A Book Review of “We Have Seen His Glory: Exploring the Doctrine of Christ’s Incarnation”

A Book Review of “We Have Seen His Glory: Exploring the Doctrine of Christ’s Incarnation”

By: Daniel McMillin

WE HAVE SEEN HIS GLORY: EXPLORING THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST'S INCARNATION

The most important question in the world is: “WHO IS JESUS?” Knowing Jesus is critical for our Christian faith, our salvation from sin, and our relationship with God. The incarnation is a major part of answering this question. But are we capable of sufficiently answering questions about the person and work of Jesus, especially regarding the incarnation? My professor, mentor, former preacher, and friend, Donnie DeBord, has produced an accessible resource on this admittedly advanced topic.

We Have Seen His Glory: Exploring the Doctrine of Christ’s Incarnation offers a glimpse into the first century to discover the identity of the God-Man. As the reader explores the humanity and divinity of Jesus, they will bask in the glory of God and the mystery of the incarnation. The doctrine of Christ is central to Christianity as it exposes the depths of redemptive history by bridging the gaps between the Old and New Testaments’ presentation of one person (Jesus Christ) with two natures (human and divine). As you read this book and uncover the identity of Jesus, you will surely find that knowing Jesus as He truly is changes everything.

I wish I had this book when I studied the incarnation in Dr. DeBord’s classes as an undergraduate student at Freed-Hardeman University. So many of my questions that I pondered would have been resolved in moments after reading this introduction to the incarnation. Dr. DeBord is an expert in Christology who earned his PhD. in Systematic Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and wrote his dissertation on “A Chalcedonian Critique of Neo-Apollinarianism,” where he defends the doctrine of the incarnation against a modern threat to Christology. DeBord is apt to teach the incarnation academically as a professor at Freed-Hardeman University and practically as a preacher at the Ripley church of Christ. In this book, both scholars and students can join hands as they are guided by Dr. DeBord to discover the truth of Jesus’ identity: Jesus is truly God and truly man.

“TRUE GOD AND TRUE MAN”: THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION

God became man, and ever since the incarnation, when the Word took on flesh, the world has never been the same. Thomas Aquinas was right when he said, “Nothing more marvelous can be thought of than this divine work: that the true God, the Son of God, should become true man.”[1] The “incarnation” is the doctrine that God became man.[2] Historically, the incarnation has been understood as the unity of being within the one person of Christ, where the Second Person of the Trinity “assumed” a true human nature.[3] There is one person—Jesus—with two distinct natures—human and divine. Through the incarnation, God became what He was not by adding a human nature without subtracting His divine nature. As Christians, we confess the incarnation by saying, Jesus Christ is “true God, true man.” While incarnate, everything found in humanity is found in Christ, and everything found in divinity is found in Christ because He is “fully God and fully man” (Jesus=man; Jesus=God). Thus, “when Christians confess that Jesus is God, they are declaring that this man from Nazareth somehow shares fully in this infinite perfect blessedness.”[4]

The incarnation is one of the great ancient mysteries of the Christian faith. Admittedly, the incarnation is a puzzling mystery that many great theologians, philosophers, and Christians have contemplated for centuries. DeBord consults the greatest minds on the incarnation and explains the mystery of the incarnation is “that the infinite God somehow received a finite human nature without ceasing to be God or compromising his divine perfection.”[5] The incarnation is something that is admittedly incomprehensible. It is something that our finite minds can hardly fathom, yet it remains fascinating to contemplate the depths of this colossal paradox. Thus, we must humbly admit that we do not and will not understand everything about the incarnation. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that God became man and assumed a human nature. As DeBord writes, “The apostles, led by the Spirit and rooted firmly in Scripture, preached Jesus is fully God and fully human. He is not a mixture of two natures, nor a divided portion of deity and humanity, nor a human figure limited or overshadowed by his divinity. Rather, Jesus is true God and true man in one person, without confusion, change, division, or separation.”[6] 

There are two passages that are the key to the incarnation: John 1:14 and Philippians 2:6-11.[7] These texts illustrate how the earliest Christology was a high, incarnational Christology. John portrays Jesus as the “Word” who assumed human flesh when He “became man.” Through the incarnation, God “dwelt among us” and we witnessed the “glory” of God through the “only begotten of the Father” who is filled with “grace and truth.” Paul captures the preexistence of Christ when He existed “in the form of God,” before the incarnation. While God was enfleshed, He did not take advantage of His divinity and “consider equality with God as something to be exploited.” Rather, He humbled Himself when he “emptied himself” (“made Himself like nothing” NIV) by “assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity.” The incarnation is then seen as a humiliation since God “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.” Following His crucifixion, Jesus is “highly exalted by God the Father and given “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

In the incarnation, the infinite God became a finite human. Yet, He did not cease being God by becoming man. The incarnation essentially includes the real humanity and divinity of Jesus. As such, the human nature of Jesus cannot function without the divine nature. In sum, the doctrine of the incarnation teaches that Jesus embodies the fullness of divinity and assumes the entirety of humanity.

