The Incarnation
Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to the first chapter of the Gospel of John. We will be reading verses 14 through 18, but our focus will be upon verse 14. These verses deal with the incarnation -- that wonderful miracle where the divine person of the Son of God was joined to a human nature.
It is timely that we are addressing this subject in the middle of the Holiday season. The Thanksgiving holiday is past, and Christmas and New Years Day are just a few weeks away. Whether or not you celebrate these holidays, I believe that everyone feels the sentimental weight of them. For this is a time when many families travel across the country to be together. Our minds are filled with sentimental thoughts and treasured memories of relatives and friends. These thoughts can make the season joyful, or sad, or a mixture of both.
For those who have recently lost loved ones, the season can be overwhelming. The loneliness and sorrow can be paralyzing. Wanting to reach out to grieving people, I have asked myself: What can I offer people this time of year to help them to stand firm in their faith as they travel through the Valley of Bereavement. I offer this – the incarnation of the Son of God – the one who left heaven's glory, lived as a man, bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows.
When people preach about the incarnation, they tend to approach the subject from one of two angles. They either emphasize its sweetness or they emphasize its truthfulness. Either emphasis is legitimate, for the story is both sweet and true. This morning I will emphasize the truthfulness of the story, and I will do this for two reasons:
The truth I would maintain this morning is that in the incarnation, Jesus is fully God and fully Man. Remember, God is three persons but one essence. Another word for essence is nature. Before the incarnation, Jesus was one person with the nature of God. After the incarnation, Jesus was one person with two natures: the nature of God and the nature of man.
This relationship is set forth in the 1689 Baptist Confession as follows:
The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things He hath made, 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 Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures 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.
Looking now at John 1:14-18, we read:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.' For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 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.
Throughout the history of the church, people have struggled to understand what kind of being Jesus was after the incarnation. Three questions stand out, and those three questions will be the three points of this sermon:
Was Jesus Fully Human?
I believe, and our confession affirms, that scripture clearly teaches that in the incarnation Jesus was fully human and fully God. He was both. First, we will look at the testimony of scripture about the humanity of Jesus.
Human birth -- supernatural conception.
The testimony of scripture.
The humanity of Jesus is partly seen through the way He was born. He developed in His mother's womb and was born in the normal way. However, the way Jesus was conceived was very different -- he was born of a virgin. This virgin birth is clearly set forth in scripture, for example, Luke 1:34-35, where the angel, Gabriel, tells Mary she is about to have a son:
Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
The necessity of the virgin birth.
The virgin birth was necessary for at least two reasons:
As sinful humans, we inherit sin in two ways: we inherit the guilt of Adam, and we inherit the sinful inclinations of Adam. The virgin birth provided for Jesus to have a human nature without Adam's guilt and without Adam's sinful inclinations.
Human weaknesses and limitations.
The humanity of Jesus is also seen through His personal experience of human frailty. Our text says, "and the word was made flesh" not "and the word was made man." By choosing the word for flesh, John is saying that Jesus experienced humanity in its weaknesses and limitations.
Human body and mind.
First, just like us, Jesus had a human body and a human mind. For we read in Luke 2:7, "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." He started out short, and He became tall. He started out weak, and He became strong. He started out reasoning like a child, and He learned to reason like an adult.
Human soul and emotions.
Just like us, Jesus also had a soul and experienced human emotions. This had been predicted in Isaiah 53:3 where it says He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Luke 22:44 graphically described the emotional dread Jesus experienced before His crucifixion: "And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground."
Human appearance.
Also, just like us, Jesus had a human appearance. To other people, Jesus looked like just another man. Isaiah 53:2 predicted the commonness of His appearance, "He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him." So it was that when Jesus ministered in His hometown, people were very offended that He was no longer just "one of the boys." In Matthew 13:54-57 we read:
He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."
Human but sinless.
I have just rehearsed aspects of Jesus' humanity in which He was like us. Now I come to an aspect of Jesus' humanity in which He was not like us at all -- Jesus was sinless. His disciples, people like John, knew this, and well they should have known, because they lived with Him. Consider John 1:14 again. Not only did the Word become flesh, but also in John's words the Word "dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."
