The Incarnation And Its Glorious Purpose
THE INCARNATION AND ITS GLORIOUS PURPOSE
“The Man Christ Jesus.”—1 Tim. 2:5.
“A man in Christ.”—2 Cor. 12:2.
The purpose of the Incarnation is summed up in the one word Identification. In the Man Christ Jesus, God identified Himself with the human race and tabernacled among men; the man in Christ is identified with God and dwells in Him. God manifest in the flesh is the supreme mystery, and man made like God is the supreme glory of the Gospel of grace. The process of Divine Incarnation in human flesh transcends all human reason, but the fact is declared, and its glorious purpose is clearly revealed.
I. The Man Christ Jesus
The New Testament leaves no room for doubt as to the proper humanity of Jesus Christ. S. John in the introduction to his Gospel, says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” The Word that was in the beginning became flesh, the Word that was with God dwelt among men, the Word that was God was made manifest, full of grace and truth.
The completest statement of the Incarnation is S. Paul’s great word on the Renunciation: “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God counted it not a thing to be grasped, to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross.”
This passage sets forth seven facts concerning Jesus Christ.
1. That He was originally in the form of God.
2. That He esteemed not equality with God a thing to be grasped.
3. That He voluntarily gave up the privileges and prerogatives of Divinity.
4. That He exchanged the form of God for the form of a servant.
5. That He became man.
6. That He humbled Himself unto obedience.
7. That He consented to the death of the Cross.
The significant point of the passage is that the rights and powers of divinity were exchanged for the limitations of humanity. The form of God was laid aside that He might take the form of a servant. The word translated “form” does not mean mere shape or resemblance. There is a difference between form and fashion; one is the essential and the other the apparent. The exchanged form means an exchanged mode of existence. The same Personality that had dwelt from the beginning with God, and was God, became a servant and lived within man’s conditions. He had the fashion of a man, and was indistinguishable in all externals from the rest of the race. The conditions of the Heavenly state did not overlap into the earthly. Self-emptying preceded self-humbling. He was Man among men. There was nothing that destroyed any human quality, neither anything that neutralised any human limitation. His manhood was real.
The identification of Christ with men was as complete in extent as it was real in nature. The first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews sets forth seven proofs of the Divine Sonship, and the second chapter enumerates the following seven points of His identification with man: He descended to man’s level, took man’s nature, endured man’s temptation, died in man’s place, conquered man’s foe, achieved man’s victory, and secured man’s salvation. Verse 17 sums up the whole doctrine of His humanity in the words, “Wherefore it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren.” The words must be taken as they stand without limit and without modification. “In all things” means that in all respects He partook of man’s nature, and shared man’s lot. He hungered, toiled, wearied, suffered, and was in all things subject to the limitations and conditions of human life. Without exemption and without exception He was made in all things like unto His brethren.
He differed from the rest of the race in that in Him there was no sin. But that in no way affects the reality of His humanity. Sin is no essential part of manhood. The more sinful a man is the less of a man he becomes, and the less sinful he is the more truly is he a man. The sinlessness of Jesus establishes His claim to the perfection of manhood. Sinlessness does not imply ignorance concerning sin. No man in God’s universe knows so much about sin as the Man Christ Jesus. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for sinful man. He knows more of its sinfulness, its anguish, and its woe than any other. He bore its burden, paid its penalty, and endured its curse. By His sinlessness He was separate from sinners, but His separateness from sin makes His identification with man the more complete. He is not only man, but The Man: the Brother, Head, and Representative of all.
Sinlessness did not exempt him from temptation
Made in all things like unto His brethren, He was “in all points tempted like as we are.” The “in all things” of Hebrews 2:17 is followed by the “in all points” of Hebrews 4:15. It must be so. If He laid aside all that was peculiar to His Divinity, and took upon Himself all that is common to our humanity, there could be no escape from the temptations that assail all mankind. So He was “in all points tempted like as we are.” Not in all forms. Temptation comes to us in many ways that were impossible to Him. He did not live in the twentieth century, nor in the atmosphere of Western civilisation. There were social, domestic, and industrial relationships into which He never entered. The forms of temptation vary with varying conditions, but the essentials of temptation are the same in every place and in every age. Jesus was tempted in all points at which man is assailable. He was tempted along every possible avenue. He was assailed with every weapon in the Devil’s armoury. That the temptation was real is evident from the words, “He suffered being tempted.” It was no sham fight, no mere parade. He felt the stress and struggle of resistance. Because He was truly man, He was exposed to the assaults and seductions that are the common lot of man.
