Category Archives: Incarnation

The incarnate Christ did not cease to be divine

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It is one thing to affirm that Christ was (and is) both human and divine.  It is another to seek to understand how these truths relate to one another.

Peter Lewis has some helpful comments on our belief that the incarnate Christ did not cease to be divine.

According to John 1:14, ‘the Word became flesh’.  ‘However,’ writes Lewis, ‘we are not to think of the Son as leaving a sort of gap in the Godhead, a vacancy in the Trinity, at his coming down to earth as a man.  …

Why did Christ become a human being?

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Grudem (Systematic Theology, p541f) outlines a number of reasons.  What follows is based on his discussion.

  1. To be our representative.  Jesus obeyed where Adam had failed to obey.  This is seen in the parallels between the time of testing in the garden, Gen 2:15-3:7, and Jesus’ time of temptation in the wilderness.  It is seen also in Paul’s comparison of Adam and Christ in Rom 5:18f; cf. 1 Cor 15:45,47.
  2. To be our substitute.  
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Christ had a human mind

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Apollinarianism

Whereas the Christian doctrine of the incarnation first came under threat from docetism, which denied that Christ had a real human body, Apollinarianism soon followed, with its denial that that he had a real human psychology.

Apollinaris was, by all accounts, a deeply spiritual man whose theology was in many respects perfectly orthodox.  But he was condemned as a heretic by the Council of Constantinople in 381.  He taught that although Christ took on a human body, he did not take on a human mind.  …

Christ had a human body

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The term ‘docetism’ (from the Greek dokeo, meaning ‘to seem’) covers a range of speculations concerning the person of Christ.  The common feature of the Docetists was an insistence that God could not become man.

At the time of the early church, its main representatives were Cerinthus, Ebion, Marcion and Valentinus.  Their teachings were examined and rebutted by men such as Irenaeus (Against Heresies) and Tertullian (On the Flesh of Christ; Against Marcion).…

Jesus – pre-existent or exalted divinity?

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Bart Ehrman is one of those scholars who impresses with his extensive knowledge (to say nothing of his personal charm and communication ability), but who makes glaring errors of judgement on too regular a basis.  Perhaps it is his own loss of Christian faith that makes him so certain that he has no axe to grind that he cannot see the axes lying all around him – some on have already been ground, others are waiting to be ground, still others are in the process of being ground.  …

Five truths about the incarnation

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Based on this post by Joseph Scheumann:-

1.  The incarnation was not the divine Son’s beginning.

Our Lord did not begin to exist with the virginal conception or with his birth in Bethlehem.  No: the incarnation means that he who had no beginning began to be what he eternally was not – a human being.

2.  The incarnation shows Jesus’ humility.

No ordinary king, Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve (Mk 10:45).  …

Out of Egypt – sermon notes

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Matthew 2:13-23

V13 – ‘When they had gone’ – that same night?

Whatever happened to the gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Three places – three prophecies. Not always 1:1 prediction/fulfilment (cf. Mt 2:5/Mic 5:2); they are more like ‘patterns’.

1. Egypt – a place of rescue

Border about 75 miles away. Many Jews living there.

V15 – ‘And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”’ (Hos 11:1)

Hos 11:1 not a prediction, but a glance back to the Exodus.…

‘The fullness of the times’ (Ephesians 1:10)

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In the New International Version (1984 ed.) Eph 1:9f reads:-

‘[God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.’

There are several issues with this translation.  Firstly, ‘to be put into effect’ rather obscures the important word οἰκονομίαν (economy, administration) in the original. …

‘The Nativity’ – too much doubt, not enough joy

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It all came together in last night’s final episode of the BBC’s ‘The Nativity’.

Jupiter, Saturn, and Regulus came together in an improbably brilliant and sudden conjunction.

Mary and Joseph came together in a somewhat contrived joining of hands as she gave birth to her first-born.

The shepherds came together to greet the new baby, as did the three Magi a few moments later.

As with the previous three episodes, there was something rather thoughtful and human about the reactions of the various participants. …

Much ado about ‘The Nativity’

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The Daily Express has melodramatically announced that there is ‘fury over BBC’s nativity insult’:-

The BBC has angered Christians with a TV drama in which the Virgin Mary is branded a prostitute and sex cheat.

Already, there is a danger of too little light being obscured by too much smoke.  The Express only cites one angry Christian – Stephen Green, of Christian Voice.  And I think his criticism is misplaced.

I’ve seen the first three episodes of this drama (the fourth and last is to be broadcast tomorrow). …