The Incarnation & Our Christmas

I am part of a micro-community called Theology Pub through my congregation. We get together and talk theology, doubts, books, etc. in an open and honest atmosphere. We are a group of faithful followers and skeptics. Our aim is to be honest and to understand the reality of the gospel message and how it is to affect us in our daily life. Right now we are going through a small themed series we call Advent Conspiracy. We're talking Christmas for 4 weeks. This week is my week to facilitate the discussion and I was given the topic of the Incarnation. Here is what I wrote.

The Incarnation in Scripture

One of the main tenants of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the Incarnation. Before the death of Christ on the cross and his resurrection there was the Incarnation. It's a critical piece to the Christian faith not only doctrinally but in application as well. That is, it's not important that we merely believe it once happened but we must ensure with our own daily lives that it continues to happen. It once happened in Christ and it now happens in us. In it's most simple form we say that the Incarnation is when God became man. Scripture speaks of the incarnation several times. Perhaps the largest look at the Incarnation is in John 1:1-18.

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

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

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

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. 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.'") And from his fullness we have all received,grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Key features of this passage are that The Word (Jesus) existed from the beginning with and as God (this tells us of the Trinity). He created the world and is the reason life exists on earth he is the light/likeness in mankind. John makes it unmistakeable that the Word is Jesus Christ but also God himself! The Word is God become flesh, dwelling with us so that we can witness him with our very eyes. In other words, this is very real. In Philippians 2:5-8 it is written,

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!

1 John 4:2 reads, "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God..." The Advent accounts perhaps are the most helpful in getting a clear picture of what the Incarnation truly consists of since they are the telling of the Incarnation. Below are key exerts from the account in Matthew.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ...an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Throughout Matthew's opening chapter Jesus is addressed with a few names; Jesus, Immanuel, and Messiah (sometimes translated Christ). The three combine to make a sentence which says, "The LORD our God, the anointed one, who is able to save, is with us." The revealing of Jesus for Matthew is a declaration of the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, coming to save the world in physical form and be with his people. This is the fulfillment of ancient prophecies. In John 14:5-11 we see Jesus speaking of his identity as the Incarnate God.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

In the Nicene Creed we declare, "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man." Eugene Peterson writes of the Incarnation in The Message by saying, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood." This is exactly what Incarnational love looks like. It's moving into new spaces, working in new ways, becoming something different. DC Talk may characterize it by saying "God is doin' a nu thang."* Being incarnational really does mean doing a new thing or perhaps becoming a new thing. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, incarnation means "The embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form." Often, the Church refers to Jesus as the God-Man because he is fully God and fully man. He is God become man.

Living the Incarnation; Being An Incarnational People

Singer and songwriter Derek Webb sings a song entitled Take to the World in which he looks at the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, observes how God has used this miracle to show his deep love for the world in a very tangible way, and then challenges the listener to live into that same self-sacrificing and transformative style of incarnational love that is seen in the Triune God. Webb sings, "And take to the world this love, hope and faith. Take to the world this rare, relentless grace. And like the three in one, know you must become what you want to save ‘cause that’s still the way He takes to the world." There is a specific purpose in the Incarnation and that purpose is to save us by reconciling us with God (1 John 4:10; 4:14; 3:5), to help us to know God's love (John 3:16), to make us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), and to be our model of holiness (Matthew 11:29, Johnn 14:6, Mark 9:7; Deuteronomy 6:4-5, John 15:12, Mark 8:34). While we may not be able to make people partaker of the divine nature we still have the ministry of reconciliation, ability to help others know God's love, and imitate the Jesus model of human life. This is our aim.

Incarnational love is the kind of love that requires a person change elements of their life for the sake of others without compromising their nature. Marriage is an excellent example of what incarnation can look like for those of us who aren't God and able to become human. A person adopts a new atmosphere or environment as they dwell with another person relationally. Being a married person is entirely different from being a single person. Fully individual and fully unified to the spouse. It may not be as impressive as God become man but man become selfless is always worthy of praise. Paul teaches us what it looks like to be incarnational for others when he writes,

"For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

Paul's "strategy", if you will, is an excellent model of incarnational ministry. He is one thing but for the sake of others he becomes another, entering into their world and meeting them exactly where they are at in life and culture. Paul proves, as Derek Webb sings, "you must become what you want to save 'cause that's still the way he takes to the world." Paul does not forsake God at any point, using an any-means-necessary approach but an incarnational approach which never compromises his nature as a child of God, born through Christ. God has transformed us into the likeness of his Son and that must never be abandoned. Rather, that is exactly what enables us to be a people who live out the Incarnation here and now.

So how do we become incarnational people? This is the crux of this week's discussion. Here are some questions to get our gears spinning. Feel free to come ready to answer these specific questions or to tell us where your thoughts took you. Perhaps new questions popped up for you as you delved into the thought process.

• What traditions do we currently practice as individuals and communities which reflect the incarnation? What traditions do we practice that do not reflect the incarnation?
• What are incarnational ways we can approach the Advent season, which declares the Incarnation, that would make the world better understand what we are celebrating?
• What do incarnational gifts look like? What gifts did we receive from the Incarnation of Christ?
• Can we be incarnational without being uncomfortable? What does a proactive incarnational lifestyle look like, especially in our specific communities and during Advent?

Extra Resources

Below are some additional resources if you're interested in thinking more on the subject of the Incarnation and how we move beyond believing it into living it.

1. A classic piece of Christian literature is by Saint Athanasius and it is entitled On the Incarnation (or De Incarnatione Verbi Dei). The forward is by C.S. Lewis and he calls the work "a masterpiece." It is both simple and beautiful theology. You can read this wonderful yet short book online for free @http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm. The first three chapters would be more than sufficient for our discussion.
2. Reading a passage several times over in different translations can often help us get a better grasp of what is being communicated by a biblical author. For a few different takes on John 1:1-27 check out your favorite translation, The Message (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201&version=NIV), andThe Voice (http://www.hearthevoice.com/). You can download the book of John on the Voice website. If you can get your hands on it, N.T. Wright has just released a translation of the New Testament entitled The Kingdom New Testament. I assume it's fantastic.
3. For further readings in what it looks like for the Church to be an incarnational people pick up the book A Community Called Atonement: Living Theology by Scot McKnight.
4. It may sound corny but the best resource we have to teach us on this subject is the Holy Spirit of the Incarnate Jesus Christ so let's pray about our questions. Let us spend time each day asking God to reveal more to us concerning the great mystery known as the Incarnation and to show us how to live it out daily. Let's keep God in our conversation as we discuss this together.

*DC Talk song entitled Nu Thang. There is a funny video on YouTube of a kid singing this song in the '90s. Check it out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ppisOulgG0