Musings on the Incarnation

No matter how much or how long we engage the discussion of the Incarnation, due to our finite nature, we will still find ourselves wondering about certain issues. I do not think the Incarnation is illogical or logically contradictory but is hard to understand as humans or with the information that we currently know in our time-space-matter continuum.

When we say that God became a man (John 1:14) we are not saying something logically contradictory. We are not saying that a triangle is a circle or that the color orange is blue at the same time. We are conceding a difference between God and man but we are also admitting that they are not logially incompatible. We are suggesting the Incarnation is more akin to an orange triangle. God and man are ideas from two logical worlds but are not incompatible. We are saying that something is both a triangle in shape and orange in color--no contradictions.

In John 10:30 Christ says that He is "one" with the Father. Not "one" as merely an agent or the acknowledgment of a separate entity or person. One here refers to a unity of God and Jesus Christ. If God was united with Christ he would have been more than one simply granted authority to act upon His behalf. This union gave Christ the ability to speak and act with divine prerogative. He was the one God in the flesh.

This divine prerogative is seen in John 2:19 where Christ assures us that when His temple is destroyed "I" will raise it up. Such a feat cannot be done by Jesus if some inseparable union of deity and humanity did not exist. It also shows Christ speaking with divine prerogative. The "I" of John 2:19 cannot be separated from the same singular, eternal, transcendent deity of the Father who Incarnate in the Son. The only God the Father of the Old Testament is Jesus, the Son. He was the Son of God through the virgin womb of Mary (Luke 1:35). The begotten Son of God.

The Incarnation is our glimpse into the world of God. Today we experience and know what those of the Old Testament saw prophetically or maybe partially. God entered our human existence and has given us a way of escape. The Incarnation lets us know that God has come. He is Jesus and He will come again to take His Bride away; destroy evil and bring justice.