Doctrine Series – Itʼs all about God

Part 7 – Incarnation: God Comes1

• God is Father, Son & Holy Spirit in what we believe is the

Trinity. Where He is eternally satisfied as 1 God in a
community of 3 persons.
• God speaks and His Word to us is revealed in the inerrant,
inspired & authoritative writing of Scripture, that is the Bible.
• From His Word we understand that He is the Creator of
everything for His Glory and that we have been made under
God and above creation as the image-bearers of God.
• As image-bearers we have fallen short of His glory and now
have to take responsibility for our sin. God has rightly
judged us and as a result we have been separated from
fellowship with God, which is the ultimate curse.
• But God is loyal, loving and offers us covenant in which He
blesses us based on conditions – the super-covenant or
New Covenant offers us eternal life if we believe in Jesus.
The sign of entering into covenant with Jesus is to be
baptized, break bread regularly & enjoy the community of
God – His church.

So what are we to believe about Jesus?

Well from the Christmas message, we know that Jesus is said to

be born of a virgin? This could be hard to believe? A biological
anomaly! It deviates from anything weʼd expect!

Jesus performed miracles, walked on Water, fed 5000 people

from a few loaves and couple of fish, raised the dead, cast out
demons and calmed a storm by speaking to it! This could be very
hard to believe! Yet magician David Blain seems to make some
strange things happen!

As this month progresses we will look at the death of Jesus and

His substitutionary atonement for our sins – this could be hard to

1
We are using a book by Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears called “Doctrine: What Christians Should
Believe”, Crossway Books, 2010 as a guide for our doctrine series. Todays message on Incarnation,
has been further resourced from “Vintage Jesus”, Christian Art Publishers, 2009, by the same authors;
J. I. Packerʼs “Knowing God”, Hodder & Stroughton, 2004;
http://www.theopedia.com/Incarnation_of_Christ and one of my favorite books: Wayne Grudemʼs
“Systematic Theology” IVP, 1994. Check out our book table!

1
believe? A death that took place 2000 years ago can cleanse your
sin today?

Then Easter Sunday we have a look at the resurrection of Jesus

from death, conquering death for all who believe! – This could be
very hard to believe? The Muslims say He fainted.

These things are difficult to believe if itʼs the first time you hear of
it, or perhaps you have heard of it, believed for a while then started
to fade away when you donʼt see its real power in your existence.

I wonʼt deny this – in fact you need a whole lot of Godʼs grace to
believe everything about God Himself! But the real stumbling block
– the real deal-clincher, the six that wins the match is this:

The Incarnation!

JI Packer in his book Knowing God says that the most staggering
Biblical claim of all is this: that Jesus of Nazareth is God!

God became a man, the Divine Son became a Jew, the Almighty
Creator appeared on earth as a helpless – human – baby!
Scandalous – many men think they are god, but for God to be a
man!

Thatʼs a belief-breaker right there, but it is also a belief-maker –

hereʼs why?

Once you grasp the incarnation as a reality, all other difficulties of

faith in Jesus are dissolved. If Jesus really is God and man, then
its simple to believe that He could come as a baby through a
virgin, perform any miracle He wants to, only as a man can God
die, but as God, man resurrects. Only as God can a death like this
mean something like salvation for all who have faith!

The Incarnation makes sense of everything we read in Scripture.

Incarnation: Carne means meat – like chili con-carne, chili in

meat, or a carnivore is a meat eater, or flesh eater! – in this, God
the Son takes on flesh – the human nature. God therefore added

2
humanity in flesh to Himself in Jesus. The second member of the
Trinity entered human history in flesh as the God-man Jesus Christ

1. The baby born in Bethlehem was God

John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were
made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was
made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as
a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through
him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world
did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not
receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of
blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, This was he of whom I
said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before
me.) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the
Father's side, he has made him known.

John does not start off his introduction of Jesus as the Son of God,
but rather as the Word of God – this is purposeful.

We can understand that if God says something, it goes! For God

to be God He cannot lie. If He makes a covenant, it sticks! If God
says, let there be light, it is so! So Godʼs Word and Godʼs action
are inseparable. What He says He does. If He speaks, there is
action! His Words are not empty; He cannot lie. So we can trust in
His Word.

