04.2.04. The King's Incarnation

Chapter 4 - THE KING’S INCARNATION The incarnation and virgin birth stand or fall together. “Unto us a child is born” has reference to the virgin birth; “unto us a son is given” refers to the incarnation (Isaiah 9:6). God saves man by identifying with him, and that identification has come through the virgin birth. Incarnation is the teaching that the second Person in the Trinity assumed human form in the Person of Jesus Christ. Virgin birth is the dogma that the conception and birth of Jesus Christ did not impair the virginity of Mary. The importance of this subject revolves around the degree to which the eternal Son of God identified Himself with man in the incarnation. A false conception of the extent of God’s identification with man would render both salvation and its consummation in the kingdom invalid (without foundation). The distinctive characteristic of the incarnation is the hypostatic union of the Divine and human natures in one Person. “...Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh...” (1 Timothy 3:16). John identified the incarnate Word with the eternal God of creation (John 1:1; Genesis 1:1). The creating speech of the first chapter of John is equivalent with an aspect of the one God who was both with God and was God (John 1:1). An imperfect Greek verb (en, from eimi), which means “to be” or “to exist” is used three times in this verse to signify that Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God, and He was God. He is called the Word (logos), but the Word is not the same as the One with whom He was existing. He who is with God was God. Jesus Christ as logos could not be seen; as flesh, He could not be heard; but the Word becoming flesh (John 1:14) could be seen and heard. The three parts of John 1:1 teach the following things concerning the incarnate Word:
(1) When the Word was—in the beginning. Since He existed in the beginning, He was before the beginning. The designation “Word” means He is eternal.
(2) Where the Word was—with God. This denotes His personality. He is a Person in the Godhead; therefore, He is deity.
(3) Who the Word was—God. He is the ever present I AM. The mystery of the first verse became more understandable to the elect in verse 14. He who was in the beginning was made flesh in time. He who was with God tabernacled among men. He who was God became veiled in human nature. The Divine Son of God did not assume a human person but a human nature. The Divine Trinity was not modified by the incarnation. Only the second Person experienced a change from a one natured Person to a theanthropic Person having the Divine nature, a human nature, and a human body. Although the Person of Jesus Christ is theanthropic, His nature is not because that would make the infinite finite and the finite infinite. Therefore, the natures in Jesus Christ retained their own properties and attributes which prove the Divine nature was not humanized and the human nature was not deified. The eternal Son of God did not in His incarnation identify Himself with either man’s unfallen (Adam’s nature before the fall) or fallen (Adam’s nature subsequent to the fall) nature. His human nature was called “the holy thing being begotten” (Luke 1:35—translation) and described as “...God having sent his Son in the likeness of sin of flesh” (Romans 8:3—translation). Anyone who claims to accept the truth of the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of the virgin Mary while at the same time insisting on the human doctrine of peccability (the teaching that Christ had the capability of sinning) advocates that the Holy Spirit produced an unholy thing. Jesus Christ was holy not merely in conduct, but He was absolutely holy as to His human nature. He asked the religious Pharisees, “Who from among you convicts me concerning sin?” (John 8:46—translation). Since a noun rather than a verb is used in the question, it is not who from among you convicts me of “sinning” (sins of nature) but who from among you convicts me of “the nature of sin”? Christians do not demand further documentary evidence of a truth so explicitly stated and so implicitly believed by all who possess God-given faith. Although the Assumer and what He assumed cannot be the same, the holiness of the Assumer demanded that what He assumed be holy. The Person of Jesus Christ must be distinguished from the person of man:
(1) The Person of Christ was uncreated; the person of man was created. Therefore, Jesus Christ did not assume a sinful person any more than God made man deity.
(2) Christ’s God-given name is “Jesus,” which means Savior; there are no saviors among men. Only a Divine Person could be called Savior; and yet, He is a Man having been attested by God: “Jesus Christ is the Nazarene, a man having been attested [perfect passive participle of apodeiknumi, which means attest, approve, or show forth] by [apo, ablative of agency] God” (Acts 2:22—translation).
(3) Jesus Christ is God’s Man by incarnation; Adam was God’s man by creation. (4) Jesus Christ is God’s Man from heaven; Adam was God’s man from the earth. (5) Jesus Christ is the “only begotten”; therefore, He is the only one of His kind, the unique one. Adam was created, but he was not the only one of his kind.
(6) The essential Divine nature in Jesus Christ cannot grow; the God-like nature in Christians grows.
(7) Jesus Christ was not born a human person, but man is born a depraved human person. In the incarnation, He assumed a human nature, the weakness of which was not sinful. Hence, Luke was saying in Luke 1:35 that the Person coming through the womb of the virgin was, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, the eternal Son of God now living in a holy tabernacle which He had assumed. Mary experienced the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit to protect the holy nature Christ assumed from her depravity. Unlike man, Christ’s ego always pleased the Father.

