The right Personal conclusion of the Incarnation
Philippians 2:5-11 John 1:1-5, 14
If we want to enter into the spirit and celebration of Christmas in Christian worship, we must focus our attention on the event of the incarnation, which is the heart of the Christmas message. Those who reject the biblical teaching of the incarnation also reject the authority of the Scriptures. The idea of a “god” involving himself in the affairs of men by coming to the earth is not a new one. In the culture of New Testament times, there were several instances in which the “gods” were said to have manifested themselves in human flesh.
Humanly speaking, no one anticipated God’s involvement into human history by the birth of a child, born in a manger. Not even God’s chosen people were looking for Messiah to come in this way. Some of us have become so familiar with the biblical account of the birth of our Lord and the belief of the incarnation we have ceased to appreciate the mystery.
The incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ was both a high point and a beginning. In and of itself the incarnation of Christ was an event, unique and never again to be repeated. The incarnation is more than an event. May God’s Spirit guide us as we seek to discover how to daily apply the incarnation to our daily lives?
1. the incarnation is a belief we need. The first step in understanding the implications of the incarnation, is to see that in addition to the incarnation being a particular event, the coming of the Christ, it is also a belief. In the incarnation of our Lord, God chose to manifest Himself in the human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. God chose to manifest Himself through humanity.
That God reveled Himself through humanity, is first clear in the creation of man in the Garden of Eden. In GEN. 1:26, we are told that God created man in His own image. Man was created as a reflection of God. Ironically and sadly the image and likeness of God in man was distorted because of man’s fall. Often in the Old Testament, God revealed Himself in human form. For example, angels were distinctly human in appearance. Even the “Angel of the Lord,” appeared in human form. The human appearance of these angels was so convincingly human that those who saw them understood them to be only men.
How is God explained in human terms? His omniscience is described in terms of His eyes. He sees all. His omnipotence is described in terms of His ‘strong arms.’
The ultimate example of incarnation is in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ:
“No man has seen the Father at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature”. We must believe God came to earth.
2. the incarnation is a belief, WHICH Applies to Every Christian.
God has not only chosen to reveal Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, but also personally through the godly lives of His children. Incarnate means “to give actual form to or to make real or” to “flesh out or”. This is precisely what is intended by the belief of incarnation. God intends to bring His character to life through the godly lives of Christians: In the wording of Phil 2:15 “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” We are to display the character of God.
3. some necessary Distinctions about the incarnation.
We must be careful also to distinguish between the incarnation of our Lord and the belief of incarnation as it relates to us. In the first place, the Lord Jesus was God, and at His plan, He added humanity to His deity. We, on the other hand, have become one with God because He sought us out and gave us new birth through His Spirit.
Secondly, in our Lord’s incarnation perfect humanity was added to His deity. We are neither divine nor sinless. We are sinful human beings who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and who have become one with God through new birth. We are not “gods;” rather God is in us and we in Him. It is one thing to become “partakers of the divine nature” and quite another to fully possess a divine nature. He is the Vine and we are the branches. He is the Son of God and we are sons of God. Jesus has been one with the Father eternally and we receive eternal life. Although created in God’s image, our sins have separated us from God. We become one with God only in the person of Jesus Christ. In Him, our sins are forgiven. In Him, we enter into a union with God. The Holy Spirit renews our lives and gives new birth. The Holy Spirit indwells the Christian, enabling him to manifest godly character.
How we are to apply the Incarnation in our lives.
A. The incarnation calls for us to live godly lives.
The fact that God has chosen to manifest Himself through Christians has some sobering implications.
In the first place, if God is to be manifested to men, His children must live godly lives. To continue to live in sin is not only a contradiction, it is also a gross misrepresentation of God. No wonder God takes sin in the lives of His children so seriously. We must Discipline live clean lives if we want to properly represent God. We are also commissioned with living godly lives, which manifest the character of God, His kindness, His love, His holiness, His mercy and HIS justice. This means we have to take time to be what God wants us to be. To do this requires a daily time with him, wanting and going to church, singing with a merry heart, being in prayer and knowing Him personally.
Second, we have been made stewards of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. We are responsible to convey this message to men.
B. Incarnation calls for taking the Word of God seriously.
Our Lord was the “living Word.” We are told that the Lord is the final word of God to men. Our Lord described His purpose in life as fulfilling the Old Testament Law of God. Many of us need to begin by learning the Word of God, but beyond this, we must see that the incarnation demands that we live it.
C. The Incarnation calls for us to eliminate unbiblical distinctions between what is “sacred,” and what is “secular”. Sacred means what is hallowed, revered, or holy. Secular refers to what belongs to this world.
The belief of incarnation corrects false distinctions between what is sacred and what is secular. The ancient Greeks distinguished between the body and the spirit. The spirit, they believed, was pure, wholesome, and good. On the other hand, they believed the body was evil. With their minds, they followed what was noble and good. With their bodies, they practiced all kinds of vices. The two could not be agreeable; they rationalized, so one could enjoy the pleasures of both bodily sins and intellectual pursuits. This was a refined way of justifying sin. I would put it this way “I can do what I want with my body for my soul is going to heaven and is not affected by my actions.”
4. We must say The Incarnation Is amazing. In ROM 6, there is established a biblical basis for a daily life, which puts away sins and practices righteousness. ROM 7 there is described an agony over total defeat in striving to practice in the body what the spirit aims to do. The dilemma was that sin was able to overpower flesh, thus driving one to do the very things he despised. What was impossible through our own efforts was possible through the power of God provided in the person of the Holy Spirit. By walking in the Spirit, the Christian can experience in both body and spirit obedience to the law of God. In effect, Paul was referring to one aspect of the principle of incarnation, the need for amazing power. It is possible for God to manifest Himself in men who are “in Christ” and who “walk in the Spirit.”
There is only one way in which you and I can ever manifest anything of the character of God in our lives and that is through the miraculous power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We, too, have been amazingly begotten of the Holy Spirit when we were saved. No Christian has the right to excuse his sin based on his humanity. “Well, I’m only human.” Our Lord said, “apart from Me you can do nothing”.
Incarnation involves mystery. Theologians will never cease to discuss what it means for man to be created in God’s image. Try as we may, we will never be able to separate the sinless humanity of our Lord. The fact that in Christ two natures have been joined forever is unfathomable. The implications of the “mysterious” character of incarnation are numerous. We are simply to strive to be obedient, recognizing that “apart from Him, we can do nothing” and that it is He who is at work in us “to will and to do His good pleasure”. It is time to stop analyzing and to start applying the incarnation, for it is and will always be a mystery as to how deity and humanity can be joined inseparably. We must reject the temptation to try to live the Christian life by formulas. Instead, we must practice living by faith. There is only one way to practice the belief of incarnation, and that is by faith. It begins with a personal faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. By this act of faith, you are born again, and you become one with God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. And by faith, you continue to walk in the power of His Holy Spirit, knowing that you are able to obey and to manifest His divine character, because it is He who is in you and who works through you.
To refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate is therefore to reject all of God’s divine revelation, be that the Old or the New Testament Scriptures.
May we rejoice and praise God because He has chosen to become one with us in Christ. And may we serve Him, knowing that the mystery of incarnation is a wonder, which He has honored us to experience each day.
