HOW THE ETERNAL SON BECAME THE INCARNATE SON (Part 1)
That Christ Jesus was a divine-human Mediator is not only a fact of revelation but of history as well. Not only the words of Scripture but the A.D. on our desk calendar tells us that at some point in time, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
Luke 2:11-12
11 “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
“Christ the Lord” — “a babe”! “A Saviour” — “wrapped in swaddling clothes”! The Creator of the universe — “lying in a manger”! The Author and Sustainer of life — “born”! The Father of eternity — beginning to count His life by days and weeks and years! A God-man! It is a fact of revelation and of history staggering: stupendous: sublime. In this fact, we are face to face with the miracle of miracles, the mystery of mysteries.
Many have asked the question, How can such a thing be? How did the Eternal Son of God become the Incarnate Son of Man? How was the uncreated Lord of glory born a babe in Bethlehem? The answer is plainly given in the annunciations of the angels to Joseph and to Mary.
Matthew 1:20
“But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
Luke 1:30-31, 34-35
30 “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. 31 And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
Perhaps nothing in God’s holy Word challenges man to greater reverence, deeper humility, and sublimer faith than this divine record of God’s supernatural entrance into human life. Yet to the truly humble, reverent, worshipful man of faith, there is no difficulty in accepting the statement of revelation that through the supernatural operation of God, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary gave birth “to that holy thing which was called the Son of God.” He reads and accepts these two annunciations without making any attempt to explain the heart of the mystery therein because he humbly acknowledges that it transcends all human understanding.
He sees in Christ Jesus, the God-man, essential Deity and real humanity, very God and very Man. He gladly acknowledges the supernatural in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He finds no way to account for such a result except in an adequate cause. A supernatural life demands a supernatural birth. So he joyfully accepts as true God’s divine revelation that in the origin of the God-man there was to be found the cooperation of Deity and humanity. He believes that Christ Jesus, the God-man, was “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,” as the evangelical Church has believed through the centuries.
Thus the supernatural birth of the Lord Jesus is the connecting link between eternity and time: between Heaven and earth: between Deity and humanity: and between God and man. Through the doorway of that supernatural conception, there came into this world such a Person as had never lived in it before or ever has since. In Him, there is an essential Deity and essential humanity, each in its wholeness and completeness. He is “the Son of God, the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father. Being such, He took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance, so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and the Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man” (H.C.G. Moule, Outlines of Christian Doctrine, p. 57).
Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson
Lord, thank You for being Emmanuel, God with us!