Two Incarnations?

 

There are, of course, two Incarnations…aren’t there? For Jesus Christ didn’t just come to be born in Bethlehem, He came to be born in us. But lest we misunderstand, He didn’t just come to be born in us individually (see John Chapter 3); He came to be born in us as a People (Acts 2, Ephesians 4; 1 Corinthians 12; Revelations chapters 21 – 22).

 

In the Gospel of John we see the Word being made flesh in Chapter 1, and then we see the promise of the Word continuing to be made flesh in us, individually and as a People, in chapters 13 – 17. Chapters 2 – 12 show us what it looks like when the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us; what the Incarnation looks like in John chapters 2 – 12 is what it ought to look like beginning in Acts to our present day.

 

When Jesus says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” then He also desires to say, “The person who has seen Me in My Body has seen the Father.”

 

Hebrews Chapter 2 tells us that Jesus Christ, the incarnate One, and His brothers and sisters, all have one Father; for this reason Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. This wonderful passage on the Incarnation tells us that Jesus Christ came to declare the Father’s Name to us and that it is our Father’s desire to “bring many sons [and daughters!] to glory”!

 

Little wonder that St. Augustine often could not tell whose “voice” he was hearing in the Psalms; was it that of the Head of the Body? Was it the voice of the members of His  Body? Was it the One voice of the unified Body in perfected koinonia in the Trinity? Certainly if the prayer of Christ Jesus in John 17 is being answered by the Father, certainly if the vision of Paul of the Body in Ephesians chapters 2 - 4 is being fulfilled, certainly if the desire of creation is coming into manifestation (Romans 8), and most certainly if the New Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ, is descending from the heavens – then indeed the Son speaks out from the Father with one Voice as many waters. For indeed “our koinonia is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3)

(And may I say that our voice is to be as a trumpet with a distinct message, as the oracles of God, not with uncertain and tentative messages of the present age that change with current events and passing whims and fancies).

 

As long as the Nativity and Incarnation are confined to a sentimental creche the powers of darkness have little to fear, as long as they are confined to sweet Christmas plays the suffering people of this world have little hope in deliverance, as long as the sons and daughters of Zion (Lamentations 4:2) are regarded as simply jars of earth then our calling, birthright, and inheritance are alien to us – we continue to build with mud and straw.

 

When will the Spirit of God make these dry bones live (Ez. 37)? How long will the feet of the Body be held in fetters (Psa. 105:18)?

 

If we can receive it, we really aren’t talking about two incarnations, there is only One Incarnation.

 

Is the Incarnation an ongoing present reality in me, in you, in Us; in the Bride, in the Son, in the Body, in the Church?