The word dwelt literally means tabernacled. It looks back to the way God chose to meet with His people when they were in the wilderness, and it looks forward to the way God will dwell with His people again in the New Jerusalem. It is used four times in the book of Revelation. For example, when we read the word dwell in Revelation 21:3-4, it is the same base word that is used in John 1:14 for dwelt.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell [tabernacle] among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."
The passage from Revelation refers to the future. However, when John said that Jesus "dwelt among us," he was not speaking of the distant past or the distant future, he was speaking of the recent past, his own lifetime, in which He lived and walked with Jesus. And how did He describe this Jesus whom He knew so well: "and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."
What would people see if they moved in with us and lived with us for three years? I know what they would see if they lived with me for even one day. They would see my faults. What did they find with Jesus -- the beauty of His perfect compassion and the brightness of His perfect obedience to the law.
Jesus was aware of His sinlessness. In John 8:46 where Jesus confronted the Pharisees, He asks, "Which one of you convicts Me of sin?"
Why was Jesus sinless? It was not because He had an easy road to travel. Indeed, the temptations Jesus experienced were thorough. In Hebrews 4:14-16 we read:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus was tempted in all things common to man. This is one of the places where the truth of the incarnation is especially sweet. Your personal struggles may be a mystery to your family, your church, and your loved ones. Even your closest friends might not understand. But there is one who does understand -- Jesus. Because of what He suffered in His time on earth, He can sympathize, and He can help.
Human by necessity.
To be our sympathetic high priest.
Indeed, this is one of the reasons Jesus' full humanity was necessary -- so he could sympathize as a high priest. Of course, in His deity Jesus already had access to all facts about human suffering. He even had access to knowledge of the special circumstances of each individual. But Jesus chose not only to know about suffering but also to experience it Himself. To draw near to another person in order to understand how they are suffering is a wonderful thing, but to share their experience of suffering: to endure their pain, to feel their losses, to know their sorrows -- this is how the Savior has loved you, and this is how He reaches out to you, even now.
To be our representative in perfect obedience.
Another reason Jesus' full humanity was necessary was for representative obedience. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was our representative head. As a result, when Adam fell, we fell with Him. The guilt we all share through Adam is called Original Sin. This seems terribly unfair, unless you stop to consider that Jesus is our new representative head. Just as we all died through Adam, we can all live through Christ. Romans 5:18-19 explains this:
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
To be our substitute sacrifice.
Another reason Jesus' full humanity was necessary was so He could be a substitute sacrifice to God on our behalf. We find this in Hebrews 2:14-15:
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
To be our mediator.
Another reason Jesus' full humanity was necessary was so He could be the mediator between God and man. We find this in Hebrews 2:17-18:
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
The humanity of the mediator is emphasized also in 1 Timothy 2:5 where we read, "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
To be our example.
Another reason Jesus' full humanity was necessary was so He could be a pattern and example for the way we should live. The recent "What Would Jesus Do?" movement was somewhat opposed by the Reformed community. People objected that some of the things Jesus did were done out of divine authority, an authority we do not have. They also objected that the ethical pattern we are to follow comes primarily from the Ten Commandments, not from the imitation of Jesus. Another objection was that the author was part of the Social Gospel movement, which conveyed Jesus more as an example than as the savior of mankind. These were valid objections. Nevertheless, scripture does clearly teach us to follow Christ's example. Here are a few verses that do that:
In His Steps, that was the original name of Sheldon's book that was later changed to What Would Jesus Do?
Now, I think it is a matter of common sense that following in Jesus' steps does not mean exerting divine prerogatives. Also, we know that the law, as conveyed in the Ten Commandments and as clarified in the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, remains as our ethical guide. Yet, there certainly is a danger that people might look only at the gospels and ignore the Ten Commandments, especially when so many believe that the Ten Commandments no longer apply. As a safeguard, let us remember that Jesus did not abolish the Ten Commandments: He fulfilled them; He clarified them; and He corrected erroneous interpretations. We should follow in Jesus' example of compassion and humility. But we should do even more. We should follow in the steps of His perfect obedience as described in John 14:31, "So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me."
