"Incarnation," it comes from the Latin and it means "in the flesh." Two thousand years ago, God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, became human. Jesus Christ, while never ceasing to be God, assumed a human nature literally becoming the God-man, "Remaining what He was, He became what He wasn't," states theologian Wayne Grudem. Jesus Christ in His incarnation became fully human while remaining fully God, and as the incarnate Son of God, He was one person with two natures, one human and one divine.
“’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ —which means, ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:23). John states, “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, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). The Apostle Paul says, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Phil. 2:6-7).
To reject either the humanity or the divinity of Jesus is to deny the true identity of Christ. Why does that matter, you might ask? Because if Christ is not the God-man, then He not the Savior mankind needs!
The incarnation of Jesus Christ clearly:
1. Informs us of our sin and our desperate condition. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). His birth implies what the first three chapters of Roman’s assert—that man is lost. He neither could, nor would, choose to save himself.
2. Informs us of God’s desire and ability to save us. When we think of the love of God, we tend to think of the Cross, that’s because we fail to remember, as someone once said, “the wood of the cradle and the wood of the cross are the same.” There is no cross without the cradle!
3. Warns us of the absurdity of rejecting salvation in Jesus Christ. If man were not hopelessly lost in his sin and on his way hell, the Father would have never sent His Son to die on the cross via the cradle! If there were any other way by which we could be saved, then the Father wouldn’t have sent His Son to die on the cross via the cradle! How foolish indeed is the notion that a person will ever stand before God in any righteousness having rejected Jesus Christ, God incarnate. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God…It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:26-27, 31).
“’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ —which means, ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:23). John states, “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, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). The Apostle Paul says, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Phil. 2:6-7).
To reject either the humanity or the divinity of Jesus is to deny the true identity of Christ. Why does that matter, you might ask? Because if Christ is not the God-man, then He not the Savior mankind needs!
The incarnation of Jesus Christ clearly:
1. Informs us of our sin and our desperate condition. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). His birth implies what the first three chapters of Roman’s assert—that man is lost. He neither could, nor would, choose to save himself.
2. Informs us of God’s desire and ability to save us. When we think of the love of God, we tend to think of the Cross, that’s because we fail to remember, as someone once said, “the wood of the cradle and the wood of the cross are the same.” There is no cross without the cradle!
3. Warns us of the absurdity of rejecting salvation in Jesus Christ. If man were not hopelessly lost in his sin and on his way hell, the Father would have never sent His Son to die on the cross via the cradle! If there were any other way by which we could be saved, then the Father wouldn’t have sent His Son to die on the cross via the cradle! How foolish indeed is the notion that a person will ever stand before God in any righteousness having rejected Jesus Christ, God incarnate. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God…It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:26-27, 31).
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