God Was In Christ: The Doctrine of the Incarnation, An Advent Journal Introduction

God was in Christ. This truth pierces my soul and floods my heart. What if not for the wonderful and mysterious incarnation of Christ? This is the claim of Christianity; that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, fully divine, and took on human nature, fully man, for the salvation of mankind. 

The doctrine of the Incarnation is that Jesus is God, and all the divine attributes of God are contained within Him, according to the Scriptures, and have been a part of Christian orthodoxy and tradition for centuries. He was in the beginning with God. He left the glory of heaven and came to earth in the form of a man; was born in a stable in Bethlehem and redeemed the world. The Gospel of John tells us who Jesus is: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God...And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:1-2,14 NASB). 

Christ is the Second Person of the Trinity or Godhead, the Son of God, and the Logos. Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, a Christian theologian, Church Father, and chief defender of Trinitarianism, wrote in his On The Incarnation, “All the attributes usually only applied to the one God—wisdom, truth, light, righteousness, virtue—the Son is, not as properties that he has acquired outside himself nor as if he were himself merely an attribute of God, but he is these things in himself.”[1] The prolific author of the book of Hebrews says that Christ is what it is to be God and the very imprint of the Father. This has been the Christian tradition for over 2,000 years.

For by the sacrifice of His own body He did two things: He put an end to the law of death which barred our way; and He made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection. ~Athanasius

Some depart from the doctrine because they cannot grasp the hypostatic union of Christ {the joining of both natures}. Some diminish the deity of Christ while others diminish His humanity. The most prominent argument against the Incarnation is that it is not in Scripture. However, during this Advent journey, we will walk through the Old and New Testaments, and see for ourselves that the Incarnation is embedded throughout the Bible. Not only is Christ God Incarnate, but He is the glorious pre-existent Second Person of the Godhead. Jesus fulfilled prophecy through the Incarnation for He had to come, it was necessary for our salvation.

Sweeter sounds than music knows,
Charm me in Emmanuel’s Name;
All her hopes my spirit owes
To His birth, and Cross, and shame.

When He came the angels sung,
“Glory be to God on high”
Lord, unloose my stammering tongue;
Who shall louder sing than I?

Did the Lord a man become,
That He might the law fulfil,
Bleed and suffer in my room,
And canst thou, my tongue, be still?

No; I must my praises bring,
Though they worthless are, and weak;
For, should I refuse to sing,
Sure the very stones would speak.

O my Saviour, Shield, and Sun,
Shepherd, Brother, Lord, and Friend—
Every precious name in one!
I will love Thee without end. ~ John  Newton

---

[1] Athanasius, On The Incarnation (Yonkers: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press., 2011), 33. 

Don't forget to subscribe to the blog!