“The Miracle of Incarnation”
Watch on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTwqQm8HMOw
This is more of a teaching than what I’ve done for Christmas, but it is one the most important doctrines that we can study, with the exception of the Jesus’s death and resurrection, especially as we’re coming up to Christmas, it’s what the Christmas story is all about, and that is God becoming a man, or the name used by the prophet Isaiah of the coming Messiah, which was “Emanuel,” which means “God with us.”
The word “incarnation” means the embodiment of God in human flesh. In short, Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
And the Scriptures present Jesus as both.
Most famously is at the beginning of John’s Gospel, where Jesus is referred to as the Word. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became 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 1:1, 14 NKJV)
Now, there are those who argue against this. And those who do, bring out the Scriptures saying that Jesus was “begotten,” and was the “first born.” That is, they are saying that He was created, and that He didn’t always exist.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15)
We need to understand that the word “begotten” doesn’t mean that He was created, but rather the word means that Jesus was given preeminence. Now, how did I come up with that?
Consider Abram’s son, Isaac. The book of Hebrews says that Isaac was Abraham’s “only begotten son.” (Hebrews 11:17) But Abraham had more than one son, specifically Ishmael through Hagar. But Isaac was the son of the promise, the son through Sarah.
And then there was King David, where it says that God would make him His firstborn.
“I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” (Psalm 89:27 NKJV)
Clearly David was the youngest of his family, and so this idea of being firstborn is to David’s preeminence as it goes on to say that he would be the highest of all kings.
Also, in Revelation it says that Jesus was the “firstborn” from the dead, (Revelation 1:5). Yet, we see that Elisha brought back to life the son of the Shunamite woman, (2 Kings 4:8-36). And then there was the young boy Jesus raised from the dead, (Luke 7:14). But the most famous was Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, (John 11:43-44).
Clearly three had died and been raised from the dead before Jesus, but Jesus was preeminent, and that’s because all who believe in Him shall never die. Jesus made this clear to Martha when He raised Lazarus.
He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26 NKJV)
And so, going back to John’s Gospel in chapter one, what we see is that Jesus clearly wasn’t created, instead He created everything.
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:3 NKJV)
Therefore, Jesus is Lord and preeminent over life and death.
The fact that He is fully God, while in His human form, is seen in several ways. First are all the attributes attributed to God are also attributed to Jesus, such as the major three, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence.
But then there are the names used for him
To the prophet Isaiah the Lord used the name, “Emanuel,” which means God with us, (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23), and then He’ll have God very own name, “Mighty God,” or more literally, “God the Mighty One.” And then there is the name, “Everlasting Father.” (Isaiah 9:6)
The Lord also gave Him the name, “Jehovah Tsidkenu,” or “The Lord our Righteousness,” (Jeremiah 23:6). Jesus called Himself by the Holy name of God, “I AM.”
And then you have the titles, “The Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
The Virgin Birth
“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary … Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:26-27, 34 NKJV)
The virgin birth of Jesus is key in our understanding that Jesus was fully human and fully God. The reason is because ifJesus was born from the line of Adam, He would have been born with the sin nature, and God cannot abide sin, and if there were sin in Jesus, then He would not be God, but not only that, but His sacrifice upon the cross would have been made null and void.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12 NKJV)
If this then is the case, how did Jesus escape the curse, being born to Mary and all? Because while He was born to Mary a virgin, He was conceived by God, the Holy Spirit. The angel Gabriel went on to say,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35 NKJV)
And so, the sin nature, which we all possess from birth, was not found in Jesus, therefore He was without sin, which is confirmed in the Scriptures.
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15 NKJV cf. 1 John 3:5)
Because of this, Jesus is Lord and could therefore be that perfect sinless sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, (John 1:29).
Further, the idea that Mary was not a virgin is something that is brought out by many of those who want to disprove the virgin birth. They take if from the Hebrew word used for “virgin” found in the prophesy of Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14 NKJV)
The interpretation of this prophecy has been the subject of some debate, because the Hebrew word for virgin is “almah,” which could also mean a young woman. But there are two problems with that. If it was to be interpreted as “young woman,” then what kind of sign would that be. Young women give birth all the time.
But so that there wouldn’t be such a misrepresentation of this prophecy, the Jewish Scholars prior to the birth of Jesus translated the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language which we know as the Septuagint. And they use the Greek word, “parthenos” which means unequivocally, “virgin.”
But one step further, look at the Son she would bear, Emmanuel, which means God with us.
And so, the virgin birth was prophesied and is absolutely necessary for Jesus to be both fully human and fully God.
Let’s look at some of these Scriptures speaking of Jesus as fully human and fully God.
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV)
Please understand that God is a jealous God and will not have any other god before or after Himself, nor will He give His name to anyone else.
“You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God … You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 34:14; 20:3NKJV)
“I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.” (Isaiah 42:8 NKJV)
And yet to the Messiah the Lord gives His name, not only in our passage speaking of His birth, but also to Who He is, which is what we have already looked at.
And so it was that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, who was born of a virgin and under the law, who was none other than the Lord God, the second person of the Godhead.
The Apostle Paul said of Jesus that he was not only before creation, but was the express image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15-19).
With this in mind, what I’d like to do before time gets totally away from us is to look at the reasons why the incarnation and what it means to all of us.
What the Incarnation does it Reveals God to Men
What this did was bring human understanding about Who God is and the nature of God. It brought a comprehension of an incomprehensible God where we humans can comprehend. (That’s a lot of comprehending) Notice what Jesus says.
“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” (John 14:9 NKJV)
Jesus came as that example of exactly who God is. But even more, He came and demonstrated God’s love towards us.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NKJV)
The second thing that the incarnation does is that it Provides a Sacrifice for Sin
Because God came in the flesh, He could therefore offer the perfect sacrifice, not like the sacrifices offered by the priests, sacrifices that had to be given year in and year out, because the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin (Hebrews 10:4), only cover them.
And so, God needed to come down and be that perfect sacrifice for sin.
“‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me’ … He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ … By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:5, 9-10 NKJV)
The third thing we see is that because of the incarnation God could finally Destroy the Works of Satan
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8 NKJV)
God became flesh so that He might destroy Satan who had the power of death, (Hebrews 2:14). And having done so as disarmed and triumphed, according to the Apostle Paul, over principalities and powers, (Colossians 2:13-15).
And so, the miracle in Bethlehem was the miracle in the manger which was nothing less than the miracle of the Incarnation, God coming in human form to be that perfect sinless sacrifice, so that all who believe would not perish in their sins but have eternal life.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26 NKJV)
