Our topic this morning is The Incarnation, the event in which the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, took on humanity and became a man. This is what we celebrate at Christmas, the infant Jesus born to Mary, a baby who is not only a normal human child but who is also the God of the Universe.
The Christmas story contains so many wonderful things — the angel Gabriel appearing to a young girl who was a virgin, announcing to her that she would be with child by the Holy Spirit, telling her that her son would be called the Son of the Highest, and that he would reign over an everlasting kingdom. Another angel, appearing to Joseph, announcing that Mary’s son would save his people from their sins. Wise men traveling from the East, following a star and bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. An angel announcing Christ’s birth to shepherds. A great multitude of angels, singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” So many things to wonder at, and contemplate. But at the core of it all, at the center of the whole story, is the incarnation. And so that’s where we are going to begin. We’ll look at what it means, what it means for the gospel, and what it means for each one of us.
This is an essential doctrine, although one that most Christians don’t have a good understanding of. Because it’s complicated. It deals with matters that are beyond our ability to fully grasp. In fact, it took more than six centuries for the Christian church to agree on what it was that happened when God became a man. There were controversies over whether Jesus was fully human, partly human, or only appeared to be human. There were debates over whether Jesus was fully God. There were discussion over whether Christ had two separate natures or just one.
All of these questions were addressed and resolved through a series of ecumenical councils. An ecumenical council was a gathering of church leaders from all over the Christian world, coming together to debate and resolve fundamental theological questions. In the year 325, we have the First Council of Nicea, which affirmed Christ’s divinity. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon held that Christ had two natures, a fully human nature and a fully divine nature, while still being one person. And in 681, the Third Council of Constantinople addressed the question of whether Christ had both a human will and a divine will.
These councils took place before the break in the year 1054 between the Western, Roman Catholic church, and the Eastern, Orthodox church. They also took place before the Protestant Reformation in 1517. The doctrines which they agreed on were all resolved when there was only one church worldwide. And so these truths are accepted today by all the major branches of the Christian church, whether Catholic, or Orthodox, or Protestant.
The church labored for six hundred years to fully develop the doctrine of the incarnation, not only because it is complicated, but because it is critically important. Because who Christ was, and is, has a direct bearing on what he did, and will do for us. Charles Hodge, an American theologian in the 19th century, put it this way:
“The doctrine of the incarnation . . . is the key to the whole Bible. If this doctrine be denied all is confusion and contradiction. If it be admitted all is light, harmony, and power. Christ is both God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person forever. This is the great mystery of Godliness. God manifest in the flesh is the distinguishing doctrine of the religion of the Bible, without which it is a cold and lifeless corpse”. [Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, v. 2, p. 384.]
Hodge’s Systematic Theology is three volumes and runs to 2,400 pages. And out of all the doctrines he covers in those volumes, he considers this one “The key to the whole Bible”. But don’t take his word for it. Here’s what the apostle John tells us:
“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” (1 John 4:1-3)
In other words, John is saying, this doctrine of the incarnation, this teaching that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that the Son of God became a man, is the one doctrine that evil spirits cannot bear to affirm. Even false prophets, who give voice to the lies of the devil, can affirm some true Christian doctrines for the purpose of deceiving people. They will camouflage their deadly error; they will conceal their poison by embedding it in a large amount of doctrinal truth. However, they will not affirm this doctrine, the doctrine of the incarnation. Which tells us just how powerful, and essential it is.
All right. Let’s dig in. What is the incarnation? I’m going to organize our study with the text of the Westminster Confession of Faith; not because human doctrinal statements have any authority in themselves, but just because this is a nice concise statement.
“The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, 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 power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, 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.”
Let’s break that down, phrase by phrase. “The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father. So who are we talking about? The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And so He was, and is, fully divine. He is co-eternal with God the Father (in other words, he was not created, but he existed from eternity past, with the Father). He is co-equal with God the Father, sharing one divine substance with Him. Therefore, He is not any kind of inferior being. He is God. Here’s how John puts it:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1)
The Word, that is, the eternal Son of God, was himself God, and was with God the Father from the beginning. In the fourth century, when this was a topic of dispute, they stated it this way: “There was not a time when he was not”. Why does this matter? Because unless Jesus is both fully God and fully man, he cannot act as the mediator, the bridge, between God and man. And what John affirms here is that he is in fact fully divine, fully God.
Let’s look at the next section of the Westmister Confession:
“The Son of God . . . 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”
What this expresses is that the Son of God took on every aspect of humanity. Not just a human body, but everything that makes us human; a human mind, human emotions, and a human will. And so he understands us, and identifies with us, completely. There is no aspect of humanity that he does not share. He has mental processes like we do, he feels emotions the way we do. And he has a will: he has desires and makes choices like we do. At the same time, he is subject to the limitations of human nature. And so, during his earthly ministry, we can see that he got hungry, and tired, and thirsty, and sleepy, just like we do. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
“4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:4-7)
In this passage from John’s gospel, we see that Jesus grew tired and needed to rest. We also see that he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink, implying that he was thirsty. This was completely normal, because he was in fact fully human; he did not merely appear to be human. After walking for a long distance through a hot, dry area, he got tired and thirsty. Just like you or I would. He needed to rest his legs. He needed to replenish his fluids. He didn’t have some kind of a magical body that never got tired or needed rest, that never needed to eat or drink. He wasn’t some kind of a cyborg; he was a real, material, flesh and blood human.
Let’s consider another example from the gospel of Matthew. This one is a little more challenging. Jesus and his disciples have just finished eating the Last Supper, the Passover meal. In just a little while, he knows that he is going to be arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified. And so he is under a great deal of stress.
“36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” (Matthew 26:36-46)
What do we see here? Human emotions. Grief. “My soul is over-whelmed with sorrow”. Disappointment. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hou¬r?” Fear and horror as he contemplated the cross: “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” He prayed that urgently, three times. And finally, alarm. “Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Have you experienced grief, sorrow, disappointment, fear, alarm? So did he. He was not some kind of robot who was unaffected by what he experienced. He felt the whole spectrum of human emotions, just as we do.
As the author of Hebrews puts it:
“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
He understands everything that we are going through. Because he is like us in every way, except one: He is without sin. And so he is able to help us in our time of need.
Also note that Christ prayed, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” And so Christ had a human will that was distinct from his divine will. As a man, his desire was to avoid crucifixion. He had no desire to be tortured, to suffer, and to die. But although his human and divine wills were distinct from one another, they were not in conflict. Because he also prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” His own human will, and the divine will that he shared with God the Father, were distinct from one another. But they were not in conflict, because Jesus subjected his own human will to the divine will of his Father.
And so Jesus was fully human, with a human body, mind, emotions, and will. The statement in the Westminster Confession continues,
“being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance”
Let’s look at the passage which this statement is referring to, from the gospel of Luke:
“God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:26-35)
Jesus’ divine nature was imparted by the Holy Spirit; his human nature came from Mary. Joseph was not involved in the process. Jesus was made from her substance, just as every human child is made from the substance of his or her mother. Again, he was fully human, from the point of conception onward. He developed for nine months in his mother’s womb, he derived nourishment and sustenance and protection from her body. His brain, and organs, and arms, and legs, and every other aspect of his person as a human being, developed in those nine months, just as ours did.
Let’s go on. The Westminster Confession reads:
“So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.
What this means is that Jesus’ human nature and divine nature remained distinct from one another. They didn’t merge to create some kind of hybrid human-divine nature that was not really human and not really divine, a third kind of nature. If that were the case, Jesus wouldn’t be God or man, but something else entirely. But that’s not what happened. Instead, his two natures, human and divine, both coexist harmoniously in one person.
His human nature didn’t absorb some of the divine nature, nor did his divine nature absorb some of his human nature. His human and divine natures didn’t combine, or blend, or amalgamate. They didn’t mix or conmingle. They remained distinct. His human nature is fully and completely human, with no crossover from his divine nature. And his divine nature is fully and completely divine, with no crossover from his human nature. Yes, they are “inseparably joined together”: they operate in perfect harmony with one another, while remaining distinct. And yet Jesus is not two persons, but one person with two natures, human and divine. Jesus doesn’t refer to himself as “we”, or “us”, but as “I” and “me”. He is one integrated person, with two natures, human and divine.
This is why the Bible can say things about Jesus as a human being that would not be true of him as God, and vice versa. Whatever can be said about Jesus regarding his humanity is true of him, although it would not be true of his divinity. And, whatever can be said about Jesus regarding his divinity is also true of him, even though it would not be true of his humanity.
And so, when we read of Jesus growing hungry, or thirsty, or tired; or when he learns something he didn’t know before, that’s true of him, with regard to his human nature, although it would not be true of him with regard to his divine nature. God doesn’t get hungry, or thirsty, or tired. But Jesus did. Or, to take another example, Luke tells us about Jesus as a boy that he, “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) Think about that. Did God grow in wisdom? No. God is omniscient; he knows everything. But in his human nature, Jesus grew in wisdom, even though that was not true of him in his divine nature. He also grew in stature, he got bigger and taller. Did God get larger? No. But in his human nature, Jesus did.
Let’s take another example, this time from the divine side of things. In the gospel of Luke, chapter 8, we read this:
22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.”So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. 24 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”
He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
As the divine Creator and Lord of the universe, Jesus had the authority to command the wind and the water. That was an expression of his divine nature, not his human nature.
