METHOD & CHANGES AT THE INCARNATION

THE METHOD BY WHICH THE LORD BECAME INCARNATE

• By Virgin Birth
• This was not His origin, but simply the door of entrance
• Full discussion of Virgin Birth will follow later

AND THE CHANGES IN OUR LORD'S POSITION AND STATE INVOLVED IN THE INCARNATION

 

 

A Change in His dwelling  Place
-      from heaven to earth John 6:51

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

A Change in His Possessions
-      from riches to poverty Luke 9:58; 2 Cor. 8:9

"And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." 

Take into account that this is the King of the Kingdom. Seems as though the Kingdom is hidden.

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

 

The prosperity Gospel is naked before the Lord Who lived in poverty on earth.

 

A Change in His Glory

-      from glory to obscurity John 1:10; John 17:5

"He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not."

"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."

 

The glory of the Eternal Sonship, His essential glory, for which He prays? But this He had not renounced, nor could the Father give it. It belonged to Him His one of the Persons of the Godhead, eternal, unchangeable. The glory for which he prayed could be only the glory which was His due as the Father's visible Image, the Redeemer, the Administrator of His government, the appointed Lord over all His works. This glory could not, be manifested till He had finished the work the Father had given Him to do. Not till His resurrection could He appear in the glory which was His when, anterior to Creation, He stood before the Father as the predestined Heir of all, and His Representative to all creatures. He could not enter into this His glory till made immortal. Then could He sit at the Father's right hand (Luke 24:26). It was this glory which the Father gave Him that He could give to His disciples John 17:22. Of this He could make them partakers, but not of His essential glory.

 

A Change in His Position

-      from equality with God to servant hood.  Matt. 20:26-28; Phil. 2:6-7 ASV

"But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."
"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"

A Change in His Form
- from the "form of God" to the "likeness of men" Phil. 2:6-7 ASV

"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"

Concluding Notes:

All the above changes were temporary except the last, which is permanent.
He has ascended back into heaven, received back all His riches, is again clothed with the glory of God, is once more on the throne of the universe.
But He retains the human form. Having assumed our human nature and form, He takes it back into heaven, so that as man He sits upon the Throne of God.
Acts 7:54-56 Rev. 1:17-18 Rev. 5:6 Rev. 22:16

"When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
18  I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

"And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."
"I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."

There was no change in His Divine Personality:

He did not cease to be God when He became man.
He did not cease to be man when He reassumed the glory of God.
He carried the same divine personality through all the changes incident to His Incarnation.
Through all the changes of Position, Form; and State, He remains the same blessed person. Heb. 13:8

"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."

cf. the blasphemy of Russellism. Jehovah's Witnesses blasphemously teach that the Lord Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead. Russellites say his body either dissolved into gases or is still preserved somewhere (one man infected with Jehovah's Witness beliefs told me that the body decayed).