But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)
© Dec 2001
The Rev.
Dr. Curtis I. Crenshaw[1]
The mystery of the incarnation is
something that we shall never fathom.
We can behold it, worship the Son, revel in His grace, wonder with awe
at His love, but never exhaust its mystery.
At the time that the Father
appointed,[2]
the Son of the living God was joined with humanity, conceived in the Virgin’s
womb by the Holy Spirit. The Second
Person of the Holy Trinity had added
to His undiminished divine Person a perfect human nature, taken from Mary. His humanity came from Mary, as the Last
Adam had to be in the lineage of the first Adam, of the fallen human race, not
a new race created outside of the existing one. As redeemer He had to be one with us, yet outside us without
sin. He took from her what was human as
mankind was originally created, but not as fallen. He was fully human, having a real body and a rational soul. He got hungry, needed to sleep, had human
emotions of joy and anger, but He never sinned. He was fully human as if not God.
The woman Eve was taken from the side of
Adam and given to him as his bride.
The woman led the man into sin.
Now the Last Adam is taken from the woman to deal with sin, and on the
Cross His side is pierced so that His bride can come from Him!
He was
also fully God as if not human. He was
the second Person of the Trinity, God of God, light of light, very God of very
God, the same in essence as the Father in every way, existing from all
eternity. When the Virgin conceived by
the Holy Spirit, humanity was joined to His deity, not that His deity came into
existence. Indeed, He was unchangeable[3]
so that His deity did not change one iota at the holy conception. He added
to His divine person perfect humanity, but nothing whatsoever was subtracted.[4] If He had ceased in any way to be God, there
would have been no Trinity and no God, for God is Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Giving up His deity would be
incarnation by deicide. Or if Christ
had ceased to be fully God, there would have been two “gods” left, the Father
and the Spirit, which would mean the death of God. A savior who is not fully
God is a bridge broken at the far end, and a savior who is not fully man is a
bridge broken at the near end. He would
not reach fully either to God or man.[5]
Here we
are confronted with one of the greatest mysteries of God’s holy and infallible
Word. The infinite One adds a finite
nature without in any way lessening the infinite. As Mary carried the babe in her womb, sustaining His life, He was
giving her life as He upheld all things by the word of His power.[6] As she held Him in her arms after His birth,
He was holding her and the whole universe in His “arms.” She had originated, so to speak, His
humanity. He had created all things
whatsoever, making Himself the originator
of creation.[7] He was not only the Word who spoke all
things into existence, but He was the sustainer
of what He had called into being from nothing.
He was not only the originator and sustainer but also the goal of creation, the reason it was
created, the end toward which all creation is moving, the one to be glorified.[8] Thus He is the origin, sustainer, and goal
of creation as all moves to glorify Him.
The
mystery of the union of God and man can only be understood by what has been
revealed. We know that it was necessary
for Him to be both God and man. He had
to be a man to redeem man from his sin and death, to be identified with the
human race who lost relationship with God.
As God He could not die, but as man He could. He had to be God to satisfy infinite holiness, to take an infinite
penalty, an infinite curse. What He did
in His atonement was absolutely dependent on who He was, the two aspects being
inseparable. Adam sinned and died. Jesus must be one with the seed of Adam so
that He could die.[9] Adam owed God perfect obedience. Jesus obeyed God perfectly for us.[10] Adam came under the penalty of sin, which
was divine judgment. Jesus took our punishment.[11] We read:
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He
Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels,
but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He
might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to
make propitiation for the sins of the people.[12]
He had to
be one Person so that what one nature did would be united with the other nature
in the one Person, thus joining the work of both natures. If He had only been a man indwelt by God, He
would have been a great prophet, but not the One who could redeem; just one of
the prophets of old. Under this circumstance,
when He died, we would be left with a dead man and a distant God.[13] But as God-man in one person, when He shed His
blood, it was the blood of God: “to
shepherd the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”[14]
If Christ
were two persons, how could he shed His blood as man and offer infinite
atonement as God and do both as one offering?
It would be two offerings as two persons. He had to be one Person so that what one nature did would be
united with the other nature in the one Person, thus joining the work of both natures.
