I need your help. I have to write a dissertation. By the end of July. Do you know something, even going through my first year Greek textbook has proved more appealing during the last week than seriously knuckling down to writing 10,000 words in order to finish my theology degree. But write a dissertation I must!
So then you ask, what will this dissertation be upon? Well, I'm glad you asked. It's on incarnational mission, incarnational living. What is this incarnational living, and more precisely, what sort of theological foundation, if any, has it got? These thoughts will occupy my mind for the next eight or nine weeks. They will also occupy any blogs that I may happen to write.
Here's a question to get the ball rolling though: What was the purpose of the incarnation? Why did it happen? Why did the eternal Son of God take human flesh? Why did he become a man?
I don't know how many people visit this blog, but I'd like to hear your answers, whoever you are, so please leave them in the comments box and we'll see if we can come to some sort of consensus. Hopefully a biblical one!
Why did God become a human being?
Tweet
7 comments:
I've made mention of it on my blog so you may access some "great minds" through that! All the best with last few weeks of college :)
The incarnation was to bring about a reversal of the fall. I guess a key verses would be Romans 5:12-20, which talks about gaining life through and obedient human - Christ.
Just a helpful little thought.
also incarnation - it's a bit like chilli con carne - God in meat!
If we are just getting the ball rolling, I would like to throw from the top of my head two things that come to mind when I hear that question.
1) Heb 2:14ff The children had flesh and blood, he had to be made like us in every respect to make propitiation on our behalf.
2) Cur Deus Homo? Is the same question you asked--Why did God become Man? By Anselm of Canterbury. Just for a bit of antiquity--you stand as one in a long line of men who have asked the same question. A little wrapped up in feudalism, but the 'satisfaction' motif is insightful.
Additionally, I would commend Matt Ingle's route as profitable, thinking about Christ as the second Adam. For antiquity's sake, you could consider throwing in a little bit of Irenaeus' recapitulation theory.
Don't forget the excellent 'On the incarnation' by Athanasius. See esp. ch 54 which includes the line 'He was made man that we might be made god'. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.toc.html
See also paragraphs 456 to 460 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (why did the Word become flesh?) which includes a similar notion (The Word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature).
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p122a3p1.htm#I
Obviously verses like John 1:10-14 & John 3:16 go to the heart of the question better than either church fathers or Pope John Paul II do, but nevertheless, they are useful resources which include wise insight.
One answer, put forward by Warfield, is that Christ's incarnation was the revelation of the trinity.
The fully developed doctrine of the Trinity is thereafter assumed by the New Testament writers, rather than argued for.
Thanks guys for your comments, very helpful all. As I expected (and would say myself) the answers are along the lines of the Son of God taking human flesh in order that a man does what only a man should, yet only God can - lives a perfect human life on our behalf, dies on our behalf, is raised on our behalf. As Bob Letham likes to say "God alone could not save us". In others words he does it to become our representative.
I'll post again soon on the idea that some have put forward that the incarnation is also (or even primarily) a model for mission. Watch this space!
The more you probe at this question, the more difficult it gets. The incarnation is of course dependent on God's plan of salvation, and God chooses to save out of love etc. But when it is considered that God's plan of salvation was formed before the foundation of the world, the core of the question about the incarnation overlaps entirely with the question, why did God create the universe (knowing that it would fall, and that God would be a redeemer)? The best answer to that is probably something along the lines of, because it pleased him to do so. Going too far beyond that raises questions on the independence of God. For example, to suggest that God created the universe to bring glory to himself suggests that his glory was not already infinite, and thus he desired to create in order to increase his glory. On those lines, it would be better to suggest that God created the universe because it simply pleased him that his created beings would recognise, or, in Piperesque fashion, enjoy that already existing glory. Thus, the underlying meaning of the incarnation, planned before the foundation of the world, is to be part of the overall plan of creation & salvation through which God's created beings can be struck in gladness or fear, how awesome his glory really is - and this, because it is the pleasure of God to do so.
Post a Comment