The Incarnation (and Heresies about It)

"The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

The Council of Nicaea had affirmed that the Son of God is fully God and not a creature. The church still had to work out what it meant for the incarnate Son of God to be fully man in the God-man Jesus Christ. A variety of inadequate and heretical options were offered in the early centuries.

Apollinarius advocated the heresy known as Apollinarianism. He said that the Logos of the Son took the place of the human soul in the man Jesus Christ. Christ’s physical body, he said, was a true human body, but His deepest soul was divine and He did not have a human soul. The church answered that this denied the total and true humanity of Jesus Christ.

Nestorius championed the heresy known as Nestorianism. He denied that there was a real unity of two natures in Jesus Christ, and said rather that there was simply a juxtaposition. There was a close relationship between God and man in Christ, but not a union. There were two persons in Jesus existing in a unique moral fellowship. The church answered that this denied the true unity of God and man in the incarnation. The church stated that the two natures of Christ exist in unconfused union.

Eutyches promoted the heresy known as Eutychianism or Monophysitism. His idea was similar to Apollinarius’ but the opposite of Nestorius’. He said that Christ had one nature, which merged divine and human nature. The church replied that Christ had to be fully divine, not partially so, in order to save us, and that He had to be fully human, not partly human, in order to represent us.

Each of these heresies really attacked the uniqueness of Jesus. At the Council of Chalcedon, the church stated that Christ is true God and true man, and that these two natures exist in one Person without confusion, without conversion, without division, and without separation.

The Confession of Chalcedon provides a clear and important statement on the human and divine nature of Christ:

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; (ἐν δύο φύσεσιν ἀσυγχύτως, ἀτρέπτως, ἀδιαιρέτως, ἀχωρίστως – in duabus naturis inconfuse, immutabiliter, indivise, inseparabiliter) the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person (prosopon) and one Subsistence (hypostasis), not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God (μονογενῆ Θεόν), the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

The God Who Visits

“Blessed is the Lord, God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people” (Luke 1:68 NKJV).

When the Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth, she prophesied to Mary (Luke 1:41ff.). When the Spirit came upon Mary, she sang a prophetic song (Luke 1:46ff.). Now we find that Zechariah “was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied” a song (Luke 1:68–79). The opening word of this song in Latin is Benedictus, Blessed, and the Song of Zechariah is known as the Benedictus. This song has also been used in the worship of the church since the earliest days of the Christian faith.

One of the themes of the Song of Zechariah is the visitation of God. We find it mentioned again in verse 78: “Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven.” The theme of God’s visitation is one of the richest in the entire Scripture. The people of Israel looked forward to those moments when God would come to visit His people.

The Greek word for 'visit' is episkopeo, from epi and skopeo. The word skopeo we have in English as scope, while epi simply intensifies the idea of the word. The type of visit that is in view, however, is not that of a causal, drop-in appearance, but means a visit that involves a careful scrutiny of the situation. Bishops are called episcopos because they are the overseers of the flock of God. They are called to visit the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry. They are given the care of God’s people.

The New Testament calls Jesus the “Bishop of our souls.” He is the Bishop Incarnate. His visit to this world was cloaked in mystery and has changed the course of history. He came not as a military general, but as a baby in a rock-hewn crib. But He came to care for our souls. He came with divine blessing and redemption. For those who love His coming, His next visit will be an occasion of unspeakable joy and glory. At the visit, the consummation of His Bishop’s task will be complete.

When we become God’s children, we serve as God’s ambassadors. In this way, through us, God continues to visit people in our world. Consider who you can visit this week to bring the joy and peace of Christ—an aged church member, a lonely friend, a prison inmate, a neighbor.

The Glory of Christmas

“Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:13–14).

Undoubtedly, we tend to put a heavy emphasis on the lowly circumstances of Jesus’ birth when we retell the Christmas story each year. Certainly this is appropriate, for the Son of God humbled Himself profoundly when He “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:5–8). Christ’s entire life was marked by humiliation, as He moved from a manger in Bethlehem to life as a common person in Nazareth to His ignoble death on the cross. Yet this humiliation led finally to glory. God the Father, because Jesus had been faithful to His mission, exalted Jesus and “bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (vv. 9–11).

Our Savior’s glory was veiled by human flesh in His incarnation, and it remained hidden throughout much of His ministry. Yet there were points in our Savior’s life when His glory shone temporarily through the veil. The best example of this is the transfiguration, the moment when Peter, James, and John were granted a vision of the Lord’s glory as it shone through the flesh of the Savior (Matt. 17:1–13). Furthermore, this glory also shone brightly at times when the people might not have been expecting it. In the midst of the humbling conditions of our Lord’s birth (poverty, being unable to find shelter in Bethlehem), there was a special manifestation of the Messiah’s glory to people nearby. The account of this manifestation is found in the passage above.

While Mary and Joseph tended to their son, many shepherds were nearby tending their flocks (Luke 2:8). In those days, shepherds occupied the bottom rung of society’s ladder, and the average citizen of Judea wanted little to do with these keepers of sheep. No one could have predicted that the first people to hear of Jesus outside of His parents would be a motley crew of shepherds. Nevertheless, an angel of the Lord appeared to these men, who got to watch the greatest sound-and-light show of all time (Luke 2:8–9).

Understandably, the shepherds were afraid (v. 9), but in this case, the glory of the Lord’s presence, which they could otherwise not endure, was a good thing. This was the announcement of the Savior, the One who had come to redeem even society’s outcasts. So, after the angels sang their praises to the Lord, the shepherds hastily traveled into Bethlehem to see the wonderful gift the Father had given to His people (vv. 15–16).

The shepherds were eager to see the Savior of the world, and we should be eager to see Him as well. This involves not only coming to Him in our conversions but also seeking His face each and every day of our lives. Though we will not see the fullness of His glory until we see Him face to face in heaven, we will nonetheless come to a fuller appreciation of this glory as we study His Word and pray to Him. Let us be diligent in these means of grace.