If He had been two persons, we would not have a union of man and God doing
a single work, but two persons doing a dual work. There would have been a human sacrifice to a God who could not
accept such. Such a moral cooperation of a divine and human
will would not give infinite value to the human nor a human aspect to the
divine. There would be moral cooperation between two persons, but not an
essential union of God and man. God
would still not be revealed personally but through a human only. But with a union of essence, a personal
union[15]
of man and God, what either nature did was attributed to the one Person. If He had been two persons, the natures
could not have joined in one act but as two acts. But He was the God-man, not God and man; thus the two natures
joined in Him as one act.
If the natures had been mixed in some way, He would have been less than
God or more than man. If he had been
less than God, He could not have offered sufficient atonement to the infinite
God. If He had been more than man, He
could not have represented us, not being “made like His brethren.” He would have been a hybrid, but not the
God-man who lived and died for us, being totally acceptable to God as His peer,
and representing us as our peer, joined in one Person and acting as one.
Yet if the two natures had not been joined in essence, a metaphysical
union, what He did in one nature would not have affected what He did in the
other nature. He would have acted as a
human and then as God but neither act would have been united with the other as
the one act of the God-man. We would
have had the acts of man and the acts of God in separation, not in union in one
Person. As it was, His atoning work
brought man and God together in Himself.
Though the natures were joined in the Son, they were not mixed together but distinct.
There was a creator/creature distinction in Christ Himself.[16] Consider the contrasts we have in this
God-man of the two natures and one person with natures united but not merged:
He was God yet man.
He was infinite yet finite.
He was a babe who needed nurturing yet God who upheld all things by His
sovereign word.
He had a human will that struggled with His mission in the garden yet a
divine will that was unchangeable, impeccable, and absolutely determinative of
all things. His human will was always
obedient to His divine will.
He had a human consciousness and a divine consciousness yet only a divine
self-consciousness and divine self-awareness, the I AM, the One who
forgave sins.[17]
He had a human mind yet a divine mind.
He could be known by humans face to face yet He and the Father knew one
another uniquely, infinitely, and exhaustively: “No one knows the Son except
the Father. Nor does anyone know the
Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”[18] He could say humanly He did not know the
time of His Second Coming,[19]
but divinely He knew all things.[20] He read the hearts of men as easily as one
reads a book.[21]
As God He upholds all things; even His humanity is upheld by His own
deity. His humanity is indwelt by His
deity, by the Holy Spirit given to Him without measure.[22]
As man He was limited to one place at a time yet as God He filled heaven
and earth.[23]
As man He was limited in His abilities to perform works of feat yet as
God He was (is) the Lord God omnipotent, raising the dead, stealing storms, upholding
all things, the beginning and the end.
In these
contrasts, it is not that a single nature was both infinite and finite, for
that would be a contradiction, but that the single Person of the Son can be considered
from either the human nature or the divine nature, each being distinct from the
other.
As God-man He had (has) absolute authority in heaven and on earth. When Satan came to tempt Him as the Last
Adam,[24]
he instantly obeyed the Lord when He commanded him to leave Him. Even the wind obeyed, and demons immediately
came out of the ones He commanded them to exit. The healings He performed were instantaneous and perfect, a
wonder to behold, as He recreated human tissue. With one spoken word, or sometimes just the thought, He performed
miracles in His own name, not the name of another.
The incarnation is love beyond measure. God became humble, as it were, submitting
Himself to the now rebellious creation that He had originally made holy.[25] One’s humility is measured by the degree of
his exaltation. It would not mean much
for a common laborer to help an old lady across the street, but if the
president of the USA did, it would mean more.
How much more is it for the infinite God to assume humanity and submit
to those who hated Him! The judgment
that God required, He now came to take.
The holiness that we lacked He wove by His perfect obedience to His own
holy law and commandments. The curse
and punishment due us He joyfully assumed in our place on the Cross: “Who for
the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”[26] Love
manifested itself with infinite condescending.
This was not a love of words only but primarily of doing.
