The Incarnation of Jesus: Jesus Embodied Authentic Life

What was your initial response when you previously read my words describing God as “Trinity” and read “incarnation” above? Puzzlement! Confusion! Impossible to understand! Impractical! Theological lint! Or perhaps accurate, but having little essential connection with daily lives.

The only complete revelation of life is through a life. God must come as man to bring His eternal life all the way to us. Theologians use the word incarnation, that is, God becoming fully man (“infleshing”) without ceasing to be God. Jesus came to earth as the unique Son of His Father. He is fully God, unlike us, yet also fully man, like us, oh mystery. Why the incarnation, the Son of God, leaving heaven to become man? In short, Jesus wanted to be with us and to share His life with us. And He didn’t come alone. Jesus brought His relationship with his Father to us.

I began to see from Scripture that the Trinity and the incarnation together are the only adequate viewpoint from which to grasp an accurate, high view of redeemed humanity. This lens (mental map or worldview) now influences how I look at every aspect of Christianity, from doing church and family, to evangelism and discipleship, and extending to every aspect of my life. Marvel as you read John 1:1-18.

1. In the incarnation, God clearly displayed that the One God in the OT has always existed as plurality, one God in three persons, called Trinity (1:1). Jesus is the “Word,” who was with God and is very God before time.
2. In the incarnation, Jesus became flesh and blood to become the perfect sacrifice for our sins and to restore us to the Father’s heart (1:4-5+9-13). Jesus brought the same life as the Father. This life is the light of all men, having the power to dispel darkness in our inner lives. In the First-Adam all die; Jesus, the Last-Adam, brought life as a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor 15:22+45). Calculate the high value that the Father places on humanity by weighing the value of His payment to redeem us, the painful death of His unique Son.
3. In the incarnation, Jesus comes as the Model Man, the Second Man (1:14; 1 Cor 15:47), the first real man since Adam’s Fall in Genesis 3. He embodied what authentic human life looks like. The life of Jesus in the Gospels reveals God’s creation intent for humanity, living a life like Jesus.
4. In the incarnation, Jesus “explained” who His Father is (John 1:18). Jesus is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3). If we have really seen Jesus as He truly is, we have seen the Father (John 14:9). Fully God; fully man; restoring man back to God’s Eden-intent, home in our good Father’s presence.

This is Reflection #33 in my book, Foundation Stones. I also have a web-site with tools, books and "more than Bible studies" that have helped me to live out of this spiritual DNA, www.JimFredericks.com