Importance Of The Incarnation:

The Importance of the Incarnation:

How many messages have you ever heard on the “incarnation”? I hope you will pay close attention today as we’ll read and study the incarnation.

Rom. 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh

Col. 2: 8-9 .8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

“INCARNATION” — is a theological term for the coming of God’s Son into the world as a human being. The term itself is not used in the Bible, but it is based on clear references in the New Testament to Jesus as a person “in the flesh”

Jesus participated fully in all that it means to live a human life. But if Jesus were merely a man, no matter how great, there would be no significance in drawing attention to His bodily existence. The marvelous thing is that in Jesus, God Himself began to live a fully human life. The capacity of Jesus to reveal God to us and to bring salvation depends upon His being fully God and fully man at the same time.

There is nothing in fact or in fiction in the history of man that can come close to the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

No one ever anticipated God’s intervention into human history by the birth of a child, born in a manger.

Not even the Jews were looking for their Messiah to come in this way.2 and now days it seems we have become so accustomed to the biblical narratives of the birth of our Lord that we have ceased to appreciate the mystery of the incarnation.

So today Lord willing I’ll try just for a little while to talk about the INCARNATION, that is, GOD coming to the earth in the form of a MAN.

ISAIAH 9: 6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace

JOHN 17: 1-51These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,** whom thou hast sent.

4I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Phil. 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross

If we are to properly appreciate the mystery of the incarnation, we must first come to recognize the importance of the coming of our Lord as God incarnate. Let us consider the reasons why the doctrine of the incarnation is vital to every one of us.

(1) The Doctrine of the Incarnation Should be the Focus of a Christian Celebration of Christmas.

If we are to properly appreciate the mystery of the incarnation, we must first come to recognize the importance of the coming of our Lord as God incarnate.

As we all know Dec.25th is the day that we recognize the birth of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, although we’re not sure of the date of His birth, we certainly have many bible refererances telling us that He was born. He was born of the Virgin Mary

Throughout the centuries various elements of pagan celebrations have been included in the observance of Christmas.

And it is due to these “other-than-Christian” elements that the central focus of Christmas on the incarnation has been over looked.

~~Now it’s Santa clause, gift giving, eating here and there, holiday songs and the like.~~

If we are to truly enter into the spirit and celebration of Christmas in Christian worship, then we must focus our attention on the event of the incarnation, which really is the heart of the Christmas message.