Isaiah 55:11
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to
me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall

3
 succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Another attribute of Godʼs Word is that if He speaks, you know that

He is present! Even today, as the Word of God is read, we sense
His presence with us – obviously the Holy Spirit is around, just like
in the beginning, when God spoke, “let there be light” His Spirit
was present and hovering ready to act on the command.

So the purpose is this – in introducing Jesus as the Word, John is

saying that God has come to be present and to act among men,
and the way that He has come to be and act among us is by taking
on flesh in the person and work of Jesus Christ!

Don Carson puts it something like this, Godʼs full and final Word to
us is this: JESUS! “His ultimate expression of Himself to us!”

John however stresses that the Word of God, is the Son of God,
which is the God-man: Jesus.

7 things about the Word of God from this Scripture:

1. The Wordʼs Eternity. “In the Beginning was the Word” – as

far back as we could think, at that point, we will call it the
beginning. It says at that point, the Word, already was!

2. The Wordʼs Personality. “The Word was with God” – here

is eternal, equal, face-to-face relationship between the
persons of the Godhead.

3. The Wordʼs Deity. “The Word was God” – Separate,

personally distinct yet belonging together as only one God.

4. The Word Creating. “All things were made through Him” –

He is the self-existing source and agent for all that the
Father has made.

5. The Word Animating. “In Him was life” – Life is given and
maintained by the Word. Not in ourselves, but in Him!

6. The Word Revealing. “and the life was the light of men.” –
the fact that we are alive is a light from the Word that

4
 reveals God to us. All the Life in God expresses revelation to
us!

7. The Word Incarnate. “the Word became flesh.” – The Word

who is eternally, personally, distinctly God the Son, one with
God the Father and God the Spirit, who created all things,
who gives life and light, became physically present in space-
and-time and dwelt among us – He involved Himself with the
material to reveal grace and truth to us.

He is Jesus! He is God the Son. JESUS IS GOD

• God the Father said Jesus was God

• Demons said Jesus was God
• Jesus said He was God – equating Himself with the Father
• The rest of inspired Scripture says Jesus is God
• Jesus has the names of God (Lord, Son of Man, Alpha &
Omega)
• Jesus possessed the attributes of God without measure
• Jesus did the works of God, without sin, destroying the
works of Satan – Jesus spoke the words of God.
• People worshipped Jesus as God and He accepted it.

But thatʼs only half the story…

2. The baby born in Bethlehem was God made Man

Philippians 2:5 – 11
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as
Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be used to His own advantage;
Rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a
servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the
name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.

I love the way the 2011 NIV puts verse 6. The ESV puts it like this:

5
 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped,

“A thing to be grasped” could almost give you the impression that

He never had equality with God and neither considered grasping
at it. The 2011 NIV, where they have better understanding of
certain words in the original Greek since 1984, puts it:

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God,
something to be used to His own advantage”

This clearly gives a different impression, that He had it, but He

didnʼt use it all.

God the Son in Jesus, had all the power of God at His disposal,
yet, restrained Himself and added limitation to Himself by
coming in human flesh and submitting Himself to the leading and
empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Its not as if Jesus was God who got rid of some of His deity, rather,
Jesus is God who added the limitation of humanity to His deity fr
a time. He was fully God and never relinquished any of His deity;
rather He shed some of His glory by showing us absolute
humility!

From the cow slop covered feeding trough for a crib, on downward
descent all the way to death – death on a cross! The most
humiliating form of criminal execution history has ever known!
Here God, minus nothing, but plus human humility is the One who
made man and now takes on what it means to be the man He
made. Not only that, He subjected himself to the temptation of
the angel He made who became the devil! Thatʼs humble!

