Question 26:
How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
Christ, the Son of God became man by taking to himself
a true body and a reasonable soul. He was conceived by the power of the Holy
Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born of her, yet without sin.
DAY
1: Luke 1:31, 35; Colossians 2:9
The context for Luke chapter one is the announcement
of the birth of two boys. The first was
to be John the Baptist. He was to be the
herald or forerunner of the latter. He
would also be his cousin and six months older than the other. The second was to be Jesus Christ, who would
save His people from their sins (Matt.
The contrast between the
conception, birth and nature of these two babies that were to be born were
diametrically opposed. While John was
conceived by the sexual relationship between his mother and father and thereby
obtained a sinful nature, Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of
Mary with both a divine nature and a human nature. He did not receive a sinful nature. This is important because some have suggested
that God must have taken on a physical body and had a sexual relationship with
Mary. Not only is that not within the
character or nature of God, it’s also not in the text. Mary is, however, wondering how she will
conceive since she has not had intercourse with a man (34). The angel then tells her that the Holy Spirit
will come upon her. The words “come
upon” are a single word in Greek, “eperchomai”. Eperchomai means “to come, to arrive. to come
upon, overtake one”. The word is used to
speak of sleep, calamities, disease, and even of the Holy Spirit descending and
operating in one. It is also referenced
as an enemy attacking. We then see that
the power of the Highest will overshadow her.
The word here is episkiazo. Episkiazo means, “to throw a shadow upon, to
envelop in a shadow, to overshadow”. The
Online Bible Greek lexicon says that this word “seems to have been drawn from
the familiar OT idea of a cloud as symbolizing the immediate presence and power
of God”. In other words, it seems that
their would be the presence and power of God with Mary at the moment of her
conception. He would not just say the
words, “Let there be a baby” from far, far away. Rather the implication is that He would be
right there with Mary when by His own power He would impregnate her.
This child must be human. He would be the one to pay for human
sin. Therefore He must be like
them. Colossians 2:9 tells us that He
didn’t throw away His divine nature, but rather kept it along with the nature
of man. He was and still is deity
manifested in a body. Though there were
pharaohs and others down through history who thought they were God in the
flesh, Jesus really was. It would take
one who was eternal, without sin and who was also man to pay for man’s
sin. Jesus did not become an angel to
obtain redemption for fallen angels. He
became a man. He was born of a virgin
and endured all the things in life that man endures.
You may want to use the comment
by John Piper on the last page to illustrate the mystery of the incarnation
with your family. Though it is a mystery
of how it happened, we know that God has told us that it did happen. We could almost take the idea that man has
been able to perform “test tube” conceptions.
These are conceptions that take place outside the mother’s womb and then
are placed inside the womb to be carried till delivery. What would make someone think that God, the
giver of life could not have brought about the same similar, yet more
incredible, because He did it without the aid of man, procedure concerning His
own Son?
DAY 2: Heb.
The
writer of Hebrews is set on exalting Christ.
He is determined to show that Jesus Christ is superior to anyone and
anything of the Old Testament. He is
greater than Moses, Abraham, angels, and even others who were held in high
esteem in
The “children” of this passage refers to those who
are men. They are flesh and blood. They have the physical bodies. The physical body has the capacity for
death. Thus Jesus Christ took on the
“flesh and blood”. He did not have a
heavenly body, nor was He merely a spirit appearing in time. He had a real body like ours. It was subject to the very things we
are: pain, suffering, sweat, energy, infirmities,
etc.
Christ’s body was given to him
for a single purpose. That purpose was
to deliver it up to be killed. The
writer proclaims that it was through death that He would destroy the power of
death, speaking of the devil. This is
not to say that the devil has all power over death and men to dispense death as
he pleases. It is to say that since he
was the introducer of sin to mankind, sin also brought with it the consequences
of death. Jesus was able to destroy the
power of death. The word destroy (katargeo), means, “to render idle,
unemployed, inactivate, inoperative, to cause a person or thing to have no further
efficiency to deprive of force, influence, power, to cause to cease, put an end
to, do away with, annul, abolish”. Jesus
by physical death was able to destroy the power of Satan.
Not only is He the destroyer of the power of death,
but He is also our great High Priest.
