THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST (June 1985)
#828H/see #574 THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST
Scripture John 1:1-14 Orig. Date 3/11/79 (739)
Rewr. Dates 6/1/85
Passage: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Purpose: Continue the series on the doctrine of Christ calling attention to His incarnation.
Keywords: Incarnation of Christ Incarnation Word of God
Introduction
A little six year old girl was going to her first Sunday School Christmas Party. Her mother wanted it to be a very special time, so she went overboard helping her little daughter to anticipate and get ready for it. She explained in detail about Christmas, and Jesus, and that this was Jesus’ birthday party and she and the other children would be helping to celebrate that happy day.
Well, the little girl was understandably impressed and excited about what lay ahead. Her ride picked her up and off she went. When she returned home a few hours later, her mother asked her about the party. She replied, “It was a nice party, but Jesus never showed up.”
The essence of the incarnation is that God threw a party and Jesus did show up. There are folks aplenty who don’t recognize Him, but make no doubt about it: He did appear. God’s own Son came to live in our midst, and, more important, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
I. Incarnate in Preparation. 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The scripture opens with creation, and the attendant revelation of the Word. 1) Ten times in Genesis 1 we read “and God said” (3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29).
2) A concluding message to His creation: I have given all this to you. I have blessed it; you must sustain that blessing. I give you a wife to accompany you; you must satisfy that accompaniment. (See A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken.)
At the cafeteria, I could not help but over hear the conversation. A foursome; one recent widower. Told of invitations from friends to date. “Did you know there are 11 widows for every widower?” One said, “Whoo, I can’t wait!” To which he replied, “Nothing compares with having a good wife by your side.”
To say that Jesus is the “Word” is to say that He is the creative force of God in action. Perhaps no passage defines that creative force like Psalm 119. Of 176 verses, only five do not refer to God’s word, law, commandments, etc. (84, 90, 120, 121, 132). 119:105 “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light/path. Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not my word like a fire?” saith the Lord; “and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.”
Listen to the words of an unknown poet:
“Last eve I passed beside the blacksmith’s door, and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then, looking in I saw upon the floor, old hammers worn with beating years of time.
‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I, ‘to wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye, ‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word, for ages skeptic blows have beat upon.
Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, the anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.”
II. The Incarnation in Potential. 1:4-5 “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it.”
The first concept to emerge was probably “adoption.” They borrowed from Peter in Acts 2:36 “Let all the House of Israel know that God hath made . . . this Jesus, . . . both Lord and Christ.” They borrowed from Luke borrowing from Psalms/Acts 13:33: “You are My Son. Today I have begotten You.” But adoption wasn’t the answer.
Then came a concept called “kenosis.” A word meaning “emptying.” New Testament usage in verb form in Philippians 2:7. “Made Himself of no reputation” KJV “but Himself emptied, the form of a slave taking.” So, deity surrendered His divinity as if He could not be both. “Kenosis” begins above—God to man; “Adoption” begins below—man to God.
A third concept, hardly worth our time, called “docetism”—“to seem.” He only seemed to be human. They claimed His deity, but explained away His humanity. Part of the gnostic error.
If potential becomes what it must, then all three be set aside. He was not “adopted,” He is the Son. He did not “surrender” His deity, we have been visited by God. 1:10-11 “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.” Much, much more than just a “seeming” humanity. I John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes and that which our hands have handled of the word of life.”
The Incarnate One, God come in the flesh.
III. Finally, the Incarnation in Performance. 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
By what are people most commended?: by their station in life; by their professional rank; by honors, titles, wealth. Is it not, rather, that they keep their word?
So also, that which communicates most directly to us of God is His integrity. The One born to a maiden named Mary was the eternal Word of God. That Word became flesh. He came to communicate God, to make Him known. He came as a light in man’s darkness that we become God’s children. Man was created in God’s image; God came in man’s image.
Conclusion
Donald Miller, in his book, The People of God, delivers a searing indictment of far too many Christians today. He wrote, “The sentimentalized Jesus of our time is not one before whom men would fall on their faces and certainly, He would frighten away no devils! He is one whom nobody would crucify, and for whom few, if any, would be willing to die. He could not have brought the church into being, nor could He have sustained it through all the tortuous course of the long centuries.”
In other words, if you do not serve a Christ who claims, and is worthy of, your fullest devotion, then you have opted for one who is less that the Incarnate One. His word of Himself is still “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father except by me.”
________________________
1 Vanauken, S. (1977). A Severe Mercy. NY: Harper and Row.
2 Miller, D.G. (1958) The People of God. London: Religious Book Club