TRUE GOD: WAS JESUS DIVINE?

The boldest claim in the New Testament is that Jesus is true God. The fact that God became man is revolutionary. Yet, the Bible consistently offers the same explanation for Jesus’ unique, “divine identity.”[8] As DeBord notes, “Scripture affirms Christ’s deity directly and repeatedly.”[9] How does the Bible portray Jesus as God? Bowman and Komoszewski in The Incarnate Christ and His Critics give a five-point acronym to summarize the divinity of Jesus: Honors, Attributes, Names, Deeds, and Seat.[10] 

DeBord primarily discusses the names and

attributes of Jesus as evidence for His divinity. First, Jesus is explicitly identified as “God.” John introduces Jesus as the “Word” who was “with God” and “was God” (John 1:1-3) and concludes with Thomas’ confession that Jesus is his “Lord” and “God” (John 20:28). Connecting the divine with human flesh, Paul describes the incarnate God by saying, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9). He is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3). Secondly, he explains the divine attributes and demonstrates how they are applied to Jesus: eternity, aseity, infinity, blessedness, immutability, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence.[11] The characteristics of the divine are located in a human being—Jesus of Nazareth. The only explanation for this is that He is more than a mere man. This unlocks a central claim of Jesus’ identity. “God’s attributes do not merely describe what he does but reveal his very being.”[12] These attributes unveil the depths of Jesus’ nature. Only God has these characteristics, and yet, Jesus possesses them. In sum, Jesus is called what God is called and has what God has. 

TRUE MAN: WAS JESUS HUMAN?

Jesus was not only true God, but He was also true man. When discussing the person of Christ, it is tempting to jump ahead to the best part of Christology to talk about how Jesus is God. But this should not be done at the expense of Jesus’ true humanity. The historical Jesus was a human being just like you and me! As DeBord says, “In taking on flesh, God did not merely visit humanity from a safe distance. He plunged into the fullness of human experience, embracing both our joys and our sorrows…what emerges is not a diminished deity playing dress-up as a human, but the breathtaking reality of two complete natures united in one person.”[13] To clarify the humanity of Jesus, he adds, “When we say Jesus is fully human, we mean he was completely and thoroughly human in every way that truly matters. Scripture does not suggest he was merely almost human or mostly human. Instead, the Bible presents Jesus as genuinely entering into the fullness of human experience, embodying everything that makes us human, without exception.”[14] As evidence for Jesus’ genuine humanity, DeBord argues Jesus had a real human body, real human experiences (learning, suffering, and death), real human mind, real human emotions, real human will.[15] 

SALVATION: WHY DID GOD BECOME MAN?

DeBord draws from Gregory of Nazianzus’ famous statement, “What is not assumed is not healed.” Only the God-man can heal us of our infirmities, weaknesses, and transgressions. Our redemption requires the incarnation. Thus, we confess, as Athanasius did, “He Who suffered thereon in the body was not man only, but Son of God and Savior of all.”[16]As we see in Hebrews 2:5-18, Jesus’ humanity explains the possibility of His sacrifice; since God cannot die, Jesus must assume human flesh to potentially die on the cross to offer His life as a “ransom.” Christ’s divinity explains the infinite value of His sacrifice concerning how His life can “ransom” the lives of all sinners. The necessity of Jesus’ humanity is located in Hebrews 2:14-18:

“Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement, for the sins of the people. For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.”

When answering the question, “Why did God become man?” Anselm argued that God became man according to God’s grace rather than by obligation or coercion to suffer and die on the cross.[17] In other words, Jesus did not have to die, as though He were forced to do it, but He freely chose to die to save us. God did not need to become man to save us, but we needed God to become man so we could be saved.  

CHRISTOLOGICAL HERESIES: HOW DID WE MISS JESUS?

Heresy is problematic. It is not simply a problem left in the past, but it is a pressing problem within the Church today. Historically, the struggle was that God became man, and now we struggle with how the man Jesus was God. A man exalted as God, or a God humbled to become man.[18] In his book, DeBord surveys Christological heresies that have departed from the historical, biblical, and orthodox view of Christ.[19] These deviations are either revisions or rejections of the true humanity or divinity of Jesus.

·       Gnosticism—God cannot take on flesh

·       Docetism—God appeared human

·       Ebionism—Son is not God

·       Nestorianism—Two sons

·       Eutychianism—Fusion of two natures

·       Arianism—Son is a creature

·       Monophysitism—One will of the Son

·       Apollinarianism—Logos is the human mind

·       Kenoticism—Emptying of divine nature

·       Adoptionism—Became Son

·       Neo-Apollinarianism—Logos is the human mind

Studying heresy not only informs us of what others believe, but it also clarifies what we believe. The way forward is to refine our views in light of these controversies. This arises by saying not merely who Christ is but who He is not. The doctrine of Christ’s person and work remain preserved through the centuries as the Scripture clearly teaches the true humanity and divinity of Christ alongside his trifold work as prophet, priest, and king. DeBord highlights the importance of the incarnation through the centuries when he writes, “The early Church fought so fiercely for the truth about Jesus’s identity because they understood that everything depends on getting this right. If Jesus is not who he claimed to be, then Christianity collapses into wishful thinking. But if Jesus is indeed the God-man, then his words about eternal life are not merely beautiful sentiments but the most important truth ever spoken.”[20]

GETTING JESUS RIGHT: WHY DO I NEED A BOOK ON THE INCARNATION?

