Immanuel God with us
“It is necessary that the self-same Person who is to make this satisfaction (for humanity’s sin) be perfect God and perfect man, since He cannot make it unless He be really God, and He ought not to make it unless He be really man” – Anselm 1033-1109 A.D.
Why is this “the most wonderful time of the year?” Yes presents are awesome, yes spending time with our family is priceless, but Christians celebrate because now is when we acknowledge the birth of our Savior. We know the songs, we know the traditions, and today we are going to look at the doctrine that makes Christmas a time for worshiping in Spirit and Truth. This doctrine is called the “Incarnation.” It may be difficult to understand at first, but is essential to our worship of God.
When we look into Christmas and see images of the baby in the manger what we see (or who we see) needs to turn our affections towards Christ and the salvation He provides in His life, death, and resurrection.
One of the distinct messages of Christianity is that Jesus is God! Many other religions may look good on paper and even have the ability to provide life-change, but true Christianity gives a clear definition of God’s Self-revelation. Even though Christmas focuses on the pregnancy of the virgin Mary and the birth of her son Jesus, for the purpose of this blog we are going to focus on how the Apostles describe who Jesus is.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The opening of John’s gospel gives us a clear explanation that whoever this “Word” is, this “Word” is God. Our attention should be grabbed and the first question that should come to mind is, “who is the Word?” John quickly comes to the answer our inquiry in verse 14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Since we know that John’s gospel is a brief biography on the life and teachings of Jesus, John is saying Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God in the flesh.
John isn’t the only one of Jesus’ followers who said that Jesus was God in the flesh.
Paul says while writing to Titus -
Titus 2:13 “while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The context of this passage is how the followers of Christ are waiting for the second coming of Jesus, their “great God and Savior”.
There are many other passages in the Epistles that point to Jesus being very God of very God (Romans 9:5, Hebrews 1:3,8,10, and 2Peter 1:1 just to name a few), but let’s look at a passage where Jesus claims that He is God in flesh and His listeners understand this claim.
John 10:25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
33 “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus responds to a dispute by saying His sheep know His voice and that they shall never perish. Then in verse 30 Jesus drops the bomb “I and the Father are one.” This means to believe in Jesus (be one of His sheep) we have to accept His claim that He is God. The Jews in this passage obviously did not believe in Him because their intention was to stone Jesus for “blasphemy.” If we call ourselves Christians we need to accept Christ’s claim that He is God, and worship Him as God (John 20:28 the disciple Thomas worships Jesus as God).
This is not where the doctrine of the Incarnation ends. The Incarnation deals with God coming in the flesh. Now that we’ve seen that Jesus claims to be God and the necessity to believe His claim in order to a follower of Him, we also need to address that Jesus is a man. We know from the biblical narrative that Jesus was born of a woman (the virgin Mary). We also know that Jesus is a man because He got hungry (Matthew 4:2), thirsty (John 19:28), fatigued (John 4:6), and He died.
Although this doctrine can be difficult to grasp we do see biblical passages that show the apostles clearly expressing their belief the Jesus was God in the flesh.
Romans 1:3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul without hesitating speaks of Jesus’ human nature as well as gives him the title Son of God. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines the tile Son of God as simply “Term used to express the deity of Jesus of Nazareth as the one, unique Son of God.”
We read the same clear expression in Galatians 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law
The Apostle John in his first epistle writes to let us know that Jesus’ body was not a figment of his imagination or some kind of immaterial illusion.
1John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
Even if we are still finding this doctrine hard to wrap our minds around, we can take heart and know that the Apostle John touched Jesus and knew him intimately.
The Biblical implications that Jesus is God in the flesh should be very reassuring.
1. John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
When we look at Jesus we can know truth, we can experience grace, and can understand who God is because He chose to reveal Himself bodily. The Incarnation shows God’s love and His intentionality in our salvation.
2. Hebrews 2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
The verse above also states that Jesus was like us in everyway! The implications in this passage alone are threefold. 1. He was able to destroy the power of the devil. 2. He can be a merciful and faithful high priest. 3. Jesus can empathize with us in our temptations. As we live our daily lives we can know that Jesus knows what it’s like to live in our shoes and is able to minister to us in all situations.
The Incarnation is not just a doctrine for theologians to fight over. Like all biblical doctrines, a firm understanding of the Incarnation will allow us to respond to God’s Self-revelation with worship and give us a clearer picture of the gospel.
Philippians 2:5
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
ThomP Says:
