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I. As God
А. Christ being God incarnated
B. Christ being the Son of God
II. As man
А. Christ being man
B. Christ being the Son of Man
C. Christ becoming flesh yet without sin
III. Christ being the mingling of God and man
Incarnation is the first major step that Christ took to accomplish God's purpose. When we say God was incarnated we mean that God became a man; He took on flesh and blood. This was a tremendous event, the greatest in all of human history. The mighty God who existed in eternity became a lowly man in time. Christ did this not only to become our Savior, but more importantly to bring God into man, divinity into humanity. The more you consider Christ's incarnation the more you will be amazed. That little baby born in Bethlehem was the God of the whole universe! A proper realization of Christ's incarnation is the first and crucial step for our understanding of the Person and work of Christ.
The descriptions of Christ's conception and birth in Matthew and Luke clearly indicate that He is God Himself. Matthew 1:20-23 says, "For that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
In this passage there are three main points which strongly prove that our Lord Jesus is God Himself:
1) He was born through the impregnation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God Himself. Hence, because Jesus was born through the impregnation of the Holy Spirit, it means that He was God incarnated. The Holy Spirit went into Mary and Jesus the Son came out. Jesus' essence was God. This agrees exactly with John 1:1 and 14, which say that He is God who became flesh.
2) God ordained His name to be called Jesus. "Jesus" in Greek is equivalent to "Joshua" in Hebrew (Num. 13:16; Heb. 4:8), which means "Jehovah Savior." This tells us that this Jesus is Jehovah God who became our Savior. Hence, He is God Himself. In the Old Testament He was only Jehovah. But praise the Lord, through incarnation He became Jesus, Jehovah our Savior!
3) God not only ordained His name to be Jesus, but men also called Him by the name Emmanuel. Emmanuel means "God with us." This also indicates that He is God. The One who became flesh and dwelt among men is God with men.
When Jesus was to be conceived, God sent the angel Gabriel who said, "He will be great, and will be called, Son of the Most High..the holy thing which is born will be called, Son of God" (Luke 1:32, 35). Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is called the Son of God (Matt. 3:17; 14:33; 16:16; 27:54; John 1:34, 49). This title shows that the Lord is divine and that He is equal to God (John 5:17-18). Because of these points we should have no question that Christ was God incarnated.
The other side of the Lord's incarnation is that it occurred through Mary, a human virgin. This gave Jesus the human essence. He was one hundred percent man. He was God who had become a man. But He did not become a man suddenly. He stayed in a woman's womb like any other baby. Imagine that! God was confined in a woman's womb for nine months! Then He was born and brought up like any other Jewish child (Luke 2:21-24). Everything was done according to the ordinary human way, proving He had definitely become a man.
Although He was the Son of God, many times Jesus called Himself "the Son of Man" (Matt. 8:20; 9:6; 26:64; John 1:51; 3:13; 6:27). Matthew 1 gives the genealogy (family tree) of Jesus Christ. He is the Son of Abraham and the Son of David (Matt. 1:1). Therefore, Jesus was a genuine man.
Although the Lord became flesh, He was without sin. Christ was made in "the likeness of the flesh of sin" (Rom. 8:3), but He did not participate in the sin of the flesh. All of Adam's descendants have inherited Adam's sinful nature (Rom. 5:12,19); everyone is born in sin in Adam. This is why the Lord's virgin birth is very important. Although the Lord had the likeness of Adam, He did not inherit the sinful nature of Adam. He was not born in Adam. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary. As we shall see in a later lesson, it was necessary for Christ to know no sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and to be without sin (Heb. 4:15) in order for Him to accomplish redemption.
The incarnation of Jesus means more than the birth of a Savior. For four thousand years after Adam was created, God was God, and man was man. Yes, man had something to do with God, and God sometimes made contact with man, yet the two remained separate. However, when Christ was born as a man, a strange and wonderful event took place — God was brought into man and thereby formed a mingling of divinity with humanity. Jesus was God and He was man; He was a God-man.
Because He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has the divine essence; and because He was conceived in a human virgin, Jesus has the human essence. Therefore, He is a Person with two essences — the divine and human — mingled together. It is unbelievable to our natural mind that the Almighty God would one day mingle Himself with man. But remember what God's eternal purpose is — God wants to get into man so that man would fully express God. This is just mingling. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, he would have been a God-man, a man fully one with God. He would have been not just a good man but a God-man. Although Adam failed, Christ, through His incarnation, became the very first man to be mingled with God. Praise the Lord! The Lord Jesus was the Triune God embodied in a man. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily (Col. 2:9).
"In the beginning was the Word..and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh" (John 1:1, 14). Never in the history of the universe had such a thing taken place. You should be very impressed with the great significance of the incarnation. It was so great that it caused an army of excited angels to burst forth from the heavens and praise God (Luke 2:8-14). Four thousand years after man's fall, God became Jesus (Jehovah our Savior) and Emmanuel (God with us). Hallelujah! God with us! Christ's incarnation inspired Charles Wesley to write a wonderful hymn. The first two stanzas are below.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild;
God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic hosts proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem."
(Repeat the last two lines)
Christ, by highest heav'n adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord:
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th' incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.
(Repeat the last two lines)
(Hymns, # 84)
God is no longer just God — He is God in man. God has been brought into man; divinity is mingled with humanity. What an incarnation!