All the wonders of the world must take a back seat since the mystery of the incarnation (1 Timothy 3:16). The incomprehensible incarnation is not beyond the ability of one with God-given faith to embrace on the basis of the following Biblical facts:
(1) Jesus Christ who made woman was made of a woman (Galatians 4:4).
(2) Abraham’s birth preceded the birth of Jesus Christ; and yet, Christ existed before Abraham (John 8:56-58).
(3) He who was the seed of David according to the flesh was David’s Lord (Matthew 22:43-44; Romans 1:3-4).
(4) He who had a Father in eternity had a mother but no father in time.
(5) He who had neither beginning of days nor end of life had a beginning of days and an end of life on earth.
(6) He whom the heavens could not contain was contained in the womb of the virgin (Luke 1:35).
(7) Jesus Christ was the fruit of the womb but not of the loins (Luke 1:42). The Mediator between God and man is the middle Person in the Godhead. Therefore, Jesus Christ mediates between the Father, the first Person in the Trinity, and men who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of regeneration, the third Person in the Trinity. While there is only one God, there are in the one Divine essence three distinct Persons. Each Person in the Godhead fulfills a separate department in the economy of human redemption. The second trinitarian Person did not begin at the incarnation, but the theanthropic personality of Jesus Christ did begin when the Father sent Him in the likeness of men. Hence, the name Jesus, which means “Jehovah is Savior,” proves that only a Divine Person can save (Acts 4:12; Mark 2:7); and yet, He is a Man attested by God (Acts 2:22). The record proceeds from the God-given name of Jesus (Jehovah is Savior) of Matthew 1:21 to Emmanuel (with us is God) of Matthew 1:23—the name which the recipients of salvation call Him. Only the elect who have been saved experientially know the meaning of Emmanuel. The uniqueness of Christ’s Person is displayed in His becoming the God-Man. Jesus Christ is equal with the Father, but He is different from the Father because He possesses a human nature. The Son of God was made in the likeness of man, but He was different from man because He possessed a Divine nature. During Christ’s earthly ministry, He spoke as
(1) God—"I and my Father are one" (John 10:30);
(2) Man—"I thirst" (John 19:28)—God does not thirst; and
(3) the God-Man—"Come unto me...I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). The prophecy concerning Jesus Christ who shall be called Immanuel is given by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14). His prophecy of the incarnation came at a dark time in Israel’s history. The prophet’s unusual commission from the Lord was to preach to a people who would not hear him (Isaiah 6:9-10). Isaiah’s first experience of his commission was his call to speak to King Ahaz. Ahaz was the son of the good King Jotham. A king may pass on the crown, but he cannot pass on a holy disposition. From the beginning of his reign, Ahaz reversed the policy of his father and threw himself into the arms of the heathen. He did not plunge into idolatry from want of good advice. Good instruction had come to Ahaz from both his father and God’s prophet; but in spite of his instruction, Ahaz abused the house of God by cutting up its vessels and closing its door. He dishonored God’s altar by making himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem, and he turned his back on the God of Israel by sacrificing to the gods of Damascus. To Ahaz, the worship by the chosen Jews was dull and monotonous. The one true God of Israel did not satisfy his depraved mind. Depraved hearts seek false inspiration. Idolaters are zealous in their digging descents to hell. Ahaz was so wicked that he sinned against God’s providence: “...in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD...” (2 Chronicles 28:22).

