The incarnation is not a problem to solve.
The Word becoming flesh is safeguarded by its unknowability.
Lately, I’ve been poring over John C. Clark and Marcus Peter Johnson’s incredible work, The Incarnation of God: The Mystery of the Gospel as the Foundation of Evangelical Theology, in which they more than adequately demonstrate how the fact that the Son of God assumed human flesh is foundational and integral to “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Far from being a seasonal mainstay, the hope of the incarnation permeates every tenet that the church confesses. If scholars are to be believed, then Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 3:16 encapsulate one of the earliest known creeds of the New Testament church, which, unsurprisingly, begins with the manifestation of Christ “in the flesh”:
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
This, of course, trickles down into many of the ensuing confessions of the church, including the Apostles’ Creed, which begins, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.” The First Council of Nicaea likewise confessed in the year 325 A.D. that: “We believe . . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God . . . he came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made human.” Similarly, the Chalcedonian Creed of 451 A.D. begins, “We then, teach men to confess . . . our Lord Jesus Christ . . . truly God and truly man . . . 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.” All of which to say, the fact that the Son of God was “born in the likeness of men” is decidedly not ancillary to our faith.
Inherent within these confessions, however, is the intrinsic unknowability and incomprehensibility of such an affirmation. One must not belabor scientific and biological arguments when attempting to explain the wondrous miracle of Yahweh’s embodiment. Indeed, as the apostle says, this is “the mystery of godliness” — and it is precisely this mystery that should drive the church’s confession and worship. Although the church can and should strive for theological precision when confessing something as pregnant with meaning as the incarnation, precision, in this instance, does not necessarily involve “exhaustive explanation.” Rather, as Clark and Johnson attest in the following paragraph, the incarnation is not a problem to solve so much as it is a mystery to behold. They write:
Confessional theology insists that the incarnation of God is and shall always remain a mystery. In no sense does this imply that nothing may be known about the incarnation. Rather, it means that the incarnation’s depth and breadth are such as to prohibit its ever being plumbed or spanned. The incarnation can never be exhaustively explained, much less explained away. Far from being a concession to irrationality, acknowledging the irreducibly mysterious nature of the incarnation is a mark of intellectual maturity, displaying sanctified reason’s proper suspicion of all ostensibly sophisticated forms of infidelity that presume to “solve” the One who became what he created without ceasing to be God. In other words, confessional theology refuses to degrade biblical mysteries by reducing them to problems. Problems are subject to solution by the application of an appropriate technique, whereas biblical mysteries transcend every conceivable solution or technique. Problems elicit frustration and invite resolution, whereas biblical mysteries elicit contemplation and invite adoration. Problems obscure other related matters until solved, whereas biblical mysteries illumine related matters without ever surrendering their own inherent inscrutability. (42)
Even though you might have already tucked away your Christmas decorations where they will stay for the next eleven months, the prevailing truth of this season is that which we confess regardless of what month it is — namely, that the Son of God was “made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). What’s more, his priestly service on our behalf has not and will not come to end (Heb. 7:24–25). He is our everlasting Representative, Priest, and Friend. This, to be sure, is not a puzzle to unravel or a mystery to untangle. It’s a miracle to consider and treasure with awe and wonder.
Grace and peace to you.
Works cited:
John C. Clark and Marcus Peter Johnson, The Incarnation of God: The Mystery of the Gospel as the Foundation of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015).