It's a little mind bending, I’ll admit. And it raises lots of questions, such as: how can Jesus be omniscient in his divine nature while in his human nature he has limited knowledge, and learns? I don’t know the answer to that one; I doubt that anyone does. But before we give up and conclude that this is all just a pointless discussion for PhD’s, let’s look at the last phrase in the Westminster Confession:
“Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man”.
That statement comes from Paul’s first letter to Timothy
“3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
All of these fine points of doctrine support a very important truth, which is that Jesus, and Jesus alone, can serve as the mediator between God and man. This is something that the ancients longed for, something that God’s people in the Old Testament recognized that they lacked. Someone who could stand between man and God, to intercede for them, to act as a mediator. In the ninth chapter of Job, he utters this lament:
“32 [God] is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court.
33 If only there were someone to mediate between us,
someone to bring us together,
34 someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so that his terror would frighten me no more.”
(Job 9:32-34)
“Who will intercede on my behalf with God?” Job asks. Jesus is the answer to that question. He is that mediator. Because he is God, he is united with the Godhead, the Trinity, and he possesses all of the attributes of God. Because he is a man, he is part of the human race and he possesses all of the attributes of humanity, including a human body, a human mind, human emotions, and a human will. He is both God and man, fully and completely. If he were not both, if he only appeared to be a man, or if he set aside his divinity when he became a man, then he could not function as the bridge between humanity and divinity, between God and man. And we could not be saved. That’s why all of this matters.
You see, Jesus had the legal standing to give himself as a ransom for mankind only because he was himself a man; human in every way. He can present himself as our surrogate, our substitute, our representative, precisely because he is one of us. At the same time, it is only because Christ is God and fully divine that he had the ability to bear the punishment that was due us for our sin without being destroyed. Only as God could Christ bear the punishment that is due to every person who ever lived who comes to faith in Christ. An ordinary man couldn’t do that. Only God could do that. And he did. Not only so, but he continues to act as our advocate and our intermediary in heaven, a role that is only possible because he both one of us and also the Son of God:
“1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2)
“24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” (Hebrews 7:24-25)
In other words, what Jesus did for us didn’t end at the cross. Even now, in heaven, he continues to act as our advocate before God, interceding on our behalf whenever we sin. And he is able to do that only because he is fully one of us and also fully God. He is the one and only mediator. Christ’s assumption of human nature was permanent and eternal, not temporary. He did not discard his human nature when he ascended into heaven. His human nature was transformed and glorified, as ours will be, but it was not abandoned. He didn’t lay aside his humanity. And so Jesus Christ will always be the bridge between God and man; because he will always possess within himself both humanity and deity.
Let’s examine some other implications of this doctrine. First of all, the incarnation of Christ demonstrates his great love and humility. Let me ask you, when the Son of God took on a human nature, was that an upgrade? Did he gain something that he lacked before? Was his being enhanced, or improved in some way? Did this add to his glory? No. Just the opposite. This was an act of humility, of lowering himself. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes this:
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:3-7)
“He made himself nothing”. His willingness to be made like us was a supreme example of humility and love. Because that was what was required in order for him to pay the penalty for our sin. He had to be one of us, in every respect. As one of the church fathers, Gregory of Nazianzus, stated in the fourth century, “that which is not taken up (or assumed) is not healed”. Jesus had to be made like us in every way, so that he could redeem us completely. He had to assume every aspect of our humanity, so that he could save every part of who we are. And that included taking on all of our weaknesses. Another way of stating this is that every aspect of our humanity has been affected by sin—our mind, our emotions, our desires, our will, and our bodies—and therefore, in order for Jesus to fully redeem us, to fully atone for sin, he also had to assume every aspect of our humanity, including a human mind, human emotions and desires, a human will, and a human body. Only then would his sacrifice cover every aspect of humanity.
As the author of Hebrews puts it:
“17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human 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.” (Hebrews 1:17-18)
Because Christ was made like us, “fully human in every way”, he is able to make atonement for our sins. But not only that, since he suffered and was tempted, he is able to help us when we suffer, and when we are tempted.
In closing, perhaps you got a bit more church history than you felt you needed this morning. And perhaps you still don’t feel that you fully grasp how Jesus’ human and divine natures work together. If that’s the case, don’t feel bad, there is a sense in which this is a mystery that is beyond our comprehension. But here is what I would like you to remember. Four points:
• Jesus Christ is fully God, with all the attributes of deity. And he is also fully man, with all that that implies, except for sin.
• Because those things are both true, because he is both fully God and fully man, he is able to act as our substitute and to pay the penalty for our sin.
• Because he is both fully God and fully man, he is able to act as our mediator and our advocate before God the Father.
• And because he is both fully God and fully man, we can take our struggles and sorrows to him, knowing that he understands what we are going through and that he can strengthen, heal, and comfort us.
That’s the doctrine of the incarnation. May it be an encouragement to all of us. Amen.
