The Enfleshed Christ
Nathanael Szobody on The Incarnation is at the root of all of Christian belief, practice, and hope. Often, however, its emphasis is lost. When Christians speak of the incarnation they are often referring primarily to the Virgin Birth; they are thinking of the moment in time when the Word of God became man. Indeed, this is the Incarnation, but to restrict our discussion of the Incarnation to this event would be to miss the whole point and application of the Incarnation.
Incarnation means “enfleshment”, it means that the eternal Word of God became and still is in human flesh. To the apostles, this enfleshment described Jesus’ entire work and ministry, death and resurrection.
The faith of the Apostles, and especially Peter, was expressed in a new way when they could affirm, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, that the man standing in front of them, Jesus, was the Son of the living and eternal God. At the time of Peter’s confession “you are the Christ” they presumably knew nothing of the Virgin Birth. They observed the relationship that Jesus had with the Father; they observed the way he related to the people, the words that came from his mouth, the “words of life”, and they said “to whom else shall we go?” They said “yes” to God in the flesh. In this affirmation is the recognition of God’s power to make us into a new community in the Divine.
There are two tenants of belief in Christian cosmology:
1) God created all things out of nothing.
2) God created a new creation in Christ out of the emptiness of sin.
Both of these creations were in the proceeding of the power of his Word with the result of life in the flesh
Comments ( 2 )
1) Why do you believe at this particular point the diciples "presumably knew nothing of the Virgin Birth" - and when do you think they became aware of it?
2) Would you apply the same lessons on Baptism to infant baptisim?
1) It is presumed that the disciples knew nothing of the virgin birth. It is not sure that they did not know, but circumstantial evidence would lend to that conclusion:
-Mary is portrayed as one who kept the mystery of Jesus' birth to herself; scripture says that "she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit" however the revelation of the angel to Joseph seems to indicate that she herself had not told him of the exact circumstances. Rather, the attitude portrayed is that she "pondered in her heart" without telling anyone about the things revealed to her.
-In addition to this, Jesus also commanded the demons to be silent when they attempted to make a direct statement concerning his identity because it was not yet time for him to be revealed. Mary's attitude likely followed suit in not revealing anything directly concerning his identity but allowing Jesus' own words of life to produce faith.
-Even if she had told Peter and the disciples, the gospel writers do not consider it relevant to their faith to record that they were privy to this knowledge; rather, their faith in the Incarnation was based on the words that proceeded from his mouth. I believe it is likely that they discovered the facts concerning the virgin birth after the resurrection when it was recognized that now is the time for Jesus' story to be revealed. At that time gospel writers conducted their investigations.
2)Yes. There is one baptism. The emphasis on the act of God in accomplishing his work of the Incarnation by causing a sinner to die in and with Christ de-emphasizes the act of testimony on the part of the baptizand that many evangelicals dwell upon. In this way baptism is seen as belonging to "the least of these", those who become like infants to be born again, not those who become like adults to make a testimony. In other words, baptism belongs most properly to infants and those who become like them.
However, this post is addressed to adults and is meant to inform how we think about our own baptism as we continue to live in it and grow in our understanding of its gift to us even in the present. Therefore some of my statements will not apply to an infant insofar as their faith is not a mature and thoughtful one.