Why the Incarnation? (1)

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55.8, 9

An act of history
Christmas, the celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, invites the consideration of many mysteries, chief among them, the question of why God became a Man. Was the Incarnation necessary? Does the world really need Christmas? Or is this just some quaint mythology to which millions cling for a false sense of comfort against a closed and unsympathetic cosmos?

To the Christian, the fact of the Incarnation is not disputed. Christians have professed from the earliest years to believe in “Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary…” But while we may believe the Incarnation to be an act of history, we may not be entirely clear on just why the Incarnation and Christmas are necessary. And in helping our skeptical age to consider the deep mysteries of the Gospel, a good understanding of this central doctrine of our faith would seem to be in order.

Anselm of Canterbury
Over a thousand years ago a young theology student named Boso thought the same thing. As he explained to his instructor, the great Anselm of Canterbury, “As the right order requires us to believe the deep things of the Christian faith before we undertake to discuss them by reason; so to my mind it appears a neglect if, after we are established in faith, we do not seek to understand what we believe.”

Boso went on to request of his mentor that he kindly explain to him “for what necessity and cause God, who is omnipotent, should have assumed the littleness and weakness of human nature for the sake of its renewal?”

In other words, Why did God become a man? Why the Incarnation? Boso’s question launched a conversation with Anselm which develops one of the great theological treatises in the history of the Church, Cur Deus Homo, or, Why the God-Man, that is, Why God Became a Man. Cast in the form of a dialog between the great Archbishop of Canterbury and his student, Cur Deus Homo remains a classic explanation of the reason for the Incarnation and, with that, of why we as Christians take the celebration of Christmas so seriously and with such joy.

Anselm (1033-1109) served as Archbishop of Canterbury for the final 16 years of his life. He left a number of important writings, but none so eloquent or timeless as Cur Deus Homo. Moreover, few tracts of profound theological reasoning are as readily accessible to most readers as this. In Cur Deus Homo Anselm elaborated a full Scriptural and rational explanation for the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he wanted his readers to understand that this great mystery cannot be known by reason alone. Rather, we must be willing to think like God about this question, and to submit our reasoning powers to the teaching of God’s Word. We must let God be God in explaining Himself. We must understand as far as we can, but we will need to be prepared to take God’s Word in faith. Only thus will we be able to arrive at a satisfactory understanding of why the Incarnation was necessary.

Look to Scripture!
At the outset of his dialog, Anselm explained to Boso, “I wish all that I say to be received with this understanding, that, if I shall have said anything which higher authority does not corroborate, though I appear to demonstrate it by argument, yet it is not to be received with any further confidence, than as so appearing to me for the time, until God in some way make a clearer revelation to me.”

In other words, to understand the Incarnation we must look to Scripture and try to understand this great historical event from God’s point of view. His thoughts are higher than ours, and we shall need to engage them in the confidence that God understands our need better than we. If we do, we may discover, as Boso did so many years ago, just how rich, beautiful, gracious, powerful, amazing, and eminently reasonable the Incarnation of Jesus truly is.

And understanding this can only enhance our wonder, joy, and witness during this glorious season of Advent.

Next steps: Why do your unsaved friends celebrate Christmas? Ask a few of them. Use their answers to share briefly why you think Christmas is important.

T. M. Moore

We’re taking a 3-week intermission from our series on The Disciplined Life to review three archive series on the meaning of Christmas. This week’s study, Why the Incarnation?, is part 1 of a 3-part series on Christmas, As Advertised, and is available as a free download.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.