Chapter 6 - The Science (Self-Evident Truth) of the Incarnation
Incarnate: Invested with flesh; embodied in a human nature and form; united with or having a human body.
Gal. 4:4 states “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman …”
John 18:37 reads “… Jesus answered … To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”
The preceding texts speak to the mission of Jesus Christ when He walked this earth. Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, needed to become a man in order to show human beings how to ‘keep the law’ (live by the commandments) of God. This, I believe, is another great and all too pervasive misconception. He, unlike us, was born with a nature in harmony with His Father. If Christ became a man merely to show us how to keep the law, how could that be of any help to us? That reasoning is equivalent to a bird demonstrating to a frog how to fly. A frog, as much as it watches a bird’s wings flutter, isn’t equipped to fly anymore than a carnal human being, who watches a spiritually divine being live, is equipped to translate that example into a divine life of their own. Consider the following verses of scripture
Luke 6:43 which reads “For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”
Romans 8:7 states “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
The inherent truth in these verses demonstrate the principle that we are innately corrupt trees (carnally minded) who cannot, simply by observation of a good tree (spiritually minded individual), bring forth good fruit of our own. Watching the Son of God live a godly life doesn’t change that fact. Jesus Christ needed to do much more than show us how to live according to the law of God.
What He actually came to do was to take the place of Adam, after Adam’s sin, and then subsequently, following His own resurrection, to take Adam’s place, before Adam’s sin, and specifically, in that order.
He came to earth to be the post-sin Adam to become accountable for the race and endure the consequences of the violation of God’s principles. He was resurrected to be pre-sin Adam, in order to maintain God’s original creative dynamics and disperse the divine nature to all human beings willing to receive it. This is the principle articulated in the following verses.
Romans 5:17 says “For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 7:25 states “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them.” NIV
2 Peter 1:4 declares “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature …”
Christ (the anointed one), needed to become a man so that he could be the human conduit of God’s divine nature to enable human beings to once again live in harmony with the character and principles of our Creator as He designed from the beginning.
Hebrews 2:14–18 reads “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For, in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succor them that are tempted.”
This second Adam must exemplify the same dynamic as the first. He must be the union of God’s essential nature and humanity’s substantial nature! This is why he came out of the womb of a woman! The birth of the man we know as Yeshua ben Joseph, or Jesus Christ, as He is more commonly known, is the realization of this principle in our Creator’s purposed reality.
The Son of God (Christ) had to have a connection to His father, God, while simultaneously maintaining a connection to the human beings He came to rescue. Is it any wonder now that the Bible transitions back and forth between the terms Son of God and Son of Man when speaking of Christ? These two titles acknowledge the criteria Jesus must fulfill in His existence as the Messiah. Son means male offspring. He is the male offspring of God, spiritually, while He is simultaneously the male offspring of the fallen lineage of Adam, physically. He must be legitimately linked to God and legitimately linked to mankind. He must have the essential nature of God and the substantial nature of humanity, just as Adam did before he sinned!
John 3:17 reads “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.” ...