The Doctrine of Incarnation

Before begin to go into what incarnation is, let us first describe what incarnation is not. 

1. Incarnation is NOT RELOCATION- Meaning Christ didn't come down from heaven to Mary. Going from one place to another.

2. Incarnation is NOT TRANSFORMATION- Meaning Christ became something that he was not before. Transformation meaning that Christ gained and/or lost something in the process of heaven to earth.

3. Incarnation is NOT "TERTUM QUID"- "Third Thing" Meaning a bringing together of elements to create something new. Christ was and is not a bringing together of human and Godly elements to form some sort of super human, Hercules like figure. 

Incarnation is- Jesus is fully God and fully human while in the integrity of 1 person of Jesus Christ. He is all that it means to be human and all that it means to be God in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the word and the son (John 1:1) He is God existing in the community of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). God didn't become human in the form of Jesus the word/son of God became flesh "and dwelt among us." Probably one of the best ways to understand incarnation is put it this way "Became flesh in form of God while still being God." 

The same source that John speaks about in John 1:1, the word is present in the womb of Mary working by the Holy Spirit. That spirit is present throughout all of creation from the creation account in Genesis 1:2 "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." The same source that overshadowed Mary or Spirit that overshadowed her is the same spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis, the spirit of God or Holy Spirit, the Word (John 1:1), and God himself were there for the beginning of creation. And all three played a role in the birth of Christ, when the word being God and man came into the world. 

The same spirit that hovered over the waters is the same spirit that overshadowed Mary. Why does Matthew use the word overshadowed rather than hovered? In the Hebrew text that the Old Testament was written the word hovered over means exactly the same as the Greek word for overshadowed. However, the word hovered in the Greek during the time that Matthew was writing meant to hold down or in a lose term "to rape." It was not a good thing to say hovered in the Greek. Matthew did not want to give this impression to the readers, so rather than make it seem impure Matthew uses the term overshadow to represent the spirit of God being near to Mary and being within the time in which Mary and the Angel of the Lord are talking.   The trinity is the perfectness of all three parts existing in the community of humanity.

All three work for the good of humanity for the same goal. No single part is more important than 

the other and no one part is complete without the others. God is in all three parts and still is God.

Jesus is in all three parts and still is Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is in all three parts and still is the

Holy Spirit. The community of the God-head is the separate, and equalness of all three working in

creation for the purpose of helping creation. The beautiful thing about God is he can't be contained

and can't be contained to one being. He is God all three in one. He is God in all three.

Christ is not just God and man, but he is all that it means to be God and yet at the same time

all that it means to be human. He is the human form of God, and yet the heavenly form of God. He

is working in the world with a human form and body, yet in the all as God in the word, holy Spirit,

and the father. There is nothing taken away by God being on the earth, he is simply fulfilling the plan

for there to be a ultimate sacrifice for all of the world. 

Being both fully human and fully God at the same time, is the bottom line definition of incarnation.

1. Jesus is fully man (John 1:14, Revelation 1:13)

2. Jesus is fully God (Colossians 1:19, 2:9)

3. Jesus is one person (1 Corinthians 8:6)

This means that it is possible for Jesus, according to his human essence, to grow, learn, die, etc. and according to his Divine essence to perform miracles, create from nothing, etc. The two essences each have their own set of properties, and which properties you see in a verse in Scripture will have something to say about one or the other of them (sometimes both). Because Jesus is human, he has a God to whom he prays and to whom he offers worship. Because he is God he is properly the object of our worship.

Without incarnation our faith and our entire religion is in vain. Without Christ being born into the world and dying for us, our faith is all in vain. In fact Paul said, in Galatians 2:21 "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" The incarnation is necessary for Christ to provide a way for salvation. Without he being born both God and man, died on a cross for all of humanity our faith is in vain, for the law can't save us but righteousness comes from Christ. His death and resurrection are the standard of grace. Grace begins with that. Grace is Jesus being sacrificed for our sins, that is Grace, salvation through faith, that faith being allowed because of the grace of God. 

What better explain of grace than Christ, leaving all of heaven for a sin-sick world, to die for all, and give salvation through him, not law but grace. Without that it all does not matter. Incarnation is the way to explain how Christ way able to do and be what he was, and it is because of him that our faith is what it is. The reason for grace starts with Genesis 1:2 and with spirit being there in the beginning of time. From the start Christ was there and God's plan for salvation began to form.