Human forever.
Those are some of the reasons the incarnation was necessary. Now we move on to the permanence of the incarnation. This was not a short-term commitment. Jesus will forever be the God-man. When he ascended to heaven, He did not leave His humanity behind. For example, He is still able to eat. When He instituted the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26:29 he said, " I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." In addition, He still has a body. We see this in Acts 7:55. While Stephen was being stoned to death "being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Summary.
From all these scriptures, taken together, it is clear that in the incarnation Jesus was fully human. But He was more than that. He was also fully God.
Was Jesus Fully God?
Having considered the testimony of scripture about the humanity of Jesus, we will now consider the testimony of scripture about the deity of Jesus.
Jesus was addressed as God.
Support for Jesus' full divinity.
One evidence that Jesus was fully God is that He was called God.
The title Theos. The Greek word theos means God. It is usually reserved for God the Father. However, we find several places where it is also used of Jesus. Here are some representative verses. To bring this out, when I read these verses, wherever the English word God is translated from a Greek word where the base word is theos, I am going to say theos.
The title Son of Man. Another evidence for the deity of Jesus is the way He referred to Himself. He called Himself the Son of Man. Although this is a common form of address in most of scripture, when Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man, this was a claim to deity. The title, Son of Man, ties back to Daniel 7:13-14:
I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Especially notable is Jesus' pre-crucifixion testimony before the High Priest in Matthew 26:62-66:
The high priest stood up and said to Him, "Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?" But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!"
There was no doubt in their minds that when Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, He was claiming to be God.
Jesus possessed divine powers.
Another evidence for the deity of Jesus was His divine nature. Jesus possessed powers that were not part of human nature. In John 2:1-11, Jesus changed water into wine. In Matthew 14:15-21, Jesus took two fishes and five loaves and created enough food to feed five thousand people. In Matthew 8:27, Jesus stopped a storm.
Jesus received worship.
Another evidence for the deity of Jesus was the way He allowed Himself to be worshipped. In the ninth chapter of John Jesus healed a blind man. When the man defended the character of Jesus before the Pharisees, they put the man out of the temple. Taking up the story at John 9:35 we read:
Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "Who is He, Lord , that I may believe in Him?" Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him.
Summary.
In summary, we know that Jesus was fully God because:
Opposition to Jesus' full deity.
Having affirmed that Jesus was fully God, I would now like to respond to one of the arguments against His full deity. Some hold to the kenosis theory in which they believe that in the incarnation the nature of Jesus was emptied of some of its powers. To support this view, sometimes they appeal to the limited knowledge of Jesus. Their argument goes like this:
This is a reasonable question. In fact, if we were discussing the fullness of the deity of Christ over lunch, I would expect this question to come up. In responding, it is important to remember the underlying reason for everything Jesus did -- it was to please the Father.
Jesus deliberately restrained Himself from exercising some divine prerogatives in order to obey His Father and to accomplish His mission.
In His nature, He had the same divine powers as the Father and the Holy Spirit. But having divine powers and using divine powers are two different things. To be fully God, He merely had to have these powers -- He did not have to always use them. In fact, because of Jesus' unique mission, it was not always appropriate for Him to use His divine abilities. But sometimes it was appropriate. For example, He raised Lazarus from the dead. Yet, even there He was acting according to His Father's will. For we read in John 11:41, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." So when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead He had advance permission to use His own divine powers.
But for the most part, Jesus mission was to live a life of perfect obedience in His human nature. Where the first Adam failed, Jesus was the second Adam who succeeded. Jesus lived in dependence upon the leadership of the Holy Spirit, just as we are supposed to live. Any inappropriate use of divine powers would have defeated Jesus' mission. In fact, the first recorded temptation of Jesus was to use His divine powers inappropriately, as we read in Matthew 4:1-4:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.' "
The devil tempted Jesus to use His divine power to feed Himself. But Jesus was learning, in this harsh training of His human nature, to rely upon God. So it is that we read in Hebrews 5:8, "Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."
