08. The Incarnation
SECTION THREE Christ--The Second Man
CHAPTER VIII The Incarnation Introductory Remarks In our previous studies we have seen that sin entered the world through one man, that Adam’s original sin was not mere lawlessness in character, but actual transgression, and that his original sin is imputed to every member of the Adamic race, so that all are constituted sinners.
It has also been demonstrated that man has no ability whatsoever to redeem himself, or to do any righteous deed that in any way merits salvation. His life as a sinner counts for nothing but sin in the sight of God. With reference to righteousness, man is a total failure. All his good deeds are as "filthy rags." He is always evil with no compensating good whatsoever. The Law was given, but not as a cure or remedy for man’s lost condition. Instead of being a means of bringing man back to God, it made his case all the more hopeless, because it clearly revealed his inability to measure up to the high and holy demands of an infinitely righteous God. On this dark background God paints His marvelous story of redeeming love. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
It may appear to some from what we have seen in the preceding chapters, that God was defeated. But such is not the case. God could not be defeated for, "He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
We have noted that man’s estate as a sinner is beyond repair as far as human help goes. Yes, it is so bad that instead of attempting to patch up the old Adamic line, God starts an entirely new thing by putting forth "the Second Man"--the Lord from heaven. The Incarnation
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).
What the Law could not do--justify, save, nor make man good--God could, and did do, when He sent His own Son into the world. When sin entered the world, God at once announced the coming of the "Seed of the woman"--the Redeemer. Of Him and His coming it was by the Old Testament prophets predicted that He should be both God and man, divine and human. We read, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given" (Isaiah 9:6). "A child is born" speaks of His humanity; as man He began to be when He was born in Bethlehem. "A Son is given" tells of His deity; as God He always was. His coming into the world was a miracle, as we will see more fully in another connection.
"But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Galatians 4:4). The Biblical Reasons for the Incarnation
1. The Son of God Became Incarnate To Reveal God to Man. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John 1:18). The word translated "declared" means "to lead out," "to make visible." Concerning Him we read, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen" (1 Timothy 6:16).
Christ came in the flesh that He might bring God within the range of human vision. This He did so perfectly that He could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).
He came in the flesh that He might make God known as Father. He said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (Matthew 11:25-27). Note the blessed result of knowing God as Father--"And ye shall find rest to your souls." Have you so learned to know Him? If not, listen to the words of our Lord, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
Christ came in the flesh to manifest the love of God. Sometime ago I decided to make a study of God’s love. In vain I searched the first four books of the Bible for some direct reference to the love of God. But when I turned to the New Testament I was even more surprised. I found that the first direct reference to God’s love is John 3:16. (There is but an incidental allusion to God’s love in the Gospel according to Luke.) Since "God is Love" we know that He loved, and still loves with an everlasting love. The measure of God’s love is revealed in the letter to the Romans, where we read, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life" (Romans 5:6-10).
Christ came in the flesh to enthrone grace. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9); "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this present world (age); looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:11-13). "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).
2. The Son of God Became Incarnate in Order That He Might Reveal Man. In the Gospel records are revealed the moral glories of our Lord--what He, during the days of His flesh, was as God’s ideal man--and as such He is the example for the believer. Peter says, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21). In this same line of truth Paul writes, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Php 2:5).
According to the Apostle John, "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John 2:6).
While here on earth among men, our Lord walked in the light; He walked in perfect love; He walked in righteousness; He walked in the power of the anointing and in total dependency upon the Holy Spirit.
Following His example does not save. It is for the saved ones only that He is the example.
3. The Son of God Became Incarnate To Be the Mediator Between God and Man. We read, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:3). A mediator is one who intervenes between two persons at variance. By the entrance of sin into the world, man and God were separated so that mediation between them has ever since been a necessity.
Moses was the mediator of the covenant which God made with Israel at Sinai; therefore, the Law is said to have been given "in the hand of a mediator."
Job recognized the need of a mediator when he said, "For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman (mediator) betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:32-33). The union of the divine and the human natures in one person, theologically called "the hypostatical union" is the ground of perfect mediation.
4. The Son of God Became Incarnate To Provide the Sacrifice for Sin. "If a man sin he shall bring an offering." "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). As sinners we needed a sacrifice for our sin and our sins. God’s infinitely holy and righteous character and His government demanded, and that absolutely, inflexibly, and eternally, that your sin, and my sin, be duly and fully punished, for infinite justice must be met and satisfied as regards all sin.
Through sin, all were shut up to judgment. Guilty and unable to provide any offering that was acceptable in His sight, we were going to certain punishment, for we read, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Such was man’s plight. If anything was to be done for him, God only could do it. The whole human family were condemned criminals and positively unable to atone for their crimes. A hopeless case! Yes, apart from God’s gracious provision in Christ Jesus.
You remember the story recorded in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. Abraham, in response to God’s command, was on his way up the mountain when Isaac turned to his father and asked about the lamb for the burnt offering. Abraham answered, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering" (Genesis 22:8). Thanks be unto Him! for when we had nothing to bring, He in infinite love and mercy provided the lamb for the burnt offering in the person of His own Son. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we are healed" (1 Peter 2:24). "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).
Personally, I accepted that sacrifice for my sin and my sins more than thirty-eight years ago. That sacrifice is still efficacious and ever will be; therefore I need never seek for any other sacrifice and neither need you. Brother, believe it; sinner, receive it!
"By His immaculate sacrifice, the covenant is confirmed, its promises are sure to His spiritual seed, and there is no condemnation to those who believe in Him" (Dick).
"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall not the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:12-14).
5. Christ Came in the Likeness of Sinful Flesh To Be a Merciful and Faithful High Priest. "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). The sinner needed the sacrifice for his sins; the believer needs the priest. Christ coming in the flesh supplied both needs: On the Cross He did everything necessary for the sinner’s salvation; His great high priestly ministry as Intercessor and Advocate is for His own.
Concerning His high priestly ministry we read, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34). "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Hebrews 9:24). "And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
6. The Son of God Became Incarnate To Destroy the Works of the Devil. "For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14-15). In the Old Testament we read that he opened not the house of his prisoners (Isaiah 14:17). Paul says, "And having spoiled (stripped or disarmed) principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15).
7. The Son of God Became Incarnate To Fulfil the Davidic Covenant. "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:31-32). In His glorified human body He will appear and reign as "KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 19:16). His right and title to the throne are absolutely established by the genealogies in Matthew and Luke. Had this not been absolutely certain, His bitterest enemies, the Pharisees, would have made use of the fact when they sought for something against Him. In the Old Testament we read, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this" (Isaiah 9:7). "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth" (Jeremiah 23:5).
8. The Son of God Became Incarnate To Be the Head Over All Things to the Church. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23). The church is "the mystery which was kept secret since the world began" (Romans 16:25). To the Apostle Paul was given the complete revelation concerning this mystery (Ephesians 3:1-7). The church, which is His body, is, as we will see later in our studies, the supreme product of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word makes a distinction between the first principles of the teaching of Christ and the deep things of God. The first is concerning God’s purpose in the earth--the Messianic Kingdom, the mediatorial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the throne of His father David. The deep things of God are concerning God’s purpose for heaven--the Church, the heavenly company, "the bringing of many sons unto glory."