K Neill Foster

Welcome to Classic Christianity

First published by Christian Publications, Inc., 3825 Hartzdale Drive,Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011 Republished by www.kneillfoster.com in 2005. K. Neill Foster, Publisher. Paul L. King, Editor. A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, Editorial Voice.


WELCOME TO:
#17 CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE E-ZINE


CLASSIC-CHRISTIANITY/THE INDEX
THEME: THE INCARNATION


1) THE PUBLISHER ON

2) THE EDITOR ON "GOD WITH US "

3) K. NEILL FOSTER ON

4) A.W. TOZER ON "THE INCARNATION IS NO COMPROMISE "

5) RECOMMENDED READING

6) ATHANASIUS ON "RESTORATION THROUGH THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD "

7) MARTIN LUTHER ON "THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S HUMANITY "

8) GEORGE WHITEFIELD ON "REUNITING GOD AND MAN THROUGH THE INCARNATION "

9) JONATHAN EDWARDS ON "KINSHIP WITH CHRIST THROUGH THE INCARNATION "

10) CHARLES H. SPURGEON ON "THE FRUITFULNESS OF THE INCARNATION "

11) RECOMMENDED READING

12) OSWALD CHAMBERS ON "DUST AND DEITY MADE ONE "

13) A.B. SIMPSON ON "BECOMING MAN "

14) INVITATION TO SUBSCRIBE


1) THE PUBLISHER ON


2) THE EDITOR ON "GOD WITH US "

"Emmanuel "--God with us, is the miracle of God in the Incarnation. God is with us through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ in many ways. 1) God is with us, walking in our shoes. 2) God is with us in conversion through Christ dwelling in our hearts. 3) God is with us in partnership through Jesus' promise "I am with you always " (Matthew 28:20). 4) God is with us as we walk in communion with Him, for "He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His own. " 5) God is with us as we become partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). John Wesley's dying words are dynamic words of life: "The best of all is--God is with us! "


3) K. NEILL FOSTER ON


The Incarnation required no compromise of Deity. . . . In times past, the mythical gods of the nations were no strangers to compromise. The Roman gods, the gods of the Grecian and Scandinavian legends, were gods that could easily compromise themselves and often did in the tales of mythical lore.

But the holy God who is God, and all else not God, our Father who art in heaven, could never compromise Himself. The Incarnation, the Word made flesh, was accomplished without any compromise of the holy Deity.

The living God did not degrade Himself by this condescension. He did not in any sense make Himself to be less than God.

He remained ever God and everything else remained not God. The gulf still existed even after Jesus Christ had become man and had dwelt among us. Instead of God degrading Himself when He became man, by the act of Incarnation He elevated mankind to Himself.

It is plain in the Athanasian Creed that the early church fathers were cautious at this point of doctrine. They would not allow us to believe that God, in the Incarnation, became flesh by a coming down of the Deity into flesh; but rather by the taking up of mankind into God.

Thus, we do not degrade God but we elevate man--and that is the wonder of redemption!

A.W. Tozer, CHRIST THE ETERNAL SON (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1991), 14-16.


5) RECOMMENDED READING


6) ATHANASIUS (296-373) ON "RESTORATION THROUGH THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD "

We have incurred corruption and need to be restored to the Grace of God's Image. None could renew but He Who had created. He alone could (1) recreate all, (2) suffer for all, (3) respect all to the Father. . . . The Word, then, visited that earth in which He was yet always present. . . .

For being Himself mighty, and Artificer of everything, He prepares the body in the Virgin as a temple unto Himself, and makes it His very own as an instrument, in it manifested, and in it dwelling. . . .

The Word of God came in His own person, that, as He was the Image of the Father, He might be able to create afresh the man after the image. . . .

A portrait once effaced must be restored from the original. Thus the Son of the Father came to seek, save, and regenerate. No other way was possible. Blinded himself, man could not see to heal. . . . The Word alone could do so. But how? Only by revealing Himself as man. . . . The most holy Son of the Father, being the Image of the Father, came to our region to renew man once made in His likeness.

