What does incarnate mean and how was Jesus God incarnate?
The word "incarnate" comes from the Latin for flesh, and Christians use it for the moment the eternal Son entered human life — as John puts it, the Word became flesh and lived among us. That raises two questions the commentators keep separate: what exactly changed when He became flesh, and what did not change.
Meaning of the Word
The term describes a genuine change of condition, not a change of Person. One writer draws out what "became" must mean:
W. H. WestcottIt is clear then that Scripture, in saying that the Word became flesh, teaches us that this was a new beginning, a condition not existing before, but now become true of the One who was and is the Word. And all true Christians agree surely that the words "became flesh" refer to His becoming Man; to the Incarnation of the Word, in fact.
Commentators differ on how much weight the word itself can carry. One notes that the term is a human summary, not a Bible word:
H J VineThe grace which brought the Son of God here as a man among men is commonly spoken of as "Incarnation." This expression, though well meaning, is not a Scriptural one, and comes short, I believe, of what the Spirit means when He speaks of the Word — who is God eternally — becoming flesh.
Someone Who Already Was
Every other birth is the beginning of a person. This one was not.
J. T. MawsonOur Lord Jesus Christ was rich before His poverty in Bethlehem... He was the Word before He became flesh... This glorious pre-existence surely means that the birth of our Lord into this world was not as the birth of any other man that had ever been born; it was an incarnation, the coming of a Divine Person into a condition in which He had not been before, to carry out all the will of God and be the Saviour of us men.
How It Happened
The question "how" was first asked by Mary, and the angel's answer to her is where writers look for the mechanics of it.
Arno Clemens Gaebelein"The Holy Spirit shall come upon you" means that the human nature of our Lord was produced in the Virgin by a creative act of the Holy Spirit... "And the Power of the Most High shall overshadow you." This is not a repetition of the first statement. It means that the Son of God, who is the Most High, overshadowed the Virgin, uniting Himself with the miraculously prepared human nature.
The manhood He took was real and complete. It included a body, weakness, and a cradle:
Hamilton SmithThere in Bethlehem's stable the One "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," was brought forth and cradled in a manger. The womb of the virgin, the manger of Bethlehem, the arms of Simeon, and the home of Nazareth mark the stages in this wonderful story of the Incarnate Son — God manifest in the flesh.
What Did Not Change
Becoming man cost Him nothing of what He eternally is.
E. C. HadleyHe took up humanity into union with deity in His Person; yet His incarnation did not in the least detract from His deity nor His eternal relationship as Son to the Father, but only gave to His humanity His infinite perfection. Each of His two natures retained its own proper character without any confusion... Scripture never divides the Person nor confounds the natures.
That leaves two errors to avoid — splitting Him into two persons, or blending the natures into a hybrid:
Truth & TestimonyIt was an ancient heresy that the two natures, Manhood and Deity, merged together... He is wholly Man and wholly God. He possesses all the attributes and properties of real, unfallen, holy Manhood, and at the same time possesses all the infinite attributes and properties of Deity. The unity consists, not in the amalgamation of essence, but in the Oneness of His Person.
Why He Became Flesh
God cannot die. So to reach us where we are, He entered a condition in which death was possible:
Ernie BrownHe became a man to help mankind. To help mankind, indeed to save sinful men, it was necessary for the Son of God to become a man. That is, it was necessary for Him to enter into a condition in which it was possible for Him to die. By dying the death that men deserved, He became their redeemer.
John's own sentence adds a second aim beyond the cross — nearness and knowledge:
Hamilton SmithHaving declared the great fact that "The Word became flesh," the Apostle goes on to tell us that the One who became incarnate "dwelt among us," and moreover that the One who dwelt among us is the Only-begotten Son, who declares the Father. Here surely we have a bright hint of the two-fold purpose of incarnation. God dwelling in the midst of men, and God known by men.
Summary
- Became — "Incarnate" means the Word took a condition He had never been in before: real manhood, beginning at Bethlehem.
- Before — He did not start existing at His birth. He was rich before that poverty, the Word before He was flesh.
- How — The Holy Spirit produced His human nature in the virgin, and the Son united Himself with it; the body was prepared, and holy.
- Both — Deity lost nothing. He is wholly God and wholly Man, two natures never merged, one Person never divided.
- Why — He entered a state where He could die, so that He might redeem; and so that God might dwell among men and be known by them.