Isaiah was told to meet Ahaz “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field” (Isaiah 7:3). The prophet was instructed to go to the “end” of the aqueduct, to the very place where it poured its waters into Jerusalem. The waters were brought down from the “upper pool.” The “pool” signifies blessing because water is a necessity (John 4:10-14). Water comes from the “upper pool” which symbolizes the source from which the purposed blessings of God are made available to the elect (1 Peter 1:18-20). Spiritual blessings are provided in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, and they are applied by the Holy Spirit. The “end” is the place where the blessings reach the recipients. The blessings do not reach the recipients in either the incarnation or the life of Jesus Christ, which constitute the preparation of the satisfaction which was made at the cross.

“The highway of the fuller’s field” was a path clearly defined (Isaiah 7:3). It was raised up, and it led upward. It was the highway that ascended—the path that shines more and more to the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18). Since the “conduit” was the way by which the water came down, the “highway” is the holy path which leads up to the source of all blessings: “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil...” (Proverbs 16:17). It is the way of holiness (Isaiah 35:8). “The fuller’s field” means the field of Him who washes the garments of the elect. “Garments” are the habits of believers who need cleansing (John 13:10). The life that has come down by the grace of the sovereign God leads upward by the path of practical holiness (2 Timothy 2:19). The spot on which the prophet stood with his son, Shear-jashub (the name means “the remnant shall return”), in his meeting with Ahaz symbolized the One who would be the only “conduit” of blessing from the most high God. Judah was immortal until the fulfillment of the “sign” God would give His people. God’s sign would serve as a token or guarantee of something either present or future. The present tenses in the Hebrew further validate the certainty of the remote future as well as the near future of the prophecy as though it were already accomplished. Since the Hebrew has no “tenses” in the sense of the English language, the two “states” are expressed by the perfect and imperfect verbs. The perfect verb expresses any kind of completed action, and the imperfect verb denotes any incomplete action whether past, present, or future. Therefore, the sign of Isaiah 7:14 extends further than the circumstances of the time of its near historical setting.

Some think the “sign” of Isaiah 7:14 refers exclusively to some event in the time of the prophet, and others say it refers exclusively to Jesus Christ. However, the context proves that it is a prophecy with both near and remote fulfillments. Isaiah was granted a son subsequent to Shear-jashub. When he approached the “prophetess” (by association, a prophet’s wife), she conceived and gave birth to a son who was named Maher-shalal-hash-baz (the name means “haste in seizing the prey”), the near fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14. Now, the question is asked, how can the word “virgin” apply to Isaiah’s wife in Isaiah 8:3? First, let us seek to find the meaning of the word “virgin” of Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew word is almah, which means a young woman of marriageable age who remains under the care of her parents hidden from the public (Genesis 24:43; Song of Solomon 1:3; Song of Solomon 6:8; Isaiah 7:14). We must not suppose that the prophetess of Isaiah 8:3 was a virgin at the time Maher-shalal-hash-baz was born, but she was a virgin at the time the prophecy was given in Isaiah 7:14. However, there is another problem that must be solved. How could the prophetess of Isaiah 8:3 have been a virgin since Maher-shalal-hash-baz was the second son of Isaiah. The record does not state that she was the mother of Shear-jashub. Therefore, we must assume that the mother of Shear-jashub was dead, and Isaiah had married a young woman who was a virgin at the time of their marriage. The close connection of the historical record of Isaiah 7:1-25; Isaiah 8:1-22; Isaiah 9:1-21 proves that the prophecy had reference to not only something in the prophet’s time but also to a higher fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The same Holy Spirit prophesied through Isaiah and Matthew. The great difference between the near and the remote fulfillments is that the mother of Maher-shalal-hash-baz was a virgin when she married Isaiah but not a virgin when her son was born; whereas Mary was virgin before and at the time Jesus Christ was born. Furthermore, deliverance from the threatened invasion during the time of Ahaz and universal deliverance in the remote future were predicted (Isaiah 8:5-10; Isaiah 9:1-7). It has been said that most prophecies take their start from historical facts. In view of the near and remote aspects of a prophecy, there is nothing in Scripture to refute the theory that the Immanuel of Isaiah 7:14 was also to be called Maher-shalal-hash-baz of Isaiah 8:3. Thus, he was a symbol or type of the incarnate Christ coming through the womb of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:22-23) and also of God’s wrath which shall come before the establishment of the kingdom (1 Thessalonians 1:10). All we know about the sons of Isaiah is revealed in the meaning of their names. The prophet said, “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion” (Isaiah 8:18). Therefore, the following prophetical lessons are taught in these names:
(1) There was an ascending from Shear-jashub to Immanuel.
(2) There was a descending from Immanuel to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
(3) There was another ascending from Maher-shalal-hash-baz to the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Jesus Christ is the Immanuel of Isaiah’s prophecy. The name “Immanuel” is a compound word which denotes the same as theanthropos and has reference to the personal union of the human and the divine natures in Christ. Immanuel means “with us is God.” In this name, the elect have a promise of God’s presence. One might ask, was God not with the Old Testament prophets and patriarchs as well as with us? God was with them but not in the Incarnate Word. He was with them in types and shadows, but God was not with them in the hypostatic union.

