The Incarnation of Christ

Author: Stéphan Weilbach

As we go through the labyrinth of life, it becomes difficult to establish what it all leads to. This can maybe be made a bit easier in a Christian worldview to navigate, if we assume Christ as the end result of this puzzle of life.

When we look at Christ, his divinity is of the most contested attributes. Very few people, especially scholars, disagree upon the fact that there was indeed a man named Jesus Christ or Yeshua Bar Yehosef from the town of Nazareth about 2000 years ago.(1, 2, 3) That then leaves merely his divinity as God incarnate, up for debate.

This incarnation is then especially difficult to grasp for a lot of people, and rightly so. Supposedly, an almighty God Creator and Sustainer of all, encapsulated within the seams of a human being. This is not only seldomly thought about by Christians but also a stumbling block for people looking at Christianity from almost all other views.

Let’s start with what incarnation means, no, not reincarnation but similar in thought. Incarnation comes from the Latin word caro,(4) this is to be used and seen in direct reference to the passage in John 1:14. The Greek word used here is logos,(4) or ‘word’ which refers to Jesus. These two together then describe Jesus the word (logos) becoming flesh (caro), which gives us the idea of Jesus incarnate. If we look at John 1:1, this same ‘word’ was with God in the beginning and was also truly God as some translations add.

Now it’s getting tricky, as Joshua explained in the previous article, Christ has always existed. This means that this eternal being now has to be born. Well that means he has to begin to exist in the physical. Even the early church fathers saw this as room for further explanation. The Council of Nicaea (AD 325) defined Christ as being “begotten, not made.” This would then mean that he comes from or has the same substance as the Father, God. That was good and all but further explanations were needed. Enter the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), 520 Bishops congregated and further defined this idea of God, incarnate in Christ.

The Council of Chalcedon was extremely thorough in their definition, the idea of hypostatic union was birthed from their definition. The definition can be found in the fifth reference and is a good read, highly recommended. To just use a short part thereof “recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation”.(5) Without confusion is then not a result of mixing man and God, resulting in a new third new thing. Without change: Jesus did not change from the ‘word’ or pre-existent self that he is, was and will be. Without division means that Jesus wasn’t a ‘split’ person, one half God one half man. Lastly, without separation would be the union of these two are a real, organic union, not simply a moral sympathy or relational partnership (ref. John 1:14; Rom. 1:3-4, 8:3; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:11-14; Gal. 4:4-5; Phil. 2:6-11).(6)

Further it reads, “The distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved.” This document then would be the most significant standing on the topic of the hypostatic union of Christ. The concept that Christ was both divinely God and also an earthly human man is difficult but essential in further understandings of his works, as will be covered in the next article.

You might be thinking, “Well that was great and all, but what the flippity flop does that bear in my life right now?” Well, a valid and good question I might add. The incarnation today can change our lives in so many ways, each unique to different people. The overarching takeaway would be that God has come down, giving us a physical representation of what our potential could be like. Not that we should be exactly like the physical Christ of two thousand years ago - sandals, dresses, long hair and bearded, especially difficult for women to copy. Rather, the fact that perfection is now available in a fleshly form and us being able to be like that, human and in union with God is what we should apply to today. We needn’t people between us and God - we have Jesus the fleshly man perfect and God himself to be in communion with.

Our call, well maybe as Teresa of Avila said “Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

References:

(1) Ehrman B 2011. Forged: writing in the name of God. New York City, NY: HarperOne.

(2) Romey K 2017. What Archaeology is Telling Us About the Real Jesus. Online article. Accessed from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/12/jesus-tomb-archaeology/, 2020-05-20.

(3) Simmons DA 2019 (23 December). What can archaeologists tell us about Jesus? Accessed from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/newsletters/history/2019/12/what-archaeologists-tell-jesus-december-23/, 2020-05-20.

(4) The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2010. Incarnation. Online article. Accessed from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Incarnation-Jesus-Christ, 2020-05-20.

(5) The Council of Chalcedon (AD 451).

(6) DeYoung K 2018. Theological Primer: Hypostatic Union. Online article. Accessed from https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/theological-primer-hypostatic-union/, 2020-05-20.