The Mystery of the Incarnation: God Becoming Flesh

 

Introduction

The Incarnation is one of the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith! God, infinite and eternal, became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ. Incarnate literally means “in the flesh.” One of the most important Bible lessons is taught in the Bethel Boble Study. When approaching the text we “need to think Hebrew. That is to say not with a western Greek, logical mindset. 

Logic cannot understand a spiritual mystery. If you do you might end up thinking God has a multiple personality. You might wonder how God can be in heaven and on earth at the same time. You might wonder how Jesus is God and man at the same time. Hebrew thinking skips these questions. We might say they are paradoxes or oxymorons. That is not quite it either. They are mysteries we need to accept they are beyond human understanding and take the next step to contemplate what it means rather than how it is. 

One significant meaning is found in the popular verse, John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Biblical Foundations

Old Testament Foreshadowing

Several Old Testament passages have been interpreted by Christian theologians to prefigure or point to the doctrine of the Incarnation, where God takes on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. These passages, though not explicitly mentioning the Incarnation, are often viewed through the lens of New Testament revelation. Here are some of the key texts:

1. Genesis 3:15 (The Protoevangelium)

•“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

•This is viewed as the first prophecy of a Savior, understood in Christian tradition as pointing to Christ’s victory over sin and Satan, which necessitates the Incarnation.

2. Isaiah 7:14

•“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

•This prophecy is directly applied to Jesus in Matthew 1:23. The name “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us,” is taken as a foreshadowing of the Incarnation, where God comes to dwell among humans.

3. Isaiah 9:6

•“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

•This passage is interpreted as referring to a divine figure born as a child, pointing to the coming of Christ, who is both human and divine.

4. Micah 5:2-3

•“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

•This prophecy is understood to speak of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, as mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 2:6), with the phrase “from ancient times” hinting at His pre-existence.

5. Psalm 2:7

•“I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have become your father.’”

•Seen as pointing to the divine Sonship of Christ, Christians interpret this psalm as a messianic prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ Incarnation and baptism (Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5).

6. Psalm 110:1

•“The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”

•Quoted frequently in the New Testament (e.g., Matthew 22:44), this verse is often taken as referring to the Messiah’s exaltation and his divine authority, assuming a prior act of Incarnation.

7. Zechariah 12:10

•“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.”

•Christians interpret this as a reference to Jesus’ crucifixion, implying that God himself will be pierced—a concept that aligns with the belief in the Incarnation.

8. Malachi 3:1

•“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.”

•This is seen as a prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist (the messenger) and the appearance of the Lord (Jesus) in the temple, implying the Incarnation.

9. Isaiah 53:1-12 (The Suffering Servant)

•This passage describes a servant who suffers and bears the sins of others, a concept applied to Christ in the New Testament (e.g., Matthew 8:17, Acts 8:32-35). The servant’s human suffering is seen as a reference to the Incarnation.

10. Jeremiah 23:5-6

•“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely… This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.”

•The reference to the Messiah as “The Lord Our Righteous Savior” implies a divine-human figure, pointing to Jesus Christ’s Incarnation.

These passages are understood within Christian tradition as types or shadows that find their fulfillment in the Incarnation of Christ. The New Testament often reflects back on these texts as anticipatory of God taking on human nature.

New Testament Fulfillment

The New Testament contains many passages that explicitly or implicitly affirm the doctrine of the Incarnation—God becoming human in the person of Jesus Christ. Here are key verses that relate to the Incarnation:

1. John 1:1, 14

•“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

•“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

•This passage is one of the clearest affirmations of the Incarnation, where the eternal Word (God) became human.

2. Philippians 2:6-8

•“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

•This passage emphasizes the humility of Christ in taking on human form and submitting to death, central to the idea of the Incarnation.

3. Colossians 2:9

•“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”

•This verse speaks directly to the union of divine and human nature in the person of Jesus.

4. Galatians 4:4-5

•“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

•The reference to Jesus being “born of a woman” highlights his true humanity and the divine mission for which he came.

5. Hebrews 2:14-17

•“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death… 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.”

•This passage emphasizes Christ’s full humanity and how the Incarnation enabled him to identify with and redeem humanity.

6. 1 John 4:2

•“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.”

•A clear affirmation of the Incarnation, where recognizing Jesus as truly human is seen as a fundamental test of true faith.

7. 1 Timothy 3:16

•“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.”

•This early Christian confession summarizes the Incarnation (“He appeared in the flesh”) as part of the mystery of godliness.

8. Romans 8:3

•“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh.”

•The phrase “in the likeness of sinful flesh” affirms Jesus’ true humanity and his role in overcoming sin.

9. John 6:51

•“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

•Jesus speaks of himself as coming down from heaven and offering his flesh for the salvation of the world, a reference to the Incarnation and the sacrifice on the cross.

10. Matthew 1:23

•“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’).”

•This quotation from Isaiah 7:14 is applied to Jesus, showing that his birth is the fulfillment of the prophecy that God would dwell with humanity.

11. Hebrews 10:5

•“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.’”

•This passage underscores the necessity of the Incarnation, that Christ took on a body to fulfill God’s will.

12. Luke 1:35

•“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.’”

