Grudem (Systematic Theology, p541f) outlines a number of reasons. What follows is based on his discussion.
Docetism – the belief that Christ did not assume a truly human body at his incarnation – was around in the days of the later New Testament writings, as the epistles of John testify.
It was clearly as rather stubborn heresy, for it is also found within the pages of the Qur’an (7th century). According to Sura 4:157-158.
The authority of Scripture can be forthrightly denied; “I don’t believe that!” But, amongst Christians who claim to believe in biblical authority (including scholars, preachers and pastors) there can be more subtle types of denial.
So writes D.A. Carson in this recent piece in Themelios. What follows is a precis.
This is clearly at work in advocates of the ‘prosperity gospel’, who cherry-pick texts that appear to support their message, while ignoring those which speak of cross-carrying and suffering with Christ. …
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Let’s begin by celebrating some of the great achievements of the human race….
But there is one path of enquiry that is shut to us; one horizon beyond which we are unable to see…
The world, through its own unaided wisdom, cannot, does not, and never will, know God, 1 Cor 1:21.
But there is a wisdom that comes from God, a wisdom of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.
It is invisible, inaudible, unimaginable, 1 Cor 2:9.…
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. …
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).…
Text: Matthew 26:1-16
[Note: these are notes of a sermon preached in two parts, separated by a time of reflection and confession. As you will see, each half was delivered using a 1st-person perspective.]
I heard it with my very ears: “In two days’ time, I’m going to be handed over to be crucified.”
A criminal’s death. The cruelest and most degrading form of death.
He’d said such things before, of course: ‘[that] he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’…
http://www.solasisters.com/2012/07/survey-of-heresies.html
John Owen ‘picked up on a theme found in Augustine, namely, communion as the “enjoyment,” or possession of and delighting in the triune God. In Augustine’s “On Christian Doctrine,” one chapter is titled, “The Trinity the true object of enjoyment.” There, Augustine wrote, “The true objects of enjoyment, then, are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are at the same time the Trinity, one Being, supreme above all, and common to all who enjoy Him.”’…
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