Essentials of the Faith - Pt 4

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’” For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14-17 ESV).

First, we ought to make sure we understand which Person of the Trinity became incarnate in Jesus Christ? All three? Or just one? The biblical answer is that only God the Son became incarnate. The Father did not become incarnate in Jesus and neither did the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus is God, but he is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God the Son. The truth that it is only God the Son who became incarnate is taught in our reading today. In context, the Word is God the Son (cf. 1:1, 18, and 3:16). Thus, it wasn’t the Father or the Holy Spirit who became man, but God the Son. This is also seen Jesus’ baptism (cf. Luke 3:22). This is important to keep us from being mistaken about the identity of our Savior. There are far too many false teaching that somehow indicate that there is “another way” to redemption and atonement. The only means where we may be forgiven is by the perfect man, who is the perfect God. The Apostle Paul is very clear in declaring this in his letter to the Romans (cf. Romans 5:12-17). Further, it greatly affects how we relate to our triune God. And, if we think that Jesus is the Father or the Holy Spirit, we will be greatly misguided and confused in our prayers. We should also see that if Jesus is God, then he has always been God. There was never a time when he became God, for God is eternal. But Jesus has not always been man. The fantastic miracle is that this eternal God became man through the incarnation. And that is the great event we celebrate at Christmas. This does not mean that he turned into a man in the sense that he stopped being God and started being man. Jesus did not give up any of his divinity in the incarnation. Rather, as one early theologian put it, “Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.” Christ “was not now God minus some elements of his deity, but God plus all that he had made his own by taking manhood to himself.” Thus, Jesus did not give up any of his divine attributes at the incarnation. He remained in full possession of all of them. For if he were to ever give up any of his divine attributes, he would cease being God. The truth of Jesus’ humanity is just as important to hold to as the truth of his deity. His humanity is the great comfort we are given as we face our trials. He knows simply because he has traveled this same path. The difference is that He has the power to comfort as well as understand. He has the power to create good in all of it!