Theological Term of the Week

incarnation
The act of God in which God the son, the second person of the Trinity, took upon himself a human nature so that his divine nature and human nature were joined together in one person who is both truly God and truly man.

• From Philippians 2:5-8:
  

  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (ESV)
  

• From The Belgic Confession, Article 18: The Incarnation:

  The Son took the “form of a servant” and was made in the “likeness of man,” truly assuming a real human nature, with all its weaknesses, except for sin; being conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, without male participation.

  And he not only assumed human nature as far as the body is concerned but also a real human soul, in order that he might be a real human being. For since the soul had been lost as well as the body he had to assume them both to save them both together.

  Therefore we confess … that he “shared the very flesh and blood of children”; that he is “fruit of the loins of David” according to the flesh; “born of the seed of David” according to the flesh; “fruit of the womb of the virgin Mary”;”born of a woman”; “the seed of David”; “a shoot from the root of Jesse”; “the offspring of Judah,” having descended from the Jews according to the flesh; “from the seed of Abraham”— for he “assumed Abraham’s seed” and was “made like his brothers except for sin.”

  In this way he is truly our Immanuel— that is: “God with us.”

• From The Wonder of God Over Us and With Us by John Frame:

  Have you ever considered the utter mystery surrounding the incarnation of Christ - God entering our time and space while remaining above time and space as our sovereign Lord? The eternal becomes temporal; the infinite becomes finite; the Word that created all things becomes flesh. It is beyond human comprehension. The one who knows all things (John 16:30, 21:17) must “grow in wisdom” (Luke 2:52). The all-sufficient one (Acts 17:25) must hunger and thirst (Matt. 4:2, John 19:28). The creator of all must be homeless (Matt. 8:20). The Lord of life must suffer and die. God in the flesh must endure estrangement from God the Father (Matt. 27:46).

  In Jesus (God the Son), God, who knows the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10), must watch His eternal plan unfold bit by bit, moment by moment. He grows from infancy to childhood to adulthood, responding to events as they happen. One time He rejoices; another time He weeps. From day to day, from hour to hour, the changeless God endures change. But God the Son incarnate is still God, still transcendent. As He responds to events in time, He also looks down on the world from above time and space, ruling all the events of nature and history.

  Why did God enter time in Christ? Joseph named his baby Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). It was the Father’s love (John 3:16) that sent His Son, “that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The Son of God took on the limitations of time, even death, so that we who deserve death can have life without limit, forever with God. He died in our place, that we might never die.

Learn more:

1. J. I. Packer: Incarnation: God Sent His Son, To Save Us
   
2. Paul Helm: Incomprehensibly Made Man
3. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Importance of the Incarnation
4. Wayne Grudem: The Person of Christ, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (audio)

Related terms: 

• advent
• ascension of Jesus
• crucifixion (of Christ)
• deity of Christ
• humanity of Christ
• hypostatic union
• virgin birth

Filed under Person, Work and Teachings of Christ

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order

Reading the Classics: Mere Christianity

I’ve been reading along with Tim Challies in his Reading the Classics Together reading program. This week’s reading was Book 2 (What Christians Believe) from C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. This section has five chapters in which Lewis discusses some the common foundational beliefs of Christianity.

There’s no getting around Lewis’s skill as a writer and explainer of difficult concepts. There were places in this section, however, that had arguments that I thought were weak or unbiblical. In his post on this section, Tim Challies mentions the three bits that annoyed me the most. I’m short on time, so I’m only only going to make some brief remarks on Lewis’s idea that God gave us free will because that’s the only way we could have meaningful love.

As Lewis defines free will, it includes the possibility of going “either wrong or right.” And this sort of free will, says he, is “the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.” I know this is a commonly used argument—that God had to make human beings with the possibility that they would choose evil in order for their love to be real—but I don’t think it’s a very good argument.

In heaven, will our love for God be real? Will it be a love worth having? Of course it will.

Will there be the possibility that we might go wrong in heaven, or that we might not love God? Of course not!

If we will be able to love truly and meaningfully in heaven, where there will be no possibility that we can go wrong, then we know that it wasn’t necessary for God to allow for the possibiliy of going wrong in order for us to have the sort of love that’s worth having. He had to have another reason for allowing evil in our world.

Birth (5)

Hannah Giving Her Son Samuel to the Priest
Jan Victors

There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah…. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:1-20 ESV)