Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine,
September 25, 2007
The Doctrine of the Incarnation, part 2
Point 1: Definition and description.
The incarnation is the doctrine of the revelation of God the Son’s birth into this world as a human being, thus becoming true humanity without loss of any aspect of His deity, and remaining as both true natures in one person forever.
Point 2: Who became incarnate?
God the Son descended from the third heaven and became true humanity, but without a sin nature. The deity of the Son never left Him, but He remained God as He will for all time and eternity.
Point 3: How did the Son become incarnate?
Christ had no home or target for the imputation of Adam’s original sin and therefore His humanity was born into this world without sin of any kind.
Jesus Christ was born into a human family and thus came to possess His own human body, soul, and spirit.
There is a large difference here between a divine indwelling, which means God in a man, and incarnation, which is no less than Deity assuming a complete humanity.
Christ was born of a virgin so that He would not inherit a fallen nature from an earthly father.
The virgin birth was simply an important step in the whole incarnation undertaking. The incarnation is the whole life of the Son of God from the virgin birth on to eternity to come.
Christ would not discard His humanity after His mission on behalf of man was accomplished. It is amazing to think that God will exist as a human (not an angel or any other created being) for all of eternity.
Zech 13:6
And one will say to Him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then He will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
Christ’s glorified human body has become a revelation to all angelic hosts of that reality which the saints will display in heaven when they, too, shall have received their resurrection bodies.
He became true humanity and developed as any man would, yet without sin.
HEB 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Now God the Son in Hypostatic Union sits at the right hand of God as One who understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses and He prays to the Father on our behalf.
1 John 2:1
My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
HEB 7:25
Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Point 4: For what purpose did He become incarnate?
1. Christ became true humanity so that He might manifest God to man.
The God-man expresses as much of the infinite One as can be translated into human ideas and realities.
Christ primarily came to reveal the love of God.
The Greek verb for “realized” is the aorist middle indicative of ginomai, which means to be, to come into being, to be made, to be done, or to become.
Christ is the full realization of God’s grace and truth.
The incarnation is how God fully manifested Himself to mankind, and this fullness of grace and truth can be summed up in the reality of God’s love.
Christ manifested the love of God in all His earthly ministry, but the supreme disclosure of that love came with His death upon the cross.
HEB 5:8
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
HEB 12:2
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
HEB 12:3
For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten (monogenes: one of a kind) Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
It is in the culmination of His earthly ministry at the Cross, where He died a spiritual death on behalf of all, that the love of God was revealed publicly to its fullest.
The love of God continues to be displayed in the Church-age because God doesn’t need to present Himself for His love to be displayed because love is a system of thinking.
God’s love doesn’t need God’s physical presence. Love only needs God’s revelation of its truth.
Ex 1:12
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out,
The revelation of the love of God is made tangible by the incarnation of Christ and all that He was through birth, life, and death at the Cross, where it was exhibited to its fullest.
At the incarnation, Christ was also given the office of prophet and a prophet brings the message of God to the people of God.
2. Christ became true humanity to manifest man to God.
Whatever value mankind might place on the first Adam either before or after the fall, it is true that the last Adam is the all-satisfying ideal of the Creator.
Matt 3:17
and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
(Christ began His priestly office)
Matt 17:5
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
(Christ is a prophet)
Ps 2:6-7
But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.
I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me, ‘Thou art My Son,
Today I have begotten Thee’.
The Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union completely satisfied the righteous requirement of God the Father and therefore all who are in Him have a solid ground to stand on in the presence of the Father.
By virtue of being in union with Him we do not have the slavery of attempted perfection, we are perfect in Him and have the freedom of operating in grace.
Through His mind, the written word, we have the ability to be like Him, the Living Word, in time.
Phil 2:5
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
1 Peter 2:21
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
ROM 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,
EPH 4:13
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
“to the East” is a preposition and a noun paneh, in the presence, in the face of in front of, against, or in defiance of his brethren.