Incarnation: What It Means
Incarnation: God being made man and walking in our brokenness with us.
The word incarnation doesn’t actually appear in the Bible. It comes from the Latin ‘in and Caro’ (flesh), meaning clothed in flesh, or the act of assuming flesh. However, the Incarnation is without parallel one of the greatest events to occur in the history of man: the Son of God assuming a human body.
The Bible teaches the deity of Christ by presenting us with the fulfillment of events and prophecies in the Old Testament, like the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 about the Virgin Mary and her child. “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
This prophesy in Isaiah was fulfilled in the New Testament when Jesus was born from Matthew 1:22-23: Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
When we say that Jesus Christ is God “Incarnate,” we mean that Jesus was conceived in the womb and was born (Luke 2:7), he experienced normal aging (Luke 2:40), he had natural physical needs (John 19:28) and human emotions (Matthew 26:38). Jesus was human in every way except for sin; he lived a completely sinless life (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus reveals to man what we are and what we may become in him.
When Christ took on the form of a human, his nature did not change, but his position did in that he humbled himself by laying aside his glory and privileges (Philippians 2:6–8). Jesus can never stop being God (Hebrews 13:8). And even though he became human, he is also infinite (Revelation 1:8) as God is. If Jesus stopped being fully God for even a split second, all life would be in chaos (Acts 17:28).
This is the mystery of God. That he would love us this much and to prove it he became like us to walk in our brokenness.
Jesus did this so we would see him, know him, and understand that he wants to have relationship with us.
The Incarnation matters because we matter to God.
Now it’s time for us to live like Jesus matters.