The eternal Son of God became a man. Not a man who became divine. Not a phantom in the shape of a man. Truly God and truly man — one person, two natures, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. At Grace Fellowship Church in Sarasota, we hold the incarnation as one of the most staggering and most necessary truths of the Christian faith.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14
The incarnation is not God appearing in the costume of humanity. It is God truly taking on humanity. The eternal Son — through whom all things were made (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16) — entered His own creation. He was born. He grew. He hungered. He wept. He died. And He never for a moment stopped being God.
Paul puts it as plainly as it can be put: Christ Jesus, “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6–8).
This is not myth. It is not metaphor. It is a real event in real history — Bethlehem, a stable, a young Jewish woman, a registered census, a baby. Luke the physician dates it carefully, names the rulers, lists the witnesses (Luke 2:1–7). The eternal stepped into time, and the universe was never the same.
“In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Jesus accepted worship (John 20:28). He forgave sins (Mark 2:5–7). He claimed the divine name (John 8:58). He existed before Abraham. He created the world. The incarnation did not subtract His deity. He came as God. He still is God.
He had a real body, a real soul, a real human will. He was tired (John 4:6). He thirsted (John 19:28). He learned obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He was, and is, our brother (Hebrews 2:11).
Both Matthew and Luke are unembarrassed about how Jesus came into the world. Mary was a virgin. The conception was not natural. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
The virgin birth is not a sentimental decoration on the Christmas story. It is doctrinally load-bearing. It tells us that the second person of the Trinity entered the human race without inheriting the corruption of Adam. He is one of us — without being implicated in our fall. He is born under the law (Galatians 4:4) so that He can keep it on our behalf and die for those who could not.
A church that lets go of the virgin birth eventually lets go of the incarnation, and a church that lets go of the incarnation no longer has a Savior. We hold it because Scripture holds it.
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” — 1 Timothy 2:5
The author of Hebrews explains what the incarnation accomplishes. Because the Savior had to die in the place of human beings, He had to become a human being. “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death… and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14–15).
Only a man could die for men. Only God could bear the wrath of God. Only the God-Man — Jesus Christ, eternal Son and true human — could stand in the gap. Take away either nature, and the cross does not work. The Trinity made the incarnation necessary. The incarnation made the cross possible. The cross made our salvation real.
At Grace Fellowship Church in Sarasota, we preach the Christ who is fully God and fully man — at Christmas, at Easter, on every ordinary Sunday in between. He is not an idea. He is the Lord, who came in the flesh, who is at the right hand of the Father, and who is coming again.
— Sundays at 10:00 AM · 4350 17th Street, Sarasota, FL.