They came and beheld the infant (or, perhaps, two year-old). But Jesus was not just any infant. His birth was not "normal." His birth was a mystery and a miracle. His mother was a virgin; He had no human father. Thus, 1 Timothy 3:16 states, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh."
A mystery, typically, is something that we think of as hidden or shrouded and unclear. Biblically speaking, a mystery is a hidden truth revealed. Something, some truth we could not know on our own, is told to us by God. There is no guess work; there is only belief or unbelief in the reality defined for us by God. At Christmastime we come face to face with one of the deepest of those biblical "mysteries"-the incarnation.
The incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in actuality, does not refer to His birth. It refers to his conception. To "incarnate" means to make flesh, or to give bodily form and substance to something or someone. By extension, the incarnation also refers to the state of being clothed with flesh or being manifested in a fleshly body. It is the concrete concept of embodiment, especially the idea of giving something a human form and nature.
When speaking of the incarnate Christ, all these ideas are in Scripture. He was "made flesh" (John 1:14); He was "manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16); He was sent in the "likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3); He "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, ...coming in the likeness of men ...being found in appearance as a man" (Phil. 2:7-8); and, He had a body "prepared for him" (Heb. 10:5).
This is one of the ways in which this mystery is also a miracle. A miracle is when God suspends the "normal" operations of the world in order to do something directly by His power rather than by the natural means that He has created and ordered. So the dead, who normally decay, are made alive again; the blind, which have no vision, are made to see; and a virgin who has never known a man, conceives a child.
Some would say that a baby is a miracle, but that is only true in that the origin of life is a mystery hidden in the God who Is and Gives Life (John 14:6; Acts 17:28). However, it is true in the deepest sense about the incarnation of our Lord. His conception in the womb of the virgin Mary is a miracle. It was not natural. It did not happen by human or physical means. No egg and sperm united together to form an embryo. There was no human father agent.
Mary herself understood this. That is why she asked the angel Gabriel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" -a polite way of saying she was a virgin and had never had any sexual relations with a man (Luke 1:34).
Gabriel also understood this in his reply: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Mary did give birth to Jesus, but she was the passive agent in God's powerful creative work of forming a man-child in her womb. There was no "star-wars-ian" interaction with some unseen natural symbiotic "thing," or "force," that caused her conception. It was the Holy Spirit Who took her egg and supernaturally caused it to become an embryo.
But the miracle and mystery of the incarnation runs deeper, for we are not speaking of any ordinary human child miraculously formed. We see this implied in the definition of the word incarnate: to become flesh. Something, someone, who was neither corporeal nor human, who did not have flesh and blood or human spirit, became, was manifested, took to Himself, such a nature-physically and spiritually.
All of this gives us a startlingly clear picture of Christ as previously existing. All natural men come into being when they are conceived, but our Lord Jesus Christ, in His incarnation, did not. He already was. 1 John 1:1-2 witnesses to this truth when John declares that the Word that "was" is the Word that "was manifested to us." This little baby, away in a manger, says John, was not a newly created person when He came into the world at conception. He was the Word of life from the beginning and now was being manifested to us.
Not only "was" He pre-existing, but, as Paul (1 Tim. 3:16) and John so clearly tell us, He was God come in the flesh. The One John calls the ‘Word' who was with, and was, God in John 1:1-4 is the One who is made flesh in John 1:14 and who is the Son of God in 1 John 3:8. Throughout Christ's life He "did not consider it robbery to be equal with God" (Phil. 2:6) because He so clearly demonstrated and declared by His pure and holy life, signs, miracles, and preaching that He was the great "I AM" (John 8:58).
Is it really any surprise, then, that so much is made of the birth of Jesus Christ, when we consider who He really is? The ineffable mystery of the miracle of God becoming flesh is worthy of thousands of songs of praise.
Yea, Lord we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be glory giv'n;
Word of the Father,
Late in flesh appearing...
Something amazing in the incarnation is that Jesus never ceased to be God; He was fully God and fully man.
Jesus' full manhood is seen in such examples in Scripture as His hunger and thirst (Matt. 4:2; John 19:28; compare Ps. 50:12); His fatigue and need for sleep (Mark 4:38; compare Psalm 121:4); His growth in, or lack of, knowledge and wisdom (Matt. 24:26; Luke 2:52; compare Prov. 2:26; 21:30; Dan. 2:20); and His death as recorded in all four Gospels (compare Deut. 33:27; 1 Tim. 1:17).
At the same time, His complete Godhead is demonstrated whenever Jesus did things that only God could do. For example: He heals and performs signs and miracles (not merely in God's name, as the prophets, but by His own power) in Mark 1:34; 5:22-43; John 2:7-11; 4:46-54; He forgives sins (which the Pharisees rightly point out only God can do) in Mark 2:1-11; He knows all things, including the hearts of men and what they are saying within themselves in Mark 2:8; John 2:24-25; and boldly declares that He is equal with God and is God in John 5:17-18; 8:58; 10:29-31(which would be blasphemy if it was not true).
Both of these natures, then, are clearly described in Scripture. Jesus was 100 percent man and 100 percent God and did not "transform" from one nature to the other or merge them together into some sort of freakish hybrid third nature or substance. God was not humanized nor human nature deified. As theologians, we like to talk about this in shorthand by referring to the "hypostatic union" and the "communion of attributes."