Another thing that needs to be emphasised in this connexion is that the Man Christ Jesus lived His life and fulfilled His Mission, with no other resources than those He has made possible to every man in Him. There lurks in our thoughts the impression that after all Jesus had advantages and resources that are open to no other. The Christ of miraculous birth and miraculous power seems to command possibilities altogether exceptional, that place Him beyond the range of identification. One of the catch-questions of my Sunday-school days was as to the difference between the miracles of Christ and those of His disciples. The answer, when we got one, invariably was that the disciples wrought miracles in the power of Christ, but Christ wrought them by His own inherent power. But that is just what Christ did not do. He wrought in the power of the Holy Ghost. When He emptied Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant, the Father filled Him with His Spirit. “God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” What the Father gave to the Son, the Son has given to man. The self-same Spirit that was in the Man Christ Jesus, is given to every man in Christ. Within the limits of our need, the Spirit comes to be to us, all that He was to Jesus. The Christ had no resources that He has not made accessible to all.
This is the Man Christ Jesus. Of like nature with ourselves, subject to the limitations, perils, temptations of our lot, and restricted to such resources as are now available to all men through Him. Truly man, yet not less God. It is the same Person in the form of a servant that from the beginning was in the form of God, in all points truly human, in all essentials truly Divine. A proper Man yet truly God! Perfect Manhood and Perfect Deity! History furnishes us with an instance of a prince who voluntarily became a workman in a foreign land. He was treated as the rest of the workers, subject to the same regulations, without exceptional privileges or extra supplies. The changed mode of existence did not affect his princely rank. He exchanged the form of a ruler for the form of a workman, but he was as truly of royal blood in his overalls as in his robes, as truly an heir-apparent in the workshop as at the court. So with Christ. The changed mode of existence did not affect His personality. He had exchanged the position and prerogatives of God for the conditions and limitations of man, but He was still God. He claimed to be one with God: “I and the Father are One.” He was as truly God in the workshop at Nazareth as on the Throne. But He is man. The renunciation was so complete that He was among men in all things like unto His brethren, in all points tempted as they, yet without sin. He is God’s ideal man. He stands before God and man as the pattern of what God meant man to be, and the sample of what redeemed man is destined to become. Sinless, flawless, perfect, and approved, the Son of God is the pledge and standard of our salvation.
II. Man in Christ
The Incarnation reveals the Divine intention. When Divinity identified itself with Humanity, it was that Humanity might be identified with Divinity. In identifying Himself with man Christ identified man with Himself. It seems a startling statement, but there is no escape from it. He became in all things like unto His brethren, that His brethren might become in all things like unto Him. The “in all things” is co-extensive. The identification is as complete on the one side as on the other. All that the Man Christ Jesus is by nature, the man in Christ becomes by grace. The identification is as complete as the renunciation was without reserve. In Christ man becomes as Christ, just as truly as in the Incarnation Christ became as man. All that Christ is we become, all that Christ has we have, the works that Christ did we may do. The man in Christ is one with Christ, even as Christ is one with the Father.
There are seven points of identification set forth in the New Testament.
1. Relationship
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the first thing He does for the man who comes to Him is to give him the right of sonship. He lifts man into the same relationship with the Father as Himself. The method is different and the degree is different. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father, but what the Christ is by nature the man in Christ becomes by adoption. By nature we are aliens and strangers, enemies and rebels, but “to as many as received Him to them gave He the right to become sons of God.” “For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The identification of the Son of God with man has made it possible for sinful men to become sons of God.
2. Nature
Jesus Christ partook of man’s nature, that man might be made a partaker of the Divine nature. “That through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” Nature is stronger than condition. A child may be taken from vicious surroundings, transplanted to new conditions, adopted into new relationships, and given a new name, but the old nature tells. It is easier to give a new home and a new name than a new nature. But in the work of grace Adoption is accompanied by Regeneration. The sons of God are born of God. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old nature is put off, and a Divine nature takes its place. The Lord’s image, defaced in Adam, is renewed in Christ. The Son of God took hold on humanity that sinful men might take hold on His Divinity. What a Gospel! The nature of the God-Man to become the possession of fallen and sinful men! “As He is, so are we.”
3. Possessions
“If sons, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” When a man in high social position marries a poor woman, he does not come to her level, but lifts her to his. He does not divest himself of all his possessions, but invests her with all he has. She shares his name, his rank, his wealth, his home. She becomes identified with him. They are one. Christ calls us His Bride. He came down to the level of our poverty that He might lift us to the level of His rank and wealth. We are one. He has no wealth we do not share. All the resources of grace, wisdom, and power are at the disposal of His own. He withholds nothing. The riches of His glory are the inheritance of His saints. The peculiar possessions of Jesus are His Spirit, and the infinite merit of His sacrifice. The Spirit He has poured out without measure, and in the gift of His merit is the fulness of our salvation, and our hope in prayer. He took our poverty; we receive His wealth.
4. Character
Identification in relationship, nature, and possessions, involves correspondence of character. The end of all grace is holiness. We are made partakers of all these privileges in Christ that we may reflect His Spirit and reproduce His life. There is no greater exhortation than this, “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Identification involves identity. If we are one with Him, we must be like Him. The test of life is its fruit. If we share His life, we shall follow in His steps. Christ not only gave His life for us; He imparts it to us. His life is our life. He who died for men lives in men. It is the same Christ that lived among men that now lives in them, and the manifest life therefore is His. The badge and test of a Christian is Christ-likeness.