Furthermore,
this love was particular. It is easy to say: “I just love
everyone.” When we love everyone, there
is no accountability for loving any one person. But take an oath to love one other person no matter what, such as
in our wedding vows, to flesh out love for this other human for better or
worse, giving up selfish orientation, living for him/her, caring for
him/her—that is another matter! But
this is precisely what the Lord of Glory did for His people. The Father gave Him a bride,[27]
whom He cherished to the point of death, even death on a cross.[28] There was nothing He would not do for His
bride, even submitting to vile men, dying, and raising Himself from the dead.[29] He ascended to His home to prepare a place
for His bride.[30]
In heaven we shall behold our loved ones who have
known and served the King of glory.
They will be beautiful and be whole, bodies restored,[31]
no more suffering, sadness, or pain. We
shall be “together with them,” and
“thus we shall always be with the Lord.”[32] What joy we shall have as we are reunited
with loved ones we have not seen for many years, especially knowing that no
power can ever separate us again! A
child lost in youth is beautiful. A
godly grandmother who taught you the Bible at her feet greets you. A father who was faithful in bringing you up
in the discipline and instruction of the Lord embraces you. A mother who prayed for you for years
rejoices. A husband who was faithful to
love his wife as Christ loved the Church is reunited with the one he cared for
on earth.[33] Once in heaven, we can project ourselves a
million millennia into the future, and at that projected time we will have been
together only a finite period of time, with an infinite period still to
come! The finite past will always be
but a dot; the infinite future a line that reaches to the horizon.[34]
As much as
we shall rejoice over being made whole and reunited with loved ones, whom we
shall easily recognize,[35]
there is one exception to being whole in heaven: the hands, feet, and side of
the Lord.[36] Fixing our attention on Him, we worship the
nail prints in His hands and feet and the spear hole in His side. He has changed the crown of thorns for a
diadem, and His robe is whiter than snow for His purity. All else fades as we behold the Lamb on His
throne. Like a tidal wave, we will be
overwhelmed with such grace as we bask in His presence. As never ending waves break on a shore, we
shall forever have one wave of grace only to be followed by another. We shall be filled with praise, singing the
song of the Lamb:
And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have
redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and
nation,
And have made us kings and priests
to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”[37]
All
anxieties will immediately evaporate in the security of His loving presence. Only what was done for the Son of God will
carry over from the past;[38]
all else will be burned away.[39]
Then will come the Last Day
judgment.[40] We shall approach the throne of the Almighty
Lamb, whose omniscient gaze will penetrate our hearts, as “all things are naked
and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”[41] As we acknowledge one sin after another, we
seem to hear the sound of a hammer against wood. We look up to behold every sin we committed nailed to the Cross.[42] Then we are openly acknowledged and
acquitted as children of the Lamb before God the Father, the holy angels, and
all creation. Satan is forever banished
to hell along with his angels and his seed who preferred him to Christ.[43]
But heaven
is not automatic nor for everyone. Only
the God-man is worthy of our faith. He alone has accomplished our salvation,
not the saints or ourselves. We cannot
offer anything that will satisfy God and make ourselves acceptable to Him. Jesus has already done so. It would be the highest possible insult and
sin to think that we do not need this Jesus, that we can earn our way to
heaven, that what He has done is a good start but that we must complete what He
left out.[44] In this case, Jesus would be necessary, but
not sufficient, and His death on the Cross considered a failure. We are not the God-man and cannot accomplish
the salvation of anyone. He alone must
be the object of our faith, not Him and
ourselves. If we think we can attain
heaven by our own efforts, it would be faith in ourselves.
Having
said that, there is one thing that we contribute to our salvation, without
which we cannot be saved, and it is a human work—our sins! If we come to
the Father by faith alone in Jesus alone, confessing our sins to Him, falling
completely on His mercy, He will accept us.
For then we understand that only He could accomplish what we cannot
do. He came to call sinners, not those
who think they are ok as they are.[45]
In the
person of the Son, we have a substantial
union of creator and creature, a union of Spirit and creation, or of the
spiritual and the physical, as it were.
