Understanding the Incarnation
(week 07/03)
Olubi Johnson
In our article last week we saw that God is three persons but one God: same in nature, character and ability, though each person of the Godhead has a specialty as it relates to the creation of the universe and the redemption of man.
The incarnation of the 2nd. Person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ, is perhaps one of the greatest miracles God has ever done and the most difficult for the human mind to comprehend. However when we understand the trinity then the truth of the incarnation becomes quite clear.
In the incarnation, the 2nd. Person of the Godhead, the Word, stripped Himself of His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence and took on the form of a human, being limited in space and time, encapsulated in a human body, firstly in the foetus in the womb of a virgin and then later was born as a man.
Matthew 1:23 (KJV): Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
John 1:1 (KJV): In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 (KJV): And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
This incarnation would not be possible if God was one person because it was the other two persons of the Godhead that took watchful care over the Lord Jesus in His miniaturized, encapsulated form as a man. His divine majesty was kept in trust by them for Him until it was restored back to Him (and the church: those that believe in Him and so share in His eternal glory and majesty) after His resurrection. This was why Jesus had to pray all of His years on the earth and commended His spirit into the hands of the other two persons of the Godhead, when He died on the cross and was temporarily sent to hell to pay for the sins of mankind.
Hebrew 5:7 (KJV): Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Philiphians 2:5-11 (KJV): Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Luke 23:46 (KJV): And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
When you understand the fact that Jesus did not operate as God when He was on earth, but rather as a man limited in time and space like you and I, being totally dependent on the other two persons of the Godhead, then you can understand how you can be like Jesus was on the earth and how God can take care of you like He took care of Him giving Him victory over sin, death and the grave.
This understanding of the incarnation will give you the confidence that you can be like Jesus, doing the works that He did and even greater works (John 14. 12).