The "hypostatic union" refers to the union of the nature of God and the nature of man in one Person, the Son of God. Jesus always was the person of the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, divine in nature; but He did not always have a human nature. With the incarnation, that person of the Son of God took to Himself, or clothed Himself, with the nature of man. Thus He became one person with two distinct natures that are shown in the Bible to be united inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably.
This is where the fancy Latin phrase, communicatio idiomatum, meaning the "communion of attributes," or "communication of properties," is used. This refers to the relationship of the human and divine natures. It is the doctrine that the attributes of the divine and human natures of Christ belong to, and are ascribed to, a single person. This helps us particularly when we read passages that seem to speak of God dying (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 2:8) or Christ's manhood possessing divine qualities (John 3:13; Rom. 9:5). It reminds us that the one and same person had both natures. What a mystery and miracle, then, is the incarnation. Our Lord Jesus is both God and man!
To look farther into the relationship of His Godhood and manhood is hardly possible. If or when we try, we usually end up falling into heresy. What a mysterious miracle it is! It is an enigma wrapped up in a riddle shrouded by a mystery! How can God become flesh when He is pure spirit? How can He do so and remain 100 percent God? How can these two natures reside in one person without mixture or confusion? These are ineffable questions we must humbly leave in God's omniscient, omnipotent hands. In His power He is capable of doing this. The "how" may remain a mystery we may never know, as He did not reveal it to us in His word. Nonetheless, we sing,
God of God, Light of Light;
Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb;
Very God, Begotten, not created...
We ought to remember that miracles were meant to reveal the redemptive purpose of God, not simply to produce warm fuzzies or awestruck admiration of God. We see this in the angel Gabriel's instructions to Mary and Joseph to call Him Jesus "because He will save His people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:31).
God's purpose in the incarnation was to bring salvation to His fallen creation. As the Nicene Creed states, "Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man...." This is a truth we could never have known unless God revealed it to us. We will try all our lives to save ourselves and appear before God on our own merit until we submit to this truth.
There are few in this world who would say that evil does not exist and even fewer who would say that they have never needed some type of redemption from something or someone. The incarnation, however, declares to us that we have an absolute need for redemption-not only from "outside evils," but more importantly, from our own corrupt sinful nature and sinful actions. While we may like to believe we are born "basically good," the incarnation reminds us that we are born totally incapable of good and full of sin.
This means that if we wish to see God and live with Him there must be a fundamental change in our nature, which is impossible for man to make (Jer. 13:23). This also means that sin, which is an infinite offense against a thrice-holy eternal God, must be atoned-by expiation (wiping clean or covering) and propitiation (appeasement). His justice must be satisfied or else He will destroy us in His anger!
Since, then, we are not able to change our nature or atone for our sins, we would be doomed unless God Himself took action. Praise God, He did! (Is. 59:15b-17). As Jesus Himself said, He came to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15). Through the incarnation, as both a true and righteous man and divine God, He can do what unrighteous man cannot.
As a man, Jesus was born human, but without sin. His nature was not corrupted by sin. As a man, Jesus could and did live a perfect, righteous, life, never sinning. Thus, He could see and live with God eternally.
But as a man, Jesus went further. He exchanged places with sinful man (Rom. 8:3-4, 2 Cor. 5:21). That is, He offered Himself to the thrice-holy, eternally just God to be our substitute and suffer for our sinful nature and sins. Since the justice of God required that full satisfaction for our sins must be accomplished by one with a human nature and Jesus had taken on the nature of a man, God was willing to accept this pure and sinless man's atoning work in our sinful place (Heb. 2:14-18; 7:26-27; 9:11-15).
It is only as the incarnate God, however, that Christ was able to bear this punishment. As Heidelberg Q17 states, it is by the power of His Godhead that He was able to bear in His manhood the burden of God's wrath against sin. Any mere man would have found this impossible to bear! He would have cursed God and died or begun, like Job, to declare his own righteousness to be more than it really was and therefore failed as a righteous substitute and died.
So our incarnate Lord Jesus Christ could (and did!) accomplish for us our salvation from sin, conquering not only sin but the wages of sin, death. "Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away: behold, all things have become new. .... He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:17, 21).
As a result of our redemption through our incarnate Savior, we can now live with God. This living with God, however, is not just a future event. It is meant to be shared in this life, too. Communion, a loving, personal relationship, with God has been restored and we are made one with Him (John 17:21). When our Lord Jesus came as a man, He graphically illustrated this with his physical presence. Just as surely as the disciples could see Him, they were, by faith, able to see God the Father. So Jesus reminds Philip, "He who has seen me has seen the Father."
With His incarnation, Christ does the humanly impossible: He reveals the Father. When we look upon Jesus and unite with Him in faith, He not only declares to us the Father, but shows Him. What was not possible for sinful man (Ex. 33:20) becomes possible for redeemed man in the face of our incarnate Savior (John 14:9; 2 Cor. 3:13-18; 1 John 3:2)! Truly, this would have remained a mystery to us forever without our incarnate Lord.
Finally, with the incarnation, we have a grand demonstration of the love of God for His creation. This is the extent to which God reveals His love for us. He does not demonstrate it solely by pouring out His love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit in some intellectual fashion. He does it by sending His only-begotten Son to earth. He who resides forever in the bosom of the Father takes a human nature and walks and talks and dies and resurrects among us so that we can know for a certainty that God so loved the world....
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord!
