Imagine with me if you will, two cosmic points each with completely opposite values, each in conflict with each other. Now imagine these points colliding in some scenario, not just colliding but uniting and further this occurrence is by design not chance. Sounds phenomenal you say? That is because it is and that is the concept behind the doctrine of the Incarnation.
In order to understand the true power and importance of the Incarnation we must understand to facts about the cosmos. Number 1: The Nature of God and Number 2: The Nature of Man.
The Nature of God
So often when we think of God we imagine a perfect version of ourselves. The tests we apply to try to understand God are faulty because we imagine God as “Me plus some”. But the very best us there could be would still fall far short of who God is. It is like a child throwing rocks into a pond in hopes of glimpsing the depths of the sea. Man’s best understanding of God is based on a finite existence while God is infinite.
But scripture does give us a long desired glimpse into the nature of God, scripture tells us that God is Holy.(1 Peter 1:16) Holy… Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines Holy as “[P]ure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character…” Thus if we were to draw a spectrum and on one end is the most despotic concept of evil the other end would be occupied by God himself.
The Nature of Man
But what would lie on the ‘unholy’ side of the spectrum? The truth is one which the human heart does not want to hear, perhaps because it is an indictment of itself. One does not need to merely appeal to Scripture to make the case for Human Depravity (Romans 3, Jeremiah 17, etc.) for sufficient evidence for the reality of this is found in a mere understanding of Human Behavior. Study after study has demonstrated this…
In her book Machete Season author Jean Hatzfeld examined the stories of the men who helped slaughter millions in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. She interviewed a group of nine men who banded together and over a summer killed 50,000 of their neighbors (mostly with machetes). Hatzfeld expected hardened criminals, men of immense evil but what greeted her were ordinary people just like you and me. When she asked these men what drove them they didn’t know, they admitted what they did was wrong and stated that somewhere in their innermost being existed a force that made it easier to butcher a human then to cut a sugar cane, easier to kill then to farm.
It’s been the same line used by those involved in the killings of Rwanda to the Khmer Rouge genocide, the ovens of Auschwitz to the trials of Nuremberg, something untamed exists in the human spirit. Something called Depravity. This Depravity places us on the opposite end of the spectrum and makes us a force opposing God.
In fact our violation of God’s law demands that we be punished by Him… in His perfect nature the Lord has no choice but to pour out His wrath upon us. Except this is not God’s will. Scripture tells us “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) And thus in His infinite knowledge and nature God executed a plan laid out in heavenly counsels before the foundation of the world: The Incarnation.
What is it?
In simple terms the Incarnation is the radical, and amazing (yet true) claim that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Human at the same time. Two points on a cosmic spectrum colliding, humanity and divinity. United together in the person of Jesus. God becoming a man, a man with a mission. So why exactly did Jesus have to become a man?
The Incarnation Reconciles:
Understanding the divide in natures, we must now understand the will of God. God’s will is that this divide be reconciled. That the humans who rebelled against Him be once again united with Him in perfect communion. But the only way this could occur is if God himself took on the nature of man. And this could only occur if a man existed sinlessly because God must be sinless. And this could only occur via the Incarnation. The mutual existence of a hypostatic union between man and God in the person of Jesus.
The Incarnation Redeems:
But merely bridging the divide was not enough, mankind had still broken God’s law, mankind still embraced a depraved nature, and this mandated punishment. So the Jesus (Fully God and fully man, incarnate) had to take the punishment in place of us as a race of rebellious humans. The only way this could happen and be just is if and only if an innocent party took the place of a guilty one, once again the Incarnation provides the solution.
The Incarnation Resurrects:
Christ's mere dying on the cross was not sufficient for the success of God’s will. Think of it… if the plan ended with Jesus’ death the cosmos is left with a dead God. But Jesus existed not only as man (which dies) but as God (which gives life) and triumphing in this dual nature he raised Himself from the dead demonstrating his deity and providing a hope of resurrection to humanity.
And Finally The Incarnation Restores and Relates:
Reconciled, Redeemed, and Resurrected… But the Human Race was not exempt from the further power of the of The Incarnation. God was not out to simply bridge a divide, do away with sin, and raise mortals. No His desire is to bring them unto Himself in a relationship, to restore them to a status of communion with Him. Think of it… God and man… to points on a cosmic spectrum colliding and now relating with one another. All because and only because of the work of Jesus through the Incarnation. Now that is a true Christmas Miracle!
