobeyed unto death, the last Adam must now obey unto death in order that He
might deliver the first Adam’s posterity ‘’out of death into life’’ (John
5:24 R.V.). ‘’For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). To subject Himself to the cruel death
of a criminal on the cross was a necessary part of God’s plan of salvation for
men, and to such a death our Lord voluntarily submitted. Implicit obedience!
(7)
‘’ . . . even the death of the cross.” Our
Lord died as no other person died or ever will die. Other men had died on
crosses, but this Man, the eternal Son of God, voluntarily and willingly died
the kind of death meted out to criminals, even the death upon a cross. His own
countrymen considered crucifixion the worst kind of disgrace. In their law it
was written, “For he that is hanged is accursed of God’’ (Deuteronomy 21:23;
cf. Galatians 3:13). Not only did our Lord die, but He died bearing
the burden of the worst of criminals and the guiltiest of sinners. Down He came
from heaven’s glory to earth’s sin and shame through His Incarnation.
The
purposes underlying this phenomenal occurrence can be summed up in seven
points.
