The word incarnation comes from two Latin words (as do so many theological words!) which together mean "into flesh." When the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she conceived in her womb the promised Savior (Luke 1:35), at that point the Second Person of the Holy Trinity came "into flesh" and into human history. God the Son visited this creation in a way that was unique, not to be repeated. In heaven, therefore, Jesus Christ has no mother; in the incarnation He had no (biological) father.

Several Scriptures give testimony to this great "mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16), but perhaps one of the fullest is Philippians 2:5ff. In 2:6 it is revealed that Christ Jesus was in the form of God. That is to say, what God (the Father) was, Christ Jesus was. There was no subordination in His being whatsoever. Nevertheless, He did not consider that majestic privilege something to be held on to ("grasped") for His own advantage. Rather, God the Son "emptied Himself," not by becoming less than God, but by taking on the "form" of a bond-servant, "in appearance as a man" (2:7, 8). He remains fully God, but He now assumes, or takes to His Person, a truly human nature.

What men beheld during the days of Christ's earthly ministry was the God-man, the only Mediator between God and man. As the apostle John puts it, the Word which was from the beginning, God itself, Creator of all things, became "flesh" in time and space, dwelt ("tented") among us, and we beheld His glory (John 1:1-3, 14). This is, in sum, the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Other portions of Scripture testify also to this magnificent mystery. Listen carefully to the fol­lowing: "concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3); God sent "His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3); but "when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law" (Gal. 4:4); for "in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete" (Col. 2:9­-10a); and we believe that whoever confesses that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God" (1 John 4:2b). More texts could be mentioned, but it becomes clear that Scripture accents now His true deity in some texts, now His real humanity in other texts, for such He is for us: God and man in one Person (cf. Westminster Confession of Faith, VIII.vii; Shorter Catechism, Q/A 21).

Thus the virgin conception (more precise than virgin "birth") is important here. Because Christ had no (biologically) human father, no new person comes into being in the incarnation. Rather, the Person had already existed from of old, even from eternity, namely, God the Son.

The divine Person already had all the complexities and attributes which belong to such a divine Person. In the incarnation He takes into His Person all the complexities and attributes which belong to a human nature. Therefore, the Christian Church confesses that Jesus Christ is one Person, having two natures (not two persons). He is one Christ, "not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person" (Athanasian Creed, 34-36; cf. Belgic Confession, Art. 10).

The early church council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) provided a very rich defini­tion of this mystery when it said that Jesus Christ possessed "two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the distinctiveness of the natures being by no means removed because of the union, but the properties of each nature being preserved." Thus because Christ is God, He is not confined to the body born of Mary, but He is everywhere present, and He is with us to the end of the age (cf. Matt. 18:20; 28:20). Furthermore, the early church called the Virgins Mary "Theotokos," that is, bearer of God according to the human nature, riot because she conceived the Deity, but because she gave birth to the one who is God and man. The title Theotokos is a Christological statement, not a name that justifies any veneration of Mary.

Although we may not always be able to penetrate the full mystery of the incarnation, we confess that it was "for us men and our salvation" that He came to be born of Mary in lowly Bethlehem. "He has not saved what He has not touched," confessed the Cappadocian Father Gregory. To effect atonement for us ("our salvation") He emptied Himself of heavenly majesty in order to touch us in our painful poverty. In the incarnation, Christ "with His innocence and perfect holiness covers, in the sight of God, my sin wherein I was con­ceived and brought forth" (Heidelberg Catechism, A. 36).

How joyfully we can sing on the feast of Christmas, "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail th'Incarnate Deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel." May the incarnation enrich your celebration of our Savior's birth! Christ is born! Glorify Him!