“God” is the most important part in the compound word “Immanuel.” Although it is the most important, it is the last part of the word. The two parties involved are God and us, the elect. In order for God and the elect to be brought together, God had to be made like the elect so the elect could be made like God. Therefore, the eternal Son took the form of a servant for the purpose of suffering and dying for His own (Php 2:5-8). Christ’s great love for us is expressed in the Ephesian letter: “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). How humbling to learn that “with us is God.” God who is above and the elect who are from beneath are brought together through Jesus Christ and His redemptive work: “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

There is no “with us” like that in the theanthropic Person. God was with Israel in His sacrifices on the altar of the tabernacle and temple, but God was with all the elect in His sacrifice on the altar of the cross. From that great “with us” all the others follow. The satisfaction of Christ’s death has made His “with us” a reality in His resurrection, ascension, exaltation, life, and death; and it will be a reality to the end of the age and forever (Colossians 3:1; Ephesians 2:6; 2 Timothy 4:18; Psalms 23:4; Matthew 28:20; Revelation 21:3). The name of our Savior is Jesus (the name means “Jehovah is Savior”), and the saved shall call Him Emmanuel (the name means “with us is God”). No greater honor can be received by poor and strengthless sinners than to be included in the name of Emmanuel. Inclusion of the elect in the name is one thing, but their being placed in the forepart of that name is humbling. Surely there is some reason why the order of the name is as it occurs. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel engraved on the stones of the ephod and borne on the shoulders by the high priest as a memorial should tell us something about God’s love for His own (Exodus 28:9-12). The onyx was a precious stone, and its meaning, “to shine with the luster of fire,” is significant. As Aaron presented the names of his people before the Lord, our High Priest presents us before the Father. As God looked down on Aaron and saw the names of His people indelibly engraved in the shining onyx stones, He looked on His only begotten Son and saw His people as part of the name, Emmanuel. As the names of Aaron’s people were borne in the forefront of his priestly garment, the elect are in the forefront of Christ’s name, Emmanuel. The elect are sheep who have gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Those who have gone astray did not seek Christ, but the Savior sought the sheep (Romans 3:11; John 10:1-16). Separation from God began with man, but man’s reconciliation must begin with God. Apart from the quickening Spirit of God, the elect have no more concern for the Person signified by the sign than King Ahaz had for the sign of the Person of Christ (Isaiah 7:10-16).

We often hear the question, what is in a name? Although names mean little to people in our generation, proper names in the Bible do have important spiritual connotations; but they have specific signification when they apply to God. The supernatural nature of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ is displayed in some of the many names given to Him in Scripture. There is majesty in the name “God,” independent being in “Jehovah,” Savior in “Jesus,” unction in “Christ,” power and authority in “Lord,” affinity (relationship) in “Emmanuel,” intercession in “Mediator,” help in “Advocate,” and royalty in “King.”