The Miracle Of Incarnation

“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.