Our salvation was accomplished by both aspects. Likewise, we look to the visible, “physical”
Church to accept us into His body, to be baptized (“physical”) and to be in
spiritual union with Him. We must not
think that we can have one without the other.
To think that we can have His spiritual salvation without the physical,
visible Church[46] would be to
have a docetic Christ, one who was God but not human. It would also be spurning His authority in His Church, thinking
we can make ourselves His bride our way.
On the other hand, to think that we are necessarily saved because we are
in the visible Church would be to have a human Christ who was not God. Just as the two aspects of human (or “physical”)
and divine (or “spiritual”) were united in Him, so we have a united salvation,
in union with Him by being in His Church by baptism. The Church leads us to worship God, who is spirit, using physical
means, the sacraments. In the Church,
the two aspects come together: physical and spiritual, just as they do in
Christ: God and man in one person.
Salvation is only for those who confess their sins to the Lamb,
confessing faith in Him alone, submitting to Him in His Church by being
baptized into His body, and persevering in His grace to the end. On the one hand, it is a free gift. On the other hand, the free gift comes in
the context of His visible Church.
Let us
worship the King who alone is our righteousness. Amen.
[1] This may be copied and handed out to small groups if and only if no changes are made, and it is not published for profit. Dr. Crenshaw may be reached at CICrenshaw@aol.com.
[2] Galatians 4:4
[3] Hebrews 13:8
[4] The modern day heresy of kenosis states that Christ’s incarnation was by subtraction, that He gave up something of either His deity or the use of His deity.
[5] From my student, Mark Bleakley.
[6] Hebrews 1:3
[7] John 1:3; Colossians 1:16
[8] Colossians 1:16-17
[9] Hebrews 2:9
[10] Hebrews 2:10 (The grammar indicates that Jesus was bringing many sons to glory by His being made perfect.)
[11] Isaiah 53:5; Romans 3: 25; Galatians 3:13
[12] Hebrews 2:14-17
[13] From my student, Mark Bleakley.
[14] Acts 20:28
[15] “Hypostatic” is the word theologians use.
[16] Most of the Christological heresies of the ancient church were attempts to compromise the Creator/creature distinction in Christ.
[17] Mathew 9:1ff. There were not two self-consciousnesses in the Lord, for then He would have been two persons. Some struggle with how the one Person could both know and not know the time of His Second Coming, but the Church’s teaching of two consciousnesses seems to answer this. In His human conscious, He did not know; in His divine consciousness, He did know.
[18] Matthew 11:27
[19] Mark 13:32
[20] Matthew 11:27; John 21:17
[21] Matthew 9:4
[22] John 3:34
[23] John 1:48-50; 3:13 (This last text is supported throughout the manuscript history even though most modern versions leave out the words “even the Son of man who is in heaven.”)
[24] Matthew 4:1ff. This is the only other time Satan appeared personally to tempt someone. In other words, he appeared twice in Scripture to tempt humans personally: the first Adam and the Last Adam. We are not suggesting that he had nothing to do with other temptations, but that Scripture only records two personal appearances to tempt.
[25] Philippians 2:8
[26] Hebrews 12:2
[27] John 17:6; Ephesians 5:22ff
[28] Philippians 2:8
[29] John 10:18
[30] John 14:2
[31] Paul indicates that we shall have some form of body in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1-8), but at the resurrection we shall have glorified bodies like the Lord’s (Phil. 3:21).
[32] 1 Thessalonians 4:17
[33] Ephesians 5:22ff. But there will not be marriage in heaven (Matt. 22:30).
[34] The same could be said of hell.
[35] 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (“with them”)
[36] John 20:25-28
[37] Revelation 5:9-10
[38] Revelation 14:13
[39] 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:20
[40] 2 Corinthians 5:10
[41] Hebrews 4:13
[42] Colossians 2:14
[43] Genesis 3:15; Matthew 25:46; 1 John 3:10
[44] Romans 4:1-8
[45] Matthew 9:13; Luke 18:9-14
[46] A true Church is one that preaches the biblical gospel and administers the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion according to God’s Word.