Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19950625.htm

THE DOCTRINE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Part IV: The Incarnation Of The Son Of God
  1. Introduction
    1. The central truth to the Christian faith is belief that God became flesh and dwelt amongst us, 1 John 4:1-3.
    2. However, that confession of faith is an admission of a miracle, a fact that has caused many to deny the Christian faith as they deny the miracle of the incarnation of Christ, cf. 1 John 4:3a; 2:22 and 2 John 9-11.
    3. We now examine the Scriptures on the validity of the doctrine of Christ's Incarnation.
  2. The Incarnation Of The Son Of God
    1. The meaning of the term, "incarnate" is "in flesh," describing that God became flesh, cf. Jn. 1:14.
    2. However, for God to become flesh, there needs to be the bypass of normal human reproduction, for then the Son of God would simply be a man and not God-in-flesh. Accordingly, we hold to the doctrine of the Virgin Birth of Christ to explain how God took on flesh as follows:
      1. When the angel appeared to Mary to tell her of Christ's birth, she was still a virgin, Lk. 1:26-27,31,34.
      2. When Mary asked the angel, Gabriel how she would bring forth a son without having had relations with a man, he said that the Holy Spirit would miraculously p roduce the Son of God in her, 1:35-37.
      3. Other writers in the New Testament teach that Jesus was virgin born of Mary:
        1. Joseph wanted to break his engagement to Mary upon discovering that she was pregnant, for he himself had nothing to do with her condition. Joseph was thus not Jesus' natural father, Mt. 1:18-19.
        2. However, Joseph's willingness to marry her following his awareness that Mary was with child demonstrates Joseph's belief that Mary was still a chaste virgin, Mtt. 1:20, 24. In fact, Joseph did not have relations with Mary even after he married her until Jesus was born, fulfilling Isaiah 7:14 that she would both conceive and bear a son as a virgin! (Mtt. 1:25)
        3. The "feminine relative pronoun is used in Matthew 1:16 which declares that the birth of Jesus was of Mary only and not of Joseph," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, p. 1840. This argues for the virgin birth.
      4. Liberal Theology has tried to use Isaiah 7:14 to promote a theory that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Mary and a Roman soldier! We handle that attack on the virgin birth as follows:
        1. The Revised Virgin interprets Isaiah 7:14 to say, "A young woman shall conceive and bear a son..."
        2. This Hebrew word for the RV's "young woman" ('almah) literally means "maid," so etymologically one could possibly teach that Isaiah meant "a young woman" without saying she was also a virgin.
        3. However, not only etymology, or the root formation of a word determines its meaning, but how the word is USED determines its true meaning. Genesis 24:43, Exodus 2:8, Psalm 68:25, Proverbs 30:19, S/S 1:3 and 6:8 all use 'almah "only of a chaste maiden who is unmarried" (Ibid., Ryrie). Besides, "There is no instance where it can be proved that 'almah designates a young woman who is not a virgin," Harris, Archer and Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the O.T., vol. II, p. 672.
        4. Accordingly, Isaiah MEANT that a virgin would conceive and bear a son; he meant virgin birth!
    3. The incarnation was necessary for the following reasons: (1) It revealed God to men (Jn. 1:18); (2) it gave man an example for living, 1 Pet. 2:21; (3) it provided a body for the sacrifice for man's sin, He. 10:1-10; (4) it was necessa ry to destroy the works of the devil, 1 Jn. 3:8; (5) it was needed for Christ to be a merciful High Priest, He. 5:1-2; (6) it was needed to fulfill the Davidic Covenant, Lk. 1:31-33; and (7) it was necessary to exalt Christ highly, Phil. 2:9. (Ibid. ., Ryrie, p. 1840)
    4. The resulting Person of Jesus Christ following the Incarnation in no way is diminished either as to deity or humanity: Heb. 1:3 claims that Christ incarnate is "the express image of his (the Father's) person" as deity while 1 Tim. 2:5 calls our single Mediator between God and man a man, Christ Jesus! Thus, the divine and human natures in Christ do not transfer any other their respective attributes between them, yet they both reside in one Person and one identify of personhood, Jesus Christ!
    5. Christ is eternally incarnate since the virgin birth to continue His mediatorship for believers, cf. He. 7:24.
Lesson: Jesus Christ is the eternal God come in the flesh so that He will eternally be God-in-the-flesh as our Mediator between God and us! As such, He was born by the virgin birth as a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, being the Son of God in f ulfillment of Scripture. He is to be worshipped as God and approached as an understanding Mediator who was in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin!