Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST—We must carefully distinguish the two
natures in Christ, the divine and human. As MAN, he laboured, fainted,
hungered, was thirsty; ate, drank, slept, suffered, and died. As GOD, he
created all things, governs all, worked the most stupendous miracles; is
omniscient, omnipresent, and is the Judge, as well as the Maker, of the
whole human race. As God and man, combined in one person, he suffered
for man, died for man, rose again for man; causes repentance and
remission of sins to be preached in the world in his name; forgives
iniquity; dispenses the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost; is Mediator
between God and man; and the sole Head and Governor of his church.
It was necessary that the fullest evidence should be given, not only of
our Lord's divinity, but also of his humanity: his miracles sufficiently
attested the former; his hunger, weariness, and agony in the garden, as
well as his death and burial, were proofs of the latter.
He was a man, that he might suffer and die for the offences of man; for
justice and reason both required that the nature that sinned should suffer
for the sin. But he was God, that the suffering might be stamped with an
infinite value.
That God manifested in the flesh is a great mystery none can doubt;
but it is what God himself has most positively asserted, John i, 1-14, and
is the grand subject of the New Testament. How this could be we cannot
tell; indeed the union of the soul with its body is not less mysterious; we
can just as easily comprehend the former as the latter: and how believers
can become "habitations of God through the Spirit," is equally inscrutable
to us. Yet all these are facts sufficiently and unequivocally attested; and
on which scarcely any rational believer, or sound Christian philosopher
entertains a doubt. These things are so; but how they are so belongs to
God alone to comprehend; and, as the manner is not explained in any part
of divine revelation, though the facts themselves are plain, yet the proofs
and evidences of the reasons of these facts, and the manner of their
operation, lie beyond the sphere of human knowledge.