**BAPTIST DOCTRINE IN ONE YEAR**
#8 WHAT BAPTISTS BELIEVE ABOUT THE INCARNATION
**Memory Verse:** 1 Timothy 3:16
**Prayer:** That we may understand and appreciate Christ’s marvelous condescension in His coming into the world as a man that
He might die in our stead.
**Key Verses:** John 1:14; Deut. 18:15; Isaiah 9:6-7; Gen. 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:31.
**The Promise:** The pre-existent Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son Eternal, the second person of the Blessed Holy Trinity, became
flesh, took upon Him a human body, and dwelt among men, finally giving Himself as a sacrifice for sinners. This is a divine mystery,
1 Tim. 3:16.
“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise
his heel,” Gen. 3:15. This is the fountainhead of the promise of the incarnation of Christ. We are not left in the dark as to the
meaning of “the seed of the woman” (Isa. 7:10-14 – the Virgin). The name “Immanuel” is very significant. It suggests the uniting of
two planes of life – God and humanity. Isaiah 9:6-7 foretold the Child born to humanity who was in reality “the Son Given.
” No child of mere human beings could bear such titles as were given the seed of the woman.
**The Announcement:** The angel of the Lord (Gabriel) who appeared to the virgin Mary and to her espoused husband Joseph,
announced the coming of this long awaited Messiah of the Jewish nation (Matt. 1:20-23; Luke 1:26-35). The angel also announced
the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner for the Saviour. Soon light is to break out unto a darkened world who have been
waiting these many long centuries for the fulfillment of God’s promises (John 1:14-9).
**The Fulfillment:** No wonder angels shouted for joy when God clothed Himself with humanity (Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 2:8-14).
The Redeemer of mankind was the seed of the woman. He is the ultimate destroyer of Satan. The Old Testament sacrifices and worship
system is to be all completed through this babe in the manger (Gal. 4:4-5; John 1:14).
**The Adoration:** Wise men (magi-magician) came from the east to worship the new born King of the Jews (Matt. 2:1-6;
Luke 2:15-20 – shepherds). It is the wise man who seeks Jesus (Luke 19:10; John 1:21). Every magician among the Orientals
knew the prophecy of the Messiah from Gen. 9:26 (a Shemit) and if they had access to Genesis 49, of course they knew He
would be Jewish and would be marked by a star (Gen. 49:10). They come to worship “him” they do not come to worship Mary.
The common people in Bible times had much more information available than modern scholars do, since the majority of them believed
and read the scriptures as though they were revelations from God (Mark 12:12,37).
Herod the king demanded of the Jewish leaders where Christ (Christos – a king) was to be born that he might also go and worship
him (Matt. 2:4,8,16). Herod expects the Jewish scriptures to be able to accurately foretell the future, and is so convinced they
can, that he is willing to murder on the accuracy of that information.
**The Importance of the Virgin Birth in the Incarnation:** The Lord shall give you a sign, behold, a virgin (Isa. 7:14). Because
of Ahaz’s unbelief, God gives him a sign, that in the virgin birth would come the Messiah – “Immanuel” – God manifest in the flesh.
The promise is then born into the house of David as the greater Son of David, whose birth would be a miracle of Divine power. God
would secure the establishment of His throne in the house of David, by raising up a child in whom the Divine should actually commingle
with the human; and that this child should be the offspring of some unknown virgin of the race of David.
The essential feature of a given sign is not the fact that a virgin conceives, but that Messiah is Immanuel, that the unchangeable
communion of God with His people is maintained.
Actually made apparent in the midst of impending judgments, this was to strengthen the hope of the faithful in Judah during this hour
of fear and danger. He was to be Immanuel, God with us, the Son of a Virgin, pure and sinless from His birth, knowing to choose good
and to refuse evil. That Christ would be both God and man, Immanuel, not only the Son of Adam but the Son of God, at once David’s Son
and David’s Lord, the Son of Man and the Son of the Highest.
Isaiah prepared the faithful for this mysterious parentage by his grand prophecy of the birth of the virgin’s son, Immanuel. All the
streams of grace and truth met and merged in Him—the end of the law, the grand march of messianic prophecy, the revelation of the
mystery of the ages, the denouement of the divine redemptive plan.
In His mature years, the Godhead of Jesus is not a metaphor; it is the essence of Christianity. The Lord of heaven and earth blended
our nature with His own, sharing not only our state but our nature and essence. He took from us a human nature that He might give us
a divine nature. This mystery of God and man is everlasting; this blessed union is incapable of dissolution. Jesus’ humanity passed
through the various stages of growth like any other member of the human race. He was recognized as a Jew (John 4:19; Romans 2:25).
By His incarnation, Christ came into possession of a real, human, physical nature consisting of spirit, soul, and body, which gave
to Him true humanity (Matthew 26:12; Hebrews 2:12).
Jesus Christ was subject to the ordinary physical limitations of human nature, such as hunger, thirst, weakness, pain, and death
(John 4:16; Matthew 21:18; John 12:28; Luke 22:44; 1 Corinthians 15:27).
Our human nature became the tabernacle of God, that He might dwell with men, make them His people, and be their God. It was in the
incarnation that the heart of God reached the most distant part of His spiritual creation—a descent in which He takes the deepest
form of condescension, the tenderest and most solemn fact, the confession of which is for us Christians no lifeless formula or dead
dogma. It is a living and intense conviction, resting upon the authority of the Bible and upon conscience. Deny the Godhead of Jesus,
and you forfeit the very essence of our humanity. The chief distinction of this human nature and the supreme evidence of its divine
dignity is that it is capable of the living God coming into it, taking it up into His own nature, and dwelling in it. The incarnation
teaches us the truth of a new relationship for our fallen race, through which the fallen can be lifted even to the eternal.
**Discussion Questions:**
1. What is the first scriptural promise of a Redeemer?
2. What are some objections raised to the virgin birth?
3. Quote scripture which proves Christ’s humanity from His appearance as a man.
4. What are the three elements of Christ’s human physical nature?
5. Describe the relationship which the two natures of Christ sustain to each other and to His person.
6. Describe the human limitations of Jesus Christ.
7. What does the incarnation of Jesus Christ teach us?
8. How could God become man and still be God?
#8 WHAT BAPTISTS BELIEVE ABOUT THE INCARNATION