5. Experience
The completeness with which Jesus identifies His people with Himself is manifest in all His dealings with His disciples. “He that receiveth you, receiveth me.” “If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you.” “It is enough that the servant be as his lord.” In all things they might expect to share His lot in the world, and all their afflictions He would make His own. What was done to them would be done to Him, so completely were they one. They must share His experience in the world. That, however, was not all. They should share the peace and joy of His own soul. “My peace I give unto you”; “These things have I spoken unto you that My joy may be in you.” The very peace that reigned in His own heart should dwell in theirs. The very joy of Christ’s own soul should abide in them through all adversity and trial. The heart of the believer becomes as the heart of his Lord. His life is our life, His peace our peace, His joy our joy. His assurance of the Father’s smile, His delight in the Father’s service, His joy in the Father’s fellowship, His rest in the Father’s will, all these are ours, for we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
6. Mission
We are “called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” That fellowship is a fellowship of service. We are called into partnership in the work of the Son of God. He said to His disciples, “We must work the works of Him that sent Me.” His commission after His resurrection was, “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” “Go ye … and lo, I am with you.” His Mission is our mission, His work our work. We are partners in the same undertaking, yoke-fellows in the same toil.
7. Reward
They who are one with Him in service and suffering will be one with Him in reward. The identification is complete even to the last. Listen! Here is the consummation of it all. Here is the crowning wonder of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father in His throne.” We share His very throne. The faithful enter at last into the joy of their Lord. In Heaven the identification is complete, and man stands higher than the angels, for Christ the Son of God has lifted him to the level of His throne. What a Gospel! What a miracle of grace! What a glorious purpose! The Son of God in all things Son of Man, that the sons of men may be as the Son of God.
III. Man’s life in Christ
Identification involves correspondence. If the man in Christ is to be one with Christ, and in all things like Christ, the governing principles at the root of each life must be the same; and if the root principles are identical, the practical manifestations must correspond. The standard of Christ’s life was His Father’s will, the dynamic of His life was the Holy Spirit, and the joy of His life was the assured approval of His Father. These are essential to every Christ-like life: Consecration, Pentecost, Obedience. The life is impossible where the consecration is incomplete; it is possible only in the power of the Spirit; and it can only be maintained by continual abiding in assured and approved obedience in the will of God. Surrender, receive, abide! These are the key-words of the Christ-life.
These root principles reproduce the character of the Master. The Man Christ Jesus is the standard and pattern in all things to the man in Christ. In character, grace answers grace, feature corresponds with feature, till in all things the resemblance is complete. It is not simply a faithful copy, but the manifestation of the one spirit. The life is one. The life of the man in Christ is the life of the Man Christ Jesus, who dwells in Him. The mind that is in Him is the mind that was in Christ. He loves as Christ loved, walks as He walked, and forgives as Christ forgave him. In service and suffering he takes Christ’s example of both method and spirit. Even the sacrificial death of Christ has its corresponding quality in the Christian life, and the man in Christ lays down his life because the Man Christ Jesus laid down His. Sonship leads to correspondence. We are children of God, and because we are children we know that we shall be like Him, even our bodies being fashioned anew that they may be conformed to the body of His glory.
How can a sinful man become as the sinless Christ? By identifying himself with Christ. The identification must be mutual, and avowed. Christ came from Heaven to identify Himself with man, and man must come out from the world to identify himself with Christ. Come out! “Come unto Me!” Identification must be followed by mutual indwelling. “Ye in Me, and I in you.” “I have been crucified with Christ,” says Paul, “yet I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.” Christ-likeness is the spontaneous expression of an indwelling life. That which fills the heart rivets the mind, and contemplation transforms the man.
The last word in the process is discipline. Separation, Indwelling, Meditation, Discipline. Providence works to the same end as grace. “And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also fore-ordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.” “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.”
Sometimes in the country I have stood and watched the village blacksmith at work, and for a long time could not make out the use of his little hammer. The big hammer I could understand, but why the smith should strike in turns the anvil and the iron puzzled me. One day I ventured to ask for an explanation, and found that the little hammer regulates the stroke of the big one. The smith holds the glowing metal, turning it lest the stroke fall too often upon the same spot, directing the blows that they may descend at the right moment; turning, tempering, regulating till the metal is fashioned to the desired shape. So God holds the soul and regulates the stroke. Sometimes He makes the Devil His hammer-man. Satan strikes to smash. God regulates the stroke, and turns his malice to our perfecting, and the Devil sweats at the task of fashioning saints into the likeness of Christ. At the end of the day we shall find that all life’s discipline has worked together with grace, and that we stand complete in our identification with the Son of the Father. The glorious purpose will have been accomplished, and we shall be like Him.
“I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.”