Page 7 - January 2023 - Truth & Tidings

entering upon a new mode of existence.” a high priest who is unable to sympathize
2
However, “one must be careful not to with our weaknesses, but one who has
confuse the incarnation with a metamor- been tempted in every way as we are, yet
phosis. God did not change into a man, without sin.”
as in Greek mythology. Instead the Son of Purposes of the Incarnation
God adopted human nature and united it God’s Revelation
with His divine nature in the unity of one
person …. This must be taken to mean not God spoke in many ways down through
that Jesus Christ is a third being between the ages, but His ultimate message and
God and man but that he is the One who self-disclosure has come in these last
is fully God and truly man.” 3 days by the incarnation of His Son (Heb
1:1-2). While “no one has ever seen God,
The Fullness of the Incarnation the one and only Son, who is himself
In our desire to protect the Lord Jesus’ God and is at the Father’s side – he has
deity, we must be careful not to minimize revealed him” (Joh 1:18). We are not left
the reality of His manhood. In fact, deny- grasping in the dark, looking in vain for
ing the genuineness of His human expe- an unknowable being. God has not hid-
rience is the spirit of antichrist at work den Himself – “He was manifested in the
(1Jn 4:2-3; 2Jn 7). In His humanity, He flesh” (1Ti 3:16). When we look at the Lord
developed within the womb of Mary. He Jesus in the pages of Scripture, we see God
went through the successive stages of life, unveiled in crystal clarity and our hearts
and Scripture presents Him as a swaddled are touched as we learn in Christ that our
infant (Luk 2:7), a boy who invoked anxi- God is a self-humbling God (Php 2:5-8).
ety in His parents and still submitted to Take note – the man, Christ Jesus, is not a
them (Luk 2:48,51), and a man who had partial representation of God, but a perfect
a regular job as a carpenter (Mar 6:3). His revelation of all that God is, “the image of
earthly pilgrimage was characterized by the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
prayer, because He was a real man living Our Salvation
in dependence upon His God (Luk 22:41- Scripture is replete with the message
42). He was hungry (Mat 4:2), thirsty (Joh that, because of our sinfulness, God can
4:6-7), tired (Mar 4:38), and tears fell down only be approached on the basis of a sac-
His cheeks (Joh 11:35). We worship a God rifice, and that “without the shedding of
who is not distant from the pain of our blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22).
human existence, “for since he himself Eternal death is the just punishment for
has suffered when he was tempted, he is sins (Rev 21:8). For us to be saved – rec-
able to help those who are tempted” (Heb onciled to God – our penalty needed to
2:18). But in becoming like us, He remains be paid, but no man or woman could ever
different from us, for His true humanity pay the penalty themselves. We are frail
is a perfect humanity. Hebrews 4:15 is a and finite sinners, and even the eternal
precious summary: “For we do not have punishment of unbelievers will not make
² John R. Rollo, “The Son of Man” in The Faith - payment for sins committed against the
A Symposium of Bible Doctrine, F.A. Tatford, Ed. infinite God. The incarnation is the an-
(Kilmarnock: John Ritchie Ltd., 1999), 51. swer. Our salvation required someone
³ Donald G. Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical
Theology (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006), to suffer and die in our place, to offer a
128-129. sacrifice of infinite value and fully pay our
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