The identity of Jesus is the doctrine that forms the Church and either fortifies or destroys the Church. As Donnie’s favorite theologian, Herman Bavinck, wrote:

“The doctrine of Christ is not the starting point, but it certainly is the central point of the whole system of dogmatics. All other dogmas either prepare for it or are inferred from it. In it, as the heart of dogmatics, pulses the whole of the religious-ethical life of Christianity. It is ‘the mystery of godliness’ (1 Tim. 3:16). From this mystery all Christology has to proceed. If, however, Christ is the incarnate Word, then the incarnation is the central fact of the entire history of the world; then, too, it must have been prepared from before the ages and have its effects throughout eternity.”[21]

Our theology is shaped by our Christology. Jesus is the goal of theology because theology is all about knowing God. But who is Jesus? “According to Scripture, Jesus is the Son of God. He was not pretending to be human, not merely inspired by God; he is God in flesh. This is much more than ancient religious language or theological speculation. This is the central claim that Christianity rises or falls on.”[22] We must do everything in our power to preserve the truth of Jesus’ humanity and divinity since He is the substance of our saving faith. Everything we believe is anchored in the identity of Jesus; we need to get it right!

Knowing Jesus as He is changes everything! As DeBord says, “Your answer shapes your theology, worship, and your eternity. Because knowing Jesus as he truly is both God and man, both transcendent and immanent, both our Lord and our brother, is eternal life itself.”[23] If we get Jesus wrong, we will miss everything. That is why we want to get it right. But do not mistake this for a subject reserved for the scholars. The incarnation is a question that the Church must ponder and digest because it is at the heart of the Gospel. “Understanding how Jesus became human is not merely an intellectual exercise. It is central to the gospel and our salvation. If we misunderstand who Christ is, we misunderstand what he has done for us.”[24] Christianity rests upon the nature of Christ because the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus are not possible without the humanity and divinity of Jesus. There is no Gospel without the incarnation. As the apostle Paul explains, “When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).

• Exegetical: The incarnation is central to understanding the life of Jesus presented in the Gospels.

• Theological: Doctrine matters! We need to get the person and work of Jesus right.

• Practical: “Who is Jesus?” is the most important question we can ask, and we need an answer!

  
  

 “WHO IS JESUS?” He is the incarnate Son who dwelt in our midst and revealed the glory of God so we may have eternal life through Him. He is “true God and true man.”

WORKS CITED:

[1] Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, 4.27.1.

[2] Etymologically, the term “incarnation” comes from the Latin (en-“in”, carne-“flesh”) and means “to enflesh” or “to become flesh.” Another title attributed to the doctrine of the incarnation is the “hypostatic union,” that is, the uniting of the two natures in one person (hypostasis). This title clarifies how one person possesses two natures and emphasizes the union of those natures without confusion. The incarnation is a real unification of two distinct and separate natures. These two natures that are ontologically different are not competing against one another but are brought together in the person of Christ.

[3] Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III:3.1-8.

[4] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 46.

[5] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 46.

[6] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 51-52.

[7] See Daniel McMillin’s “Incarnation: Truly God, Truly Man” https://www.lionslibrary.org/post/incarnation-truly-god-truly-man and “The Humble Servant and Exalted Lord: An Exegesis Philippians 2:6-11” https://www.lionslibrary.org/post/the-humble-servant-and-exalted-lord

[8] Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel, 18.

[9] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 25.

[10] See Bowman and Komoszewski, The Incarnate Christ and His Critics.

[11] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 13-23, 33-46.

[12] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 45.

[13] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 50.

[14] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 52-53.

[15] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 53-58.

[16] Athanasius, On the Incarnation, IV.

[17] Anselm, Cur Deus Homo.

[18] Most of the dialogue among scholars is whether the earliest Christology was “low” or “high.” An example of this is seen in the debate between Bart Ehrman and Michael Bird (along with other scholars such as Craig A. Evans, Simon J. Gathercole, Charles E. Hill, and Chris Tilling). Ehrman titles his book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, while Bird responds with the title of his volume How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature.

[19] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 69-78.

[20] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 91.

[21] Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, II: 274.

[22] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 13-14.

[23] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 10.

[24] DeBord, We Have Seen His Glory, 80.

DEDICATION

Dedication to my Doktorvater, Donnie DeBord, who has enlightened me on the glory of God in the incarnation and directed me through an exploration of Christology in his writing, teaching, and mentoring.