The Incarnation of Christ Part One: Declaring God to Man

The Incarnation of Christ Part One :
Declaring God to Man

Several years ago, I taught a series for our church on the Incarnation of Christ. It covered such challenging subjects as the Trinity and Jesus being both God AND Man.

To appreciate the astonishing message of Christmas--"God with Us"--we must first attempt to better understand (better, but not fully, of course) the Trinity.

Notes on Part I will address the Trinity and how Jesus represents God to man.

Part II-His representation of Man (Adam II) to God

Part III-Son of God AND Son of Man

Part IV- Christ in You, the Incarnation Continues

"...He who has seen Me has seen the Father." John 14:9

 John 1:18 says that Jesus Christ has "declared God the Father".

Basic version of the "Shield of the Trinity" or "Scutum Fidei"
with translated English-language captions (in place of original Latin).

The Greek word "declared" is exegeomai, related to our word exegesis.

We have seen the love, holiness, and goodness of the Father animated and demonstrated directly for our benefit in the Person of Jesus Christ (1 John 4:9).

Therefore, Jesus Christ is the "line by line, precept upon precept" of God--the full and perfect exegesis (declaration, revelation). 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.” (John 1:1)

John testified about Him and cried out, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has priority over me, for He was before me. (He takes rank above me, for He existed before I did'...)".  (John 1:15) 

"Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham I AM." (John 8:58)

Dr. Thomas Oden puts it beautifully: "God cannot be fully comprehended, but He can be apprehended." Aren't you glad? Would you really want to trust your well being and eternity to a deity that you--being finite and fallen--had totally dissected and understood?

Although the word, "Trinity" is not in the Bible, the doctrine is taught from the beginning in the first chapter and verse of the Bible. The early church had to grow in its understanding of this majestic truth. Church Father Tertullian was the first to use the word "Trinity" (three in one) in reference to the Godhead in the first century. 

Here are two amazing verses: 

Job 33: 28, 29: "He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light. God does all these things to a man--twice, even three times--to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him."

Proverbs 22:20: "Have not I written to thee excellent (In Hebrew--"three-fold") things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth... 

Indeed, God has communicated to us throughout creation with the counsel and knowledge of "three-fold" things:

Objects have three dimensions--length, breadth, and height--that are distinguishable, but inseparable, unified in a single object, yet three-dimensional.

We live in three dimensions--time, space, and matter--unified, yet distinguishable.

Humans are body, spirit, and soul.

Our "soul realm" is the mind, emotions, and will.

Our world is full of "three's" in God's symbolism and instruction:

He created time with a past, present, and future.

"The Spirit, the water, and the blood," is the divinely perfect witness to the grace of God on earth (1 John 5:7).

In Hebraic tradition, a blessing is recited THREE times.

Jesus was made a Prophet, Priest, and King.

The Tabernacle had THREE compartments.

The Ark of the Covenant contained three objects--a jar of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the Ten Commandments on stone.

Heaven is divided into THREE realms (Paul went to the THIRD Heaven).

There is also Gehenna, Hades, and Sheol.

The angels cry, "Holy, Holy, Holy!"

Jesus was tempted three times--the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

The husbandman gives the plant three years to bear fruit (Luke 13:6-9).

Spiritual man is fed with manna, milk, and meat (of the Word).

The three gifts of grace are faith, hope, and love.

God expressed Himself in the Old Covenant as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Three Major Jewish Feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles

Three parts to the Feast of Tabernacles: Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacle

Jesus was raised on the THIRD DAY.

Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days.

The Christ Child was given three gifts-gold, frankincense and myrrh.

When God said, "Let US make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26), God was speaking in the first person in plural form. In fact, God clues us in from the beginning: In Gen. 1:1, at the beginning of creation, Elohim (God) is a plural noun, linked to a singular verb.

Genesis 3:22: And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Genesis 11:6-7: The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

Isaiah 6:8a: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

Look at the Shema: "Hear, O, Israel, the Lord is our God"—literally, "Our Gods" is "Elohenu...one Lord! (Deuteronomy 6:4)

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1) is literally "Remember your Creators" (Eth-bor-eka).

2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us that God, the Father created the world by direct address.

The Holy Spirit was hovering (brooding) over the face of the waters, dark and deep.

Then, God the Father released His Son (The Word-Divine Logos) over the void and empty waste.

John 1:3 tells us "All things were made by him (God, the Son); and without him was not anything made that was made. He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the Cross." (Colossians 1:15-20)

God, as one Being, expresses Himself through three Persons who have never changed or ceased, nor been divided or diminished in any time or space.

All three Persons of the Trinity are represented in Scripture as:

being addressed by name
possessing divine attributes
engaging in actions that only God can accomplish
being worthy of divine worship

God, wholly and simultaneously presents Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet meets us in human history as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

The Son fulfilled the Father's plan of Redemption for all of mankind. The Holy Spirit now continues to work conviction in the earth in order to impart Salvation to willing hearts, equip and mature believers for service in the world, and prepare the faithful for eternal life.

