Entering Into God’s Presence:- Knowing God Through His Nature & Character

INCARNATE: GOD IN HUMAN FORM (A Personal Attribute of God’s Nature)

To Study and Ponder

• Incarnation … God became flesh, God assumed a human nature and became a man in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. John 1:14a

• Paul makes clear declarations about the incarnation to the New Testament believers:-

• “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth ... Everything was created through him and for him ... For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through him God reconciled everything to himself.... I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself ... For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body” Colossians 1:15-16,19-20; 2:2,9

• “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” 2Corinthians 5:19

• The gospel of John begins with the “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.” John 1:1-2 (see also v.3-4,14) Psalm 33:6 says God’s Word created the universe, and in Psalm 107:20 God “sent out his word and healed...”. Just as we reveal ourselves to others through what we say, so God reveals himself to his creation through his eternal word. God showed us himself by the Word that was made flesh and lived among us. Jesus, the one who was called “the Word” said “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (See John 14:1-11)

• John 1:14 speaks about how Christ made his home among us. The Greek word used means “to fix one's tabernacle, have one's tabernacle, abide (or live) in” (Online Bible) In the OT God’s presence was in a tent-tabernacle now in Jesus God was living in a human ‘tent’!

• Perhaps one of the most amazing passages which alludes to the self-sacrificing cost of the incarnation is that in which Paul quotes an ancient hymn of the early church. Speaking of Jesus he writes: “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8). Note that the NLT describes the act of incarnation thus: “he gave up his divine privileges.” Other translations say Jesus “made himself nothing” (NCV, NIV), “emptied himself” (ASV, ESV, DARBY, HCSB, LEB, NASB, NET, NRSV, RSV), “made himself of no reputation” (NKJV, KJV), “poured out in emptiness” (ISV), “gave up all he had” (GNB), “set aside the privileges of deity” (MESSAGE). The incarnation cost him infinitely more than we could ever imagine.

• There is much we will never be able to understand, but this much is clear – though Jesus did not relinquish his moral attributes or his personal natural attributes (for in these aspects he portrays God perfectly), he certainly relinquished his rights to his infinite natural attributes. Consider some of the obvious implications:

• the all powerful God became a baby, totally dependent on his young, teen-age mother

• the all present God became mono-present like all other human beings, limited to a body

• the all knowing God relinquished it all to learn a language like every other human child

• This relinquishing of rights displays an attitude of servanthood that is incomparable in human history. Instead of demanding that we serve him, he did all he could to serve us. For all of the remainder of eternity the Son has given up divine privileges in order to identify forever with our human condition and thus guarantee an everlasting redemption!

• Jesus’ servant-hearted example is to be imitated by his followers. “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (Phil.2:5). As Christ is the living Word of God, we as his followers should seek to be “living letters” transformed by the Spirit (2Co 3:1-3) who display the servanthood of God.

• During the first 300 or so years of Christianity there was much debate over Jesus being both fully man and fully God. The issue was addressed by a group of church leaders called the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD who stated “for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man” (Nicene Creed)

• Note that we believe in Christ’s bodily resurrection. Indeed, Paul declares that this is the cornerstone of our faith (1Co 15:12-19). But a bodily resurrection means that Jesus still has a finite body - an amazing resurrected one, but a body none the less.

• The resurrected Jesus says to his surprised disciples, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” Luke 24:39 NASB

• When he ascends to heaven in bodily form, angels declare, “ .... someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” Acts1:11.

• As Stephen is dying a martyrs death, he cries out, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” Acts 7:56

• Three decades after the resurrection, Paul writes – in the present tense, “For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity —the man Christ Jesus” 1Ti 2:5

• The writer to the Hebrews affirms that Jesus’ everlasting incarnation equips him to be an effective high priest for all time: Hebrews 2:17; 7:24-25.

• John in Revelation never describes the Father or the Spirit in any bodily language, but he describes Jesus into eternity with many bodily metaphors – at times as “someone like the Son of Man” (Rev 1:13-16; 14:14), “a Lamb” (Rev 5:6,8,12-14; 6:1,3,5,7,9,12,16; 7:9-10,14,17; 8:1; 12:11; 13:8,11; 14:1,4,10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:7,9; 21:9,14,22-23,27; 22:1,3), “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev 5:5), a warrior “named Faithful and True ... King of all kings and Lord of all lords ... riding the white horse” (Rev 19:11-16,21). Everywhere Jesus is still observed in bodily form, for at the incarnation he made a forever sacrifice in order to guarantee for us a forever salvation!

• Christ’s incarnation gives high value to the created order with which he has identified himself. He restores God’s original assessment of creation, that “it was very good” (Gen 1:31). Thus dualistic world views which value the spiritual and devalue the physical can not be supported from the Biblical text. Because Jesus is the perfect God-Man, we can not hold to a secular-sacred dichotomy. All of life is to embraced as God’s good gift and we are to follow joyfully him who is Lord of all. Philippians 2 makes it clear that the consequence of his incarnation, death and resurrection is that God “elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. v.9-11

Memory/Meditation

Lower Grades:  So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John 1:14 (NLT)

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.  Colossians 1:15 (NLT)

Middle Grades:  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.   Philippians 2:6-7  (NLT)

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.   Colossians 1:15,19-20a (NLT) 

Upper Grades:  The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. Hebrews 1:3  (NLT)

“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Colossians 2:8-9 (NLT)