The Incarnation

In December my men's small group that meets Tuesday morning will be pondering the Incarnation. Here is the material for December 3 - perhaps there is something here from you.

Good morning brothers,

I’m going to ask us to keep two questions in the forefront throughout December, “What does the Incarnation look like in my life? What does it look like in the life of my church?”

If the Incarnation is frozen in time, that is, if we view Christ Jesus being born in Bethlehem and living on earth approximately 33 years as simply an historical event, then we are leaving Christ Jesus in the grave.  

Of course “incarnation” is a compound word, with the “carnation” part meaning “flesh” and the prefix being the preposition “in”. As John writes (John 1:14), “And the Word became flesh.”

But, and this is a very BIG but, this is more than simply the idea that God put on human flesh, that He took on a human body to live in for 33 years. When Christ became flesh He not only took on a body (Hebrews 10:5), He also became a man, a human, a member of Mankind. (Hebrews 2:9 – 18; 4:14 – 16; Philippians 2:5 – 11).

While the Virgin Birth is a miracle and mystery, if we limit our conception (no pun intended, but since I wrote it I’ll leave it) of the Birth to the physical miracle we miss the overwhelming miracle and holy mystery that God in Christ was not only born of a woman who did not “know” a man, but that He became a man while still remaining God. And so we have the saying that “Christ Jesus is fully God and fully Man.”

Words are not adequate to convey and encompass this holy mystery. I’ve attached the Nicene Creed as an example of how the Fathers grappled with expressing this mystery – knowing that their own words fell short; they were doing the best they could and they knew that their own words were inadequate. This is truly beyond words, but we do the best we can by the grace of God.

What do you see in the above passages?

What do these passages help us see about Jesus Christ and the Incarnation?

What does Hebrews Chapter 2 teach us about who we are in Christ? What does this passage tell us about how the Father sees us? What language does this passage use to describe our relationship with Jesus and the Father?

Do you think about yourself and other Christians in the way Hebrews Chapter 2 portrays us?

In Hebrews Chapter 2, why is the Incarnation critical?

God came to live in His People on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), we are the place where God lives (Ephesians 2:19 – 22) – time and time again in the Upper Room Jesus said that He and the Father and the Holy Spirit were coming to live in us (John chapters 13 – 17).

This is one reason we ask the questions, “What does the Incarnation look like in my life? What does it look like in the life of my church?”

I love you,

Bob