“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:5-7 NASB).
What was the most amazing event in history? The creation of the universe? Alexander conquering the world? The resurrection of Christ? Putting a man on the moon? No.
The most amazing event in history is this: God became a man. The infinite wrapped himself in the finite. The eternal was born. It’s one of the most controversial aspects of Christian theology, but it’s clear that it had to be this way.
The image of God had broken itself. God’s representatives abandoned and turned on him. That could not be allowed to stand. Athanasius likens it to a king “who has founded a city, so far from neglecting it when through the carelessness of the inhabitants it is attacked by robbers, avenges it and saves it from destruction, having regard rather to his own honour than to the people’s neglect.”1
And how is God to fix this situation? Human rebellion required recompense that humans could not pay, because the wages of sin is death — paying our debt would destroy us. According to Anselm, “no one can pay except God, and no one ought to pay except man: [so] it is necessary that a God-Man should pay it.”2 The only way this would work is if God and humanity merged somehow.
But how? We don’t really know. All we can say on the authority of scripture is that the Son “emptied himself” (Phil 2:7). This is called the “kenosis.” Of what did he empty himself? Of his divinity? Not hardly. Even if it were possible, it would ruin the equation. Theologians speculate that he gave up the independent use of his divine power; that is, he depended on the Holy Spirit for every miracle. And he temporarily gave up (or perhaps "veiled" is a better term) his glory (cf, John 17:5, 17:24).
But the Son never ceased to be God. Instead, he added human nature to his divine nature. The two natures coexist in perfect harmony. It is not a divine nature with a little taste of humanity thrown in. It is not a human nature with a little bit of the divine on top. We say that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. “But that’s 200%!” Yes, but it gets the message across that in Christ the complete divine Son was united to a complete human nature. And these two natures are “perfectly united with no mixture, confusion, separation, or division”3 with, as the Chalcedonian Creed says, “each nature retaining its own attributes.”
Erickson offers an analogy: Picture the world's fastest sprinter entering a three-legged race. His physical capacity is not diminished, but his performance is limited by his decision to restrict himself.4 Christ's divine and human natures worked together to achieve one goal, but the divine nature was voluntarily bound to human limitations.
What does it mean to say God became man? This God-man had the complete human experience. He was born. He got tired. He got lonely. He saw people he loved die. He felt fear. He experienced rejection. He was tempted. He died. He went through everything that humans go through.
What does it mean to say Christ was God in the flesh? It’s important to address a common error. From ancient times to the present day, false teachers have tried to say that Christ was only the exemplar of what we all can be. Sometimes it’s the idea that we all can become christs. More often today it’s that Christ only expressed the spark of the divine that exists in all of us. However it’s stated, it’s wrong. Christ was the unique God-man. The incarnation was a once for all event that will never be repeated.
Christ was not a man who was special. He was and is God made flesh. “The Bible from Genesis to Revelation presents a stupendous view of God, and then it tells us that Jesus Christ is all that God is.”5
The glory of the incarnation is that we do not serve an aloof God who watches from on high. We serve a God who came down and got in the muck with us. He knows what it means to be a human being, so he understands us, sympathizes with us, and advocates for us. That is a God who deserves our adoration.
For more on this topic, the classic text is Athanasius’ On the Incarnation. Be sure to get an edition with the introduction by CS Lewis which is worth the price of the book on its own. The works by Anselm and Machen (both quite short) are also very much worth your time.
1 Athanasius, On the Incarnation
2 Anselm, Cur Deus Homo (or Why God Became Man)
3 RC Sproul, Everyone’s a Theologian, emphasis in original
4 Millard Erickson, Introducing Christian Doctrine
5 J Gresham Machen, The Person of Jesus
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Part of Christianity 101
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