become forever Emmanuel, “God with us!” He who was the very “brightness of (God’s) glory, and the express image of his person” (Heb. 1:3), “was made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). He was one with “the Mighty God” and “the Everlasting Father,” but has now become one with us, “made like unto his brethren” (Heb. 2:17) in order that He, as Emmanuel, might also become “JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). He who had “created all things” (Eph. 3:9) finally created a human body in which He himself would dwell and in which He would then die for our sins and rise again for our justification.
The Word [that is, the creating Word!] was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
His 1st-century disciples were thus privileged to see God “manifest in the flesh” and then “received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:16). We who live in the 20th century have not been given that particular privilege, although He does, even now, “abide” in us by His Spirit (note John 14:21–23; 15:15).
But we also shall see Him in the flesh one of these days, for He is still a true man, resurrected and glorified, forever the Son of Man as well as God. Furthermore, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3).
And when we finally see Him, it will be far more glorious than when John and Peter saw Him by the Sea of Galilee. The only place in the Bible where His physical appearance as Son of Man is actually described is when John saw Him on the Isle of Patmos, many years later, after His resurrection and ascension. Here is how John saw Him, and this is how we shall see Him, not as a baby in a manger and not as our sin-bearing substitute nailed to a cross, but as our eternal King of kings and Lord of lords!
I saw . . . one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: And out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: And his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength (Rev. 1:12–16).
Then, when we, as his heavenly bride, the true Church, shall “see him as he is,” we can say with thanksgiving, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend” (Song of Sol. 5:16).
The Incarnation
In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by him. . . . And the Word was made flesh (John 1:1–14).
We can never understand the doctrine of the incarnation, whereby God the Creator became man the creature, for it is beyond the limits of finite comprehension. But we can believe it, and rejoice in it!
In fact, we must believe it, for “every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God” (1 John 4:3). “If ye believe not that I am he,” said the Lord Jesus, “ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).
We not only must believe, but we can believe, for He has proved himself to be God Incarnate by “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3), especially by His bodily resurrection after dying for our sins. Thereby has God “given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Only the Creator of life could defeat death. Buddha is dead and Mohammed is dead, and so are Confucius and Plato and all the great men who ever lived, but the “Word made flesh” who was “put to death in the flesh” (1 Pet. 3:18) has been raised from the dead and is “alive for evermore” (Rev. 1:18)! “Wherefore he is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb. 7:25).
1. How Could the Creator Become Man?
Since “by him [that is by Christ, the Word of God] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth” (Col. 1:16), He must have created the very body in which He would dwell when He “was made flesh.” This body, however, could not be a body produced by the normal process of human reproduction, for it must be a body unmarred either by inherent sin spiritually or by inherited genetic defects physically or mentally.
It would necessarily have to be a perfect body, a body like that of the first man, Adam, whom He had created long ago in the beautiful Garden of Eden. He would, in fact, come to be called “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45), since there would never be another man created as that “first Adam” had been. There would be one important difference, however. The first Adam was created and made as a full-grown man, but the second must be “in all things . . . made like unto his brethren” (Heb. 2:17). From conception to death, He must be “in all points . . . like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). In particular, His blood must be “precious blood . . . as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:19), for that blood must be “offered . . . without spot to God” (Heb. 9:14).
Therefore, the body of the second Adam must be formed directly by God and placed in a virgin’s womb. This was the very first promise made after the first Adam brought sin and death into the world. Speaking of “the woman, and . . . her seed,” God said that He “shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). The prophecy was addressed to Satan, whose lie had elicited Eve’s sin. This wonderful body of Jesus would not grow from a man’s seed, as in every other human birth, nor would it grow from a woman’s egg, for in either way a sin-carrying and mutation-riddled embryo would necessarily result. It must instead be a seed uniquely and miraculously formed by the Creator himself, then planted in the virgin Mary’s womb. The body growing from this perfect seed would become His “tabernacle” for 33 years as He lived on His planet Earth among those whom He had come to save.
“Lo, I come,” He would later promise through David (Ps. 40:7). Through Isaiah He said: “[The] virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son,” and that child would also be “the mighty God, the everlasting Father” (Isa. 7:14; 9:6). Still later, another inspired prophet would anticipate that “The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man” (Jer. 31:22).
Note that the “new thing” in the chosen woman must be “created.” When the time came, the angel assured young Mary that “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
Then, “when he cometh into the world, he saith . . . a body hast thou prepared me” (Heb. 10:5). Most significantly, He used the same word “prepared” (Greek, katartizo), which the writer of Hebrews also then would use when he testified that “the worlds were framed by the Word of God” (Heb. 11:3), recognizing that the same Living Word who had framed the worlds had also framed His own human body! And in that tiny cell in Mary’s womb resided all the information not only for His own growth into manhood, but also for the creation, preservation, and redemption of the whole creation. It was His by right of creation and soon would be doubly His by right of redemption.
2. When Did the Creator Become Man?
It has become customary in much of the world to observe the Creator’s incarnation on December 25, which is assumed to be the date of the birth of Jesus. However, various other dates have been observed by different groups or promoted by various writers, dates in January or March or October, for example. The Early Church apparently never observed Christmas at all, and the date of December 25 began to be identified as Jesus’ birthday only in about the fourth century. In fact, many believe that Christmas celebrations are essentially a continuation of the old Roman Saturnalia or other pagan practices centering upon the winter solstice, during the year’s longest nights.
The fact, however, is that no one really knows the date of His birth, so no one should be dogmatic on this subject. Nevertheless, there is one particularly intriguing possibility: On the night that Christ was born, shepherds were in the field watching their sheep (Luke 2:8). Although it is barely possible that this could be in late and cold December, it seems far more likely that it would be sometime in the early fall.