Basic HTML Version
319
However, it should be noted that Scripture invariably represents the incarnation as conditioned
by human sin. The force of such passages as Luke 19:10; John 3:16; Gal. 4:4; I John 3:8; and Phil.
2:5-11 is not easily broken. The idea, sometimes expressed, that the incarnation in itself was
fitting and necessary for God, is apt to lead to the pantheistic notion of an eternal self-
revelation of God in the world. The difficulty connected with the plan of God, supposed to
burden this view, does not exist, if we consider the matter sub specie aeternitatis. There is but
one plan of God, and this plan includes sin and the incarnation from the very beginning. In the
last analysis, of course, the incarnation, as well as the whole work of redemption was
contingent, not on sin, but on the good pleasure of God. The fact that Christ also has cosmical
significance need not be denied, but this too is linked up with His redemptive significance in
Eph. 1:10,20-23; Col. 1:14-20.
c. The change effected in the incarnation.
When we are told that the Word became flesh, this
does not mean that the Logos ceased to be what He was before. As to His essential being the
Logos was exactly the same before and after the incarnation. The verb egeneto in John 1:14
(the Word became flesh) certainly does not mean that the Logos changed into flesh, and thus
altered His essential nature, but simply that He took on that particular character, that He
acquired an additional form, without in any way changing His original nature. He remained the
infinite and unchangeable Son of God. Again, the statement that the Word became flesh does
not mean that He took on a human person, nor, on the other hand, merely that He took on a
human body. The word sarx (flesh) here denotes human nature, consisting of body and soul.
The word is used in a somewhat similar sense in Rom. 8:3; I Tim. 3:16; I John 4:2; II John 7
(comp. Phil. 2:7).
d. The incarnation constituted Christ one of the human race.
In opposition to the teachings of
the Anabaptists, our Confession affirms that Christ assumed His human nature from the
substance of His mother. The prevailing opinion among the Anabaptists was that the Lord
brought His human nature from heaven, and that Mary was merely the conduit or channel
through which it passed. On this view His human nature was really a new creation, similar to
ours, but not organically connected with it. The importance of opposing this view will be readily
seen. If the human nature of Christ was not derived from the same stock as ours but merely
resembled it, there exists no such relation between us and Him as is necessary to render His
mediation available for our good.
e. The incarnation effected by a supernatural conception and a virgin birth.
Our Confession
affirms that the human nature of Christ was “conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary
by the power of the Holy Ghost, without the means of man.” This emphasizes the fact that the
birth of Christ was not at all an ordinary but a supernatural birth, in virtue of which He was