At Jesus' Baptism, the Holy Spirit descended from above and the Father spoke from Heaven. (Matthew 3:16)

Jesus is called God: Matthew 1:23, Romans 9:5, Titus 1:3, 2:13, Hebrews 1:8

Thomas Cried, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28)

The Holy Spirit is called God: Acts 5:3, 4:1 Corinthians 2: 10b, 11

Our baptismal formula, commanded by Jesus, is to baptize in the NAME (not names) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

Beliefs against the Trinity that were rejected in the early church:

1)  Jesus was an ordinary man who, through obedience and devotion, became the Christ at his baptism, having been adopted by God.

Other adherents believed Jesus became the Christ at His resurrection. This belief, called "Adoptionism", was rejected church-wide by the third century.

2) Only one being is presenting himself in different aspects or roles.

This is the most common error regarding the Trinity, and it still lingers deceptively in some components of Christianity, despite the fact that Sabellius, who first suggested the concept, was quickly excommunicated from the undivided church in A.D. 220.

"Modalism", as it's often called, fails to account for greater than 70 passages in Scripture where the Father, Son and Spirit are mentioned together as distinct persons interacting with one another.

3) The Son is not God, but like God...existing before creation, but still a creature and different from God in essence.

A man named Arius first promoted this idea. His solution proposed that the Son (Jesus) was somewhere between God and man.Today, two major religions, self-aligned with Christianity, teach that Jesus was a created being, not God incarnate.

In overcoming this particular heresy, the undivided Church in A.D. 325 said:  "He (the Son) is begotten, not made...of one being with the Father. (Nicene Creed)

Michael Houdmann, graduate of Calvary Seminary and founder of the popular gotquestions.org, clearly explains the phrase "only begotten":

"The phrase “only begotten Son” occurs in John 3:16, which reads in the King James Version as, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

The phrase "only begotten" translates the Greek word monogenes. This word is variously translated into English as "only," "one and only," and "only begotten."

It's this last phrase ("only begotten" used in the KJV, NASB and the NKJV) that causes problems. False teachers have latched onto this phrase to try to prove their false teaching that Jesus Christ isn't God; i.e., that Jesus isn't equal in essence to God as the Second Person of the Trinity. They see the word "begotten" and say that Jesus is a created being because only someone who had a beginning in time can be "begotten."

What this fails to note is that "begotten" is an English translation of a Greek word. As such, we have to look at the original meaning of the Greek word, not transfer English meanings into the text.

So what does monogenes mean? According to the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BAGD, 3rd Edition), monogenes has two primary definitions:

The first definition is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship." This is its meaning in Hebrews 11:17 when the writer refers to Isaac as Abraham's "only begotten son" (KJV). Abraham had more than one son, but Isaac was the only son he had by Sarah and the only son of the covenant. Therefore, it is the uniqueness of Isaac among the other sons that allows for the use of monogenes in that context.

The second definition is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind." This is the meaning that is implied in John 3:16 (see also John 1:14, 18; 3:18; 1 John 4:9). John was primarily concerned with demonstrating that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:31), and he uses monogenes to highlight Jesus as uniquely God's Son—sharing the same divine nature as God—as opposed to believers who are God's sons and daughters by adoption (Ephesians 1:5). Jesus is God’s “one and only” Son.

 This truth is reinforced in John 10:30, making it very clear that the Father and the Son are a monad (single entity) who have been there from the very beginning, Micah 5:2; John 1:1, 18; 17:5

Jesus spent forty days instructing His Apostles in the "things of the Kingdom of God" (Acts 1:1-3). They pastored the early church with this knowledge and the help of the Holy Spirit. Their protégés were the men who encountered, confronted, and judged these early heresies-- based upon the Apostles' doctrine rooted in the instructions from Jesus. Since a spring is clearer at its source, we must study what the early Church had to say about the seductions that attempted to diminish the Lordship of the Trinity.

Beware! As I said before, these ancient anti-Trinitarian doctrines are still around under different names.

"Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either."  1 John 2:23

Jesus was God BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the Incarnation!

The Trinitarian unity (substance) of the Godhead continued without interruption...even when God, the Son assumed human flesh, entered earth's history, and was given the name Jesus. Read what Jesus said while conducting His ministry on earth:

"If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the SON OF MAN who IS in heaven." (John 3:12, 13)

He is God NOW as He sits at the right hand of the Father, while the Spirit dispenses grace to and through the Church. He has chosen to enrich (not add to) the Trinity by remaining in His human body--the God/Man Jesus Christ. One day, He will physically return to earth in that glorified body to rule and reign!