The Incarnation

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.