This is how much of a man Jesus was:

(From Mark Driscollʼs book “Vintage Jesus”) There is no way
to escape the humanity of Jesus!
• Born of a woman
• Had a normal body of flesh and bones
• Grew up as a boy
• Had a family

6
 • Obeyed His parents
• Worshipped God and prayed
• Worked as a Carpenter
• Got hungry, tired and thirsty
• Asked for information
• Was stressed
• Was astonished
• Was happy
• Told Jokes
• Had compassion
• Had male and female friends he loved deeply
• Gave encouraging compliments
• Loved children
• Celebrated holidays
• Went to parties
• Loved His mom…
• Jesus was tempted to sin by the Devil himself
• He was poor, got ripped of, had to pay taxes and was
at times homeless
• He was attacked, rumored about, physically abused,
mocked and spat at
• He was pestered by religious people
• Some days were marked by loneliness, deep sorrow,
exhaustion and weeping.
• Jesus friends all betrayed him and were no help in time
of trouble
• His family thought He was crazy
• He knew what unanswered prayer was like and even
felt the rejection of God!
• Jesus bled
• Jesus died.
• Jesus used His final breath to forgive those who
destroyed him!

Hebrews 2:14 – 18
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself
likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might
destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and
deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong
slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the
offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers

7
 in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high
priest in the service of God, to make propitiation (Appeasing) for the
sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when
tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 4:14 – 16
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we
are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in
time of need.

Jesus came and subjected Himself to sin. Not by sinning Himself,

but by experiencing the curse of sin in poverty, dust, sweat from
his brow, even the ultimate curse of sin – death. He also received
in His body the suffering of those who sinned against Him and
forgave them all. As a man, He is the perfect covenant keeper
on behalf of all those who would believe in Him – as children of
Abraham – He is the one who makes the deal – the exchange –
our sin – His righteousness, in the New Covenant! He comes and
displays loyal covenant love – as strong as death! In fact –
stronger! God has come to us – man has a place in God!

He makes Intercession for us – our Mediating High Priest

He is our perfect Example – He shows us how to live on earth

Which includes: Mission. Everyone of us are on mission, from the

time we received Jesus into our hearts – the miracle of new-birth
within us means that God steps into our lives, takes on our flesh
as a temple for His Holy Spirit, and in that way incarnates again!
And from within us – He wants to do what He has done from the
beginning – reveal the life, light, grace and truth of God through
us as we humbly go, as living testimonies and living witnesses of
purity and faith in God who alone can save!

God wants us to incarnate – contextualize, take on the form, donʼt

Bible bash, get among them – be a missionary – sent by God on
the same mission! Will you sleep in a manger? Will you carry a
cross? We are not God become man, but for us, we are men and

8
woman, who can be like God to so many people who need Him
today! We need to embody the Spirit of Jesus within us!

1 Peter 4:1, 2
1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the
same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased
from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for
human passions but for the will of God.

As believers, we cannot take Christianity to be a religion which

makes us rich, or even satisfied with being middle class, having a
nice middle class home, with our kids in a middle class school,
with nice middle class friends – getting away from sub class life -
we are not about getting as comfortable as possible.

2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty
might become rich.

There is an extreme that Jesusʼ life, death, resurrection and Word

demands of us, and itʼs not the extreme of gain.

(Proverbs 10 says that the Lord makes rich but adds no sorrow to it – but 1
Timothy 6 says that those who run after riches have many sorrows – the way
is this – if God makes you rich, its for the joy of using it for His kingdom!)

Itʼs the extreme life of spending yourself, being spent to enrich

others. Giving time, trouble, care, money, concern to do good to
others, not just your own friends, but even to your enemies. We
are not saved to become a holy huddle; we are saved so that we
can get among our brothers who are still stuck in their sin. Yes we
avoid evil, but we do not avoid the very ones Jesus came to save.

The Father sent Jesus out of the holiness of Heaven into the
wretchedness of the World – to save us. Now He sends us in the
same way!

John 20:21-23
Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent
me, even so I am sending you. 22 And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you

9
 forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold
forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.

I want to pray for people to receive the Holy Spirit today! As a man,
Jesus relied on the Spirit to stay free of sin and by the Spirits
power He was a witness for the Father.

We need the Holy Spirit to live lives that are free of sin as a
testimony of our forgiveness and with the power of the Holy Spirit
to be witnesses that Jesus is alive as our Saviour – to our family,
friends & colleagues.

• We need to cross the barriers of context and culture

• We need to pursue the lost for the purpose of evangelism
• We need to be humble – maybe live simpler – to show that
we value Salvation more than money/pride...
• We need to be devoted to the church where Jesus is Head!
• We need to know that the whole world is our mission field!

10