In order to understand the true power and importance of the Incarnation we must understand to facts about the cosmos. Number 1: The Nature of God and Number 2: The Nature of Man.
The Nature of God
So often when we think of God we imagine a perfect version of ourselves. The tests we apply to try to understand God are faulty because we imagine God as “Me plus some”. But the very best us there could be would still fall far short of who God is. It is like a child throwing rocks into a pond in hopes of glimpsing the depths of the sea. Man’s best understanding of God is based on a finite existence while God is infinite.
But scripture does give us a long desired glimpse into the nature of God, scripture tells us that God is Holy.(1 Peter 1:16) Holy… Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines Holy as “[P]ure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character…” Thus if we were to draw a spectrum and on one end is the most despotic concept of evil the other end would be occupied by God himself.
The Nature of Man
But what would lie on the ‘unholy’ side of the spectrum? The truth is one which the human heart does not want to hear, perhaps because it is an indictment of itself. One does not need to merely appeal to Scripture to make the case for Human Depravity (Romans 3, Jeremiah 17, etc.) for sufficient evidence for the reality of this is found in a mere understanding of Human Behavior. Study after study has demonstrated this…
In her book Machete Season author Jean Hatzfeld examined the stories of the men who helped slaughter millions in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994. She interviewed a group of nine men who banded together and over a summer killed 50,000 of their neighbors (mostly with machetes). Hatzfeld expected hardened criminals, men of immense evil but what greeted her were ordinary people just like you and me. When she asked these men what drove them they didn’t know, they admitted what they did was wrong and stated that somewhere in their innermost being existed a force that made it easier to butcher a human then to cut a sugar cane, easier to kill then to farm.
It’s been the same line used by those involved in the killings of Rwanda to the Khmer Rouge genocide, the ovens of Auschwitz to the trials of Nuremberg, something untamed exists in the human spirit. Something called Depravity. This Depravity places us on the opposite end of the spectrum and makes us a force opposing God.
In fact our violation of God’s law demands that we be punished by Him… in His perfect nature the Lord has no choice but to pour out His wrath upon us. Except this is not God’s will. Scripture tells us “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) And thus in His infinite knowledge and nature God executed a plan laid out in heavenly counsels before the foundation of the world: The Incarnation.
What is it?
In simple terms the Incarnation is the radical, and amazing (yet true) claim that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Human at the same time. Two points on a cosmic spectrum colliding, humanity and divinity. United together in the person of Jesus. God becoming a man, a man with a mission. So why exactly did Jesus have to become a man?
The Incarnation Reconciles:
Understanding the divide in natures, we must now understand the will of God. God’s will is that this divide be reconciled. That the humans who rebelled against Him be once again united with Him in perfect communion. But the only way this could occur is if God himself took on the nature of man. And this could only occur if a man existed sinlessly because God must be sinless. And this could only occur via the Incarnation. The mutual existence of a hypostatic union between man and God in the person of Jesus.
The Incarnation Redeems:
But merely bridging the divide was not enough, mankind had still broken God’s law, mankind still embraced a depraved nature, and this mandated punishment. So the Jesus (Fully God and fully man, incarnate) had to take the punishment in place of us as a race of rebellious humans. The only way this could happen and be just is if and only if an innocent party took the place of a guilty one, once again the Incarnation provides the solution.
The Incarnation Resurrects:
Christ's mere dying on the cross was not sufficient for the success of God’s will. Think of it… if the plan ended with Jesus’ death the cosmos is left with a dead God. But Jesus existed not only as man (which dies) but as God (which gives life) and triumphing in this dual nature he raised Himself from the dead demonstrating his deity and providing a hope of resurrection to humanity.
And Finally The Incarnation Restores and Relates:
Reconciled, Redeemed, and Resurrected… But the Human Race was not exempt from the further power of the of The Incarnation. God was not out to simply bridge a divide, do away with sin, and raise mortals. No His desire is to bring them unto Himself in a relationship, to restore them to a status of communion with Him. Think of it… God and man… to points on a cosmic spectrum colliding and now relating with one another. All because and only because of the work of Jesus through the Incarnation. Now that is a true Christmas Miracle!