Some prefer to say that Jesus' divine nature was intact but veiled. I can agree that it was veiled to a point. But if it was veiled, I believe it was veiled because Jesus, in obedience to the Father, refused to pull back the curtain. It took extraordinary discipline for Jesus to leave the veil in place. And remember, this is where Adam and Eve failed -- they were willing to disobey God in order to have a different kind of knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil. See Genesis 3:5.
In summary, although Jesus was fully God, because of His mission and purpose, He was willing, in obedience to the Father, to restrict His use of divine powers and to limit His access to some facts about the future, such as when He would return.
How Could Jesus be both God and Man?
This leaves us with the last question: How could Jesus be both God and man?
However we answer this question, it must be done in a way that affirms the following:
What does it mean to say Jesus is a person? Jesus did not become a person in the incarnation. He was already a person. Remember, God is three persons, and one essence -- one nature.
What is the difference between a person and a nature? My favorite answer is this:
It is the personality that wills, that seeks relationships with other people, and that is self-aware. It is the nature that determines what the personality wants, seeks, knows, is able to do, and does.
Sam Waldron's comments on this subject are helpful:
In attempting to resolve the mystery of Christ's person human wisdom has invented many counterfeit teachings. Docetism denied that Christ was a real man.Divine truth surpasses all such human wisdom. The attempts to explain the mystery, to resolve the tension, have always resulted in heresy. The creeds of the church in which such heresy has been rejected are simply fences built by the church to prevent the desecration of this holy mystery by proud human reason. One great proof of the divine origin of Christianity is that its doctrines transcend human reason. Yet, though such doctrines transcend human reason, only this doctrine of the person of Christ can satisfy human need. Only one who is both God and man could be a substitute for men and in a few short hours on the cross satisfy the wrath of an infinite God. (A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, page 131)
- Arianism denied that Christ was really God.
- Apollinarianism denied that Christ had a human soul, teaching that the Word took the place of the human soul.
- Nestorianism denied that Christ was only one person, teaching that since he possessed two natures, he must be two persons.
- Eutychianism, the monophysite heresy, denied that Christ had two distinct natures, teaching that he had only one nature composed of a mixture of deity and humanity.
Waldron speaks of a fence. The ancient creeds do not explain everything, but they do provide a helpful fence for avoiding heresy. If you stay within this fence, you will not be swayed by most cults past and present.
Theologically, this is where we have to leave it. Affirm what the Bible clearly teaches. Do not deny anything the Bible teaches in favor of a man-made theory.
But there is more than abstract theology to consider when we think about the incarnation. There is a real, living person who left heavens glory to enter into our world and to be a part of our lives. In His book, The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer said this about the divine personality:
In making himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion. (page 13-14)
Tozer continues by pointing out that the new birth is not where knowing God ends; it is where knowing God begins:
The moment the spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the hearts happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. (page 14)
Then, using David and Paul as examples Tozer writes:
David's life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of his life to be his burning desire after Christ. (page 16)
Therein, lies my encouragement to you this season. With all your heart, seek to know the person of Jesus Christ in all of His grace, all of His truth, and all of His fullness. When life hurts you need a place to lean. Learn to lean hard into the Savior.
That is what I had to learn the first Christmas after our son Stephen died. Had he survived, today would have been his twentieth birthday. It's been almost seven years since we buried him. Time helps -- it is easier to go through the holiday seasons now. But that first Christmas after his death was especially difficult. I learned a lot about grief in those early years. I learned that you cannot keep sadness from coming, but you can control how you respond to it. You cannot stop the flood of emotion, but you can control where it carries you. You can let it drive you into despair, or you can let it drive you more fervently towards the One who comes to you as a person, a person who gives hope, love, compassion, and a reason to keep on living.
Keeping a Christ-centered focus is hard work. It is neither easy nor natural. But it will be worth the effort. For we read in Isaiah 40:
He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.
For our closing prayer, I would like to read a prayer from Tozer:
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' name. Amen. (page 20)
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