•The angel’s announcement to Mary highlights the divine origin of Jesus’ human nature, signifying the Incarnation.

13. John 17:5

•“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

•Jesus refers to his pre-existent divine state, showing that the Incarnation was the moment he took on flesh while maintaining his divine identity.

14. Titus 2:13-14

•“While we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

•This passage refers to Jesus as “our great God and Savior,” affirming both his divinity and his redemptive mission in human form.

These passages, taken together, present a rich New Testament theology of the Incarnation, where Jesus is both fully divine and fully human, sent to redeem humanity through his life, death, and resurrection.

Theological Significance

The Union of Divine and Human Natures

The fancy seminary word for this is “hypostatic union.”  The key Bible passage explaining its significance is Hebrews 2:14-17

•“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death… 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.”

This passage emphasizes Christ’s full humanity and how the Incarnation enabled him to identify with and redeem humanity.

God’s Humility and Love

The Incarnation reveals God’s willingness to enter human suffering and experience. This is a dramatic shift in the understanding of God. No other religion makes this shift from humans sacrificing for Fod to god sacrificing for us. Justyn Martyre says “He became as we are so that we might be come as he is.”

Jordan Peterson stresses how the passion of Jesus is the ultimate, even complete sacrificial act. Although innocent He willfully accepted a multitude of catastrophes: Betrayal by a friend, Abandonment by his closest followers, prosecution by religious leaders and the Roman Empire, killed by the most horrible method of execution, and more!

 The Purpose of the Incarnation

Jesus, by living a sinless life, dying for humanity’s sins, and rising from the dead, conquered the power of evil and reconciled , mankind and the world with God the Father. 

2 Corinthians 5: 16-19 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them

Practical Implications for Believers

Incarnation and Human Dignity

Human worth and dignity is first found in Genesis. We are told there that we have been created  

In the image of God. This concept is magnified when God himself becomes a human being.

Incarnation and Redemption

 Through Christ’s humanity, believers have access to redemption and eternal life. The concept of Redemption re, imss us that we belong to God. Think of it like glass bottles being redeemed. They are buying back what belongs to them! So it is with God. The price of our souls is the sacrifice of Jesus.

Imitation of Christ

The Incarnation serves as a model for Christian humility, service, and love. However, it is more than this. It is not just that we need to imitate Jesus. It is rather that Jesus is in us and we are in him. 

The New Testament contains numerous passages that speak about Jesus Christ dwelling within believers. These verses highlight the spiritual reality of Christ’s presence in the lives of those who follow Him, often through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Here are key passages related to this theme:

1. Galatians 2:20

•“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

•This verse emphasizes the transformative presence of Christ within believers, changing how they live and perceive life.

2. Colossians 1:27

•“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

•Here, Paul speaks of the mystery of the gospel: that Christ dwells in believers, which gives them the hope of future glory.

3. Romans 8:10

•“But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.”

•This passage reflects the idea that Christ’s indwelling brings life through the Holy Spirit, even though our bodies are mortal.

4. John 14:20

•“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

•Jesus speaks of the mutual indwelling between Himself, the Father, and believers, showing the intimate connection through the Spirit.

5. 2 Corinthians 13:5

•“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

•Paul urges believers to recognize that Christ is in them as evidence of true faith.

6. Ephesians 3:16-17

•“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

•This prayer of Paul highlights the indwelling of Christ in the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit, by faith.

7. John 15:4-5

•“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

•Jesus emphasizes the necessity of abiding in Him and having Him abide in believers, which leads to a fruitful life.

8. 1 John 4:4

•“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

•This verse emphasizes the power of Christ within believers, greater than any worldly opposition.

9. John 6:56

•“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.”

•In this passage, Jesus speaks metaphorically about spiritual communion with Him, symbolizing the deep union and indwelling of Christ in believers.

10. 2 Corinthians 4:6-7

•“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

•The indwelling of Christ is described as a treasure within believers, though they are frail (jars of clay), highlighting the power of God at work in them.

11. Romans 8:11

•“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”

•The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is sent by Christ, brings life and resurrection power to believers.

12. John 17:23

•“I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

•In Jesus’ prayer, He speaks of His indwelling in believers as a sign of God’s love and unity.

13. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

•“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

•While this speaks primarily of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, it also points to the presence of Christ in believers through the Spirit.

14. 1 John 3:24

•“The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

•This verse affirms that Christ lives in believers through the Holy Spirit, which serves as evidence of their relationship with God.

15. John 14:23

•“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’”

•Jesus promises that both He and the Father will make their home in those who love Him, emphasizing the indwelling presence of God in believers.

16. Colossians 3:3-4

•“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

•Paul speaks of Christ being the very life of believers, indicating that He lives in them and their lives are now hidden in Him.

17. Revelation 3:20

•“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

•Jesus promises to enter into a close, personal relationship with those who respond to Him, symbolizing His presence within them.

These passages underscore the Christian belief that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, lives within every believer, guiding, empowering, and transforming their lives. This indwelling is foundational to the believer’s relationship with Christ and is the source of spiritual growth, strength, and hope.

Conclusion

 The Incarnation is not just a doctrine but a transformative truth that shapes the very essence of Christian life and worship. “He became as we are so that we can become as he is.”

 

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