The Word disguised Himself by appearing in a body, that He might, as Man, transfer men to Himself, and center their senses on Himself.

Athanasius, "On the Incarnation of the Word, " THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1978), 39, 40, 43-45.


7) MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) ON "THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S HUMANITY"

The feast we call Annunciatio Mariae, when the angel came to Mary, and brought her the message from God, that she should conceive his Son, may be fitly called the 'Feast of Christ's Humanity'; for then began our deliverance. The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that he sunk himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding. . . .

On the day of the conception of our Savior Christ, we that are preacher sought diligently to lay before the people, and thoroughly imprint in their hearts, the history of this feast, which is given by St. Luke in plain and simple language. And we should joy and delight in these blessed things, more than in all the treasure on earth, disputing not how it came to pass, that he, who fills heaven and earth, and whom neither heaven nor earth is able to comprehend, was enclosed in the pure body of his mother. Such disputations impede our joys, and give us occasion to doubt. . . . All the wisdom of the world is childish foolishness in comparison with the acknowledgment of Christ. For what is more wonderful than the unspeakable mystery, that the Son of God, the image of the eternal Father, took upon him the nature of man.

Martin Luther, "On Jesus Christ," TABLE TALK (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 84-86.


8) GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1715-1770) ON "REUNITING GOD AND MAN THROUGH THE INCARNATION"

What think you of the manhood or incarnation of Jesus Christ? For Christ was not only God, but he was God and man in one person. . . . We do not think rightly of the person of Jesus Christ, unless we believe him to be perfect God and perfect man, or a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. . . .

Here begins that mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh. For (sing, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth!) the eternal Father, foreseeing how Satan would bruise the heel of man, had in his eternal counsel provided a means whereby he might bruise that accursed Serpent's head. . . . It was necessary it should be done in the person of man; rather than we should perish, this everlasting God, this Prince of Peace, this Ancient of Days, in the fullness of time, had a body prepared for him by the Holy Ghost, and became an infant. In this body he performed a complete obedience to the law of God; whereby he, in our stead, fulfilled the covenant of works, and at last became subject to death, even death upon the cross; that as God he might satisfy, as man he might obey and suffer; and being God and man in one person, might once more procure a union between God and our souls.

George Whitefield, "Sermon 24: 'What Think Ye of Christ?,' " GEORGE WHITEFIELD: 59 SERMONS (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 330-331.


9) JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758) ON "KINSHIP WITH CHRIST THROUGH THE INCARNATION"

For Christ having, by his incarnation, come down from his infinite exaltation above us, has become one of our kinsmen and brothers. And his glory shining upon us through his human nature, the manifestation is wonderfully adapted to the strength of the human vision; so that,though it appears in all its brillance, it is yet adjusted to oursight. He is indeed possessed of infinite majesty, to inspire us with reverence and adoration; yet that majesty need not terrify us, for we behold it blended with humility, meekness, and sweet condescension. We may feel the most profound reverence and self-abasement, and yet our hearts be drawn forth sweetly and powerfully into an intimacy the most free, confidential, and delightful. The dread, so naturally inspired by his greatness, is dispelled by the contemplation of his gentleness and humility; while the familiarity, which might otherwise arise from the view of the loveliness of his character, is ever prevented by the consciousness of his infinite majesty and glory; and the sight of all his perfections united fills us with sweet surprise and humble confidence, with reverential love and delightful adoration.

Jonathan Edwards, THE WORKS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 1:392.


10) CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) ON "THE FRUITFULNESS OF THE INCARNATION"

Ephratah was the old name of the place that the Jews retained and loved, meaning, "fruitfulness, " or "abundance. " Ah! well was Jesus born in the house of fruitfulness; for where comes my fruitfulness and any fruitfulness, my brother, but from Bethlehem? Our poor barren hearts never produced one fruit, or flower, till they were watered with the Savior's blood. It is his incarnation that fattens the soil of our hearts. There had been pricking thorns on all the ground, and mortal poisons, before be came; but our fruitfulness comes from him. "I am like a green fir tree; from thee is my fruit found." "All my springs are in thee." If we be like trees planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth our fruit in our season, it is not because we were naturally fruitful, but because of the rivers of water by which we were planted. It is Jesus that makes us fruitful. "If a man abide in me," he says, "and my words abide him, he shall bring forth much fruit. " Glorious Bethlehem Ephratah! Rightly named! Fruitful house of bread--the house of abundant provision for the people of God!(1)

Did you ever hear of angels hovering around the philosophical assemblies? . . . Concerning an incarnate God, it is said, "which things the angels desire to look into." . . . The doctrine of the Incarnation may be folly to the Greeks, and the vainglorious wiseacres of this world may call it commonplace, but to angels it is an ever-flowing fount of adoring admiration.(2)

(1) Charles H. Spurgeon, "The Incarnation and Birth of Christ," THE SPURGEON SERMON COLLECTION (Albany, OR: AGES Software, 1999), 1:261.

(2) Charles H. Spurgeon, 1000 DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976), 221-222.


11) RECOMMENDED READING


12) OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874-1917) ON "DUST AND DEITY MADE ONE"

The wonder of the Incarnation slips into the life of ordinary childhood; the marvel of the Transfiguration descends to the valley and the demon-possessed boy, and the glory of the Resurrection merges into our Lord providing breakfast for His disciples on the sea shore in the early dawn. The tendency in early Christian experience is to look for the marvelous.   . . . It takes Almighty God Incarnate in you to peel potatoes properly, and to wash heathen children for the glory of God.(1)

Almighty God is nothing but a mental abstraction unless He becomes concrete and actual, because an ideal has no power unless it can be realized. The doctrine of the Incarnation is that God did become actual, He manifested Himself on the plane of human flesh.(2)

God in Essence cannot come anywhere near us. . . . To be of any use to me, He must come down to the domain in which I live; and I do not live in the clouds but on the earth. The doctrine of the Incarnation is that God did come down into our domain. . . . Dust and Deity made one. The pure gold of Deity is of no use to us unless it is amalgamated in the right alloy, viz. the pure Divine working on the basis of the pure human. . . . Jesus Christ has the power of reproducing Himself by regeneration, the power of introducing into us His own heredity, so that dust and Deity again become one.(3)

(1) Oswald Chambers, "Still Human," THE COMPLETE WORKS OF OSWALD CHAMBERS: NOT KNOWING WHITHER (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 2000), 906.

(2) Oswald Chambers, BAFFLED TO FIGHT BETTER (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1931, 1990), 117.

(3) Oswald Chambers, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF OSWALD CHAMBERS: SHADE OF HIS HAND (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 2000), 1196-1197.


13) A.B. SIMPSON (1843-1919) ON "BECOMING MAN"

It is not said that GOD became A MAN, but that He became MAN; in the widest sense "He is the son of man." The exact meaning of this becomes more vivid in the light of various heresies that have arisen in the Church.  . . . It is needless to speak concerning the process and method of the mystery of the Incarnation. It is enough for faith to know that it is the power of the Holy Spirit united the nature of God with the child of Mary in one divine and human personality, which includes humanity in its widest sense, and links Him with every race, sex and age, as the real Brother and Head.

A.B. Simpson, THE CHRIST IN THE BIBLE COMMENTARY (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1993), 4:376.

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14) INVITATION TO SUBSCRIBE

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VOL. III, ISSUE 6, December 1, 2001. Published every other month 2/1;
4/1; 6/1; 8/1; 10/1; 12/1. Archives on www.kneillfoster.com.

Republished by www.kneillfoster.com 2005.