The inference here is that He is superior to the priestly line of the
Levites. The Greek literally reads that
He is our Mega Chief Priest. He is also
referenced as having passed through the heavens. Therefore, He is not one offering sacrifices
for us here on earth, but Hebrews goes on to say that He offered one sacrifice
and sat down. His work is accomplished
and now He intercedes on our behalf, not from earth, but in heaven. Therefore, we should be diligent to continue
in the faith or “hold fast our confession”.
Again
in chapter 7, verse 26, the writer goes on to say that Christ was a fitting
priest for us. What this means is that
He was like us in every way, but without sin.
An angel could not have been our priest, because they have not
experienced things the way we have.
Christ did. He took on a human
body. He endured life as we know it. He knew what it was like to work hard, to
sweat, to hunger, to thirst, to have close friends, to see loved ones die, to
be persecuted, and to be tempted. Yet
Christ was able to overcome all these things and not sin.
The writer says that He is fitting because He is holy
(hosios), harmless (akakos), undefiled (amiantos), separate from sinners
(chorizo apo ho hamartolos), and higher than the heavens (hupselos ho ouranos
ginomai). Jesus is holy and this means
that He is undefiled by sin. He is apart
from sinners and that which is sinful.
He is harmless. This means that
He is without guilt and that He is not a fraud.
He is undefiled. This has to do
with His nature. Though He is a man, He
does not possess the sinful nature of a man.
He does however possess a human nature and we must distinguish between
the two. He is also separate from
sinners. This has a similar meaning like
holy. This means that He is separate
from sinners, but the idea of chorizo is that of a divorce that takes place
between a husband and wife. It speaks to
real ethical purity. Lastly, He is
higher than the heavens. Many
theologians believe this is a reference to His exaltation.
It was the incarnation that
brought about such a great High Priest.
DAY
3: John
We have looked at John 1:14 in a previous lesson, so
we will in passing make mention that Jesus Christ did come in the flesh. The word (logos) that the Greeks thought was
unknowable, had indeed taken human form and dwelt among humans. But, did He merely appear to be man or was he
an illusion. This is some of the heresy
that John wrote about in his epistles.
There were obviously some who were saying that God could not and would
not come in the flesh. Islam teaches
such things. It is beneath God to come
in human form. Therefore to accept
Christ as the Son of God is preposterous.
John says these who hold this view are antichrist. However, the Bible does teach that Jesus
Christ, God’s Son, came in the flesh and experience the things that man
experiences.
Though He was fully God, He was also fully man. We see in John 12:27 that His soul was
troubled by the events which were just a few hours away. We can see both natures manifest
themselves. Jesus’ human nature is
horrified by the events about to take place and so as a man He is fearful of
the divine wrath which He is about to endure.
He is also not expectant of the humiliation of the crowd that He will
have to endure. Yet, He is steadfast
in His thinking that it was for this
very humiliation, endurance of God’s wrath and all the events surrounding it
that He was here for and thus able to be submissive to His Father’s will. No sin was involved, just an honest,
emotional, yet holy struggle that took place within Him.
In Matthew 26:38 we see Him appealing to his
disciples, his friends, to watch and pray with him. Why?
Again, He says that His soul is troubled. In both John 12 and here in Matthew 26, Jesus
references His soul as being troubled.
The word for soul is psuche. Psuche can reference the seat of the
feelings, desires, affections, and aversions.
It also references the moral being which differs from the body and is
not dissolved by death. Did Jesus have a
soul? Absolutely. His emotions and every fiber of His being,
as it were, were stressed during this time before His crucifixion. It even came to the point where His sweat
became as great drops of blood. Though
His human nature feared what was before Him, He was willing to submit Himself
to His Father’s will. It was as if He
was saying, “Father, you are leading me into this, please bring me through it”.
Did Jesus face real stress and
real struggles? Yes. But He did not sin though stress was placed
upon Him and though His struggle was greater than that we have ever known. He is the Theos anthropos, the God-man. He is our High Priest and He understands
everything that we go through because He has experienced it Himself.
I really lack the words to try to build upon this
thought since I am indeed dealing with something that is a mystery, that is how
God became a man and how He lived and died as a man. Think about and discuss these things with
your family and be prepared to share some of your discussions this week.
Scripture: Hebrews
Comment: I am typing this
on a Personal Computer. I have virtually no idea how it works. That it works I
am certain: I have typed hundreds of sermons on it. So it is with the
"incarnation"--the "how" is (as the old theologians used to
say) "ineffable". We believe it because the Scriptures teach it and
because it "works" to make sense out of God's whole redemptive plan.