Reflections on the Incarnation

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
- John 1:14

"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
- Hebrews 2:14-15

Another Christmas season is flying by. The Christmas season is always busy, but this one seemed extra so. There was work, business trips, parties, church events and of course on top of it all Katie is especially busy in the middle of her residency intern year. No matter how many sermons you hear, how many blogs you read, how many times you are reminded to remember the true “reason of the season”, I am amazed at how easy it is to focus more on the traditions and commercialism of the season. But today, the tree is up, the gifts are bought, work is done and social obligations are complete and so I have some time to actually reflect on why as Christians we celebrate on this holiday.

Christmas tells the story of the incarnation, what C.S. Lewis calls the “Grand Miracle”. The incarnation is God taking on flesh as a man in the person of Jesus – both fully God and fully man. It tells of how through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus we are reconciled and come into deep fellowship with God.

The incarnation is important because Jesus showed us how to live through his life. God created humanity and it was good, but since the fall humanity has been corrupted with sin. We are inclined to do that which is not pleasing to God, and seek after lovers other than himself. Jesus, more than just telling us to be moral and to do good, came to earth in a particular culture and time (as a first century Jew), and showed us what it means to love fellow mankind, how to be compassionate for the needy, and ultimately how we are to glorify the Father. He was humanity in its most pure form.

But Jesus came not only to live. He also came to die and be raised to a new life. Millard Erickson tells us the incarnation is also important because it deals with our salvation, and it was necessary that Jesus be both man and deity:

“The human problem is the gap between us and God…a spiritual and moral gap between the two, a gap created by humans’ sin. Humans cannot by their own moral effort counter their sin in order to elevate themselves to the level of God. If there is to be fellowship between the two, they have to be united in some other way. This, it is traditionally understood, has been accomplished by the incarnation, in which deity and humanity were united in one person. If, however, Jesus was not really one of us, humanity has not been united with deity and we cannot be saved. For the validity of the work accomplished in Christ’s death, or at least its applicability to us as human beings, depends upon the reality of his humanity, just as its efficacy depends up the genuineness of his deity.”
(Christian Theology, p.722, emphasis added)

It was only through Jesus being both God and man that we can have fellowship with the Father. If Jesus were only one or the other we would not have been able to approach the throne of grace. The incarnation, therefore, should shape how we view ourselves, the world and God. Leslie Newbigin says, “the twin dogmas of Incarnation and Trinity form the starting point for a way of understanding reality as a whole” (Foolishness to the Greeks, p.90 – for more on how the Trinity plays into the Christmas story, check out the great three-part sermon series starting on 12/9 at Christ Community Church: here). Indeed, may we this Christmas see our understanding of reality shaped through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and in the friendship we have with God made possible through the Incarnation!