The Word Became Flesh

The importance of our physical union with Christ

Image of Christ Pantocrator at St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, dated to the sixth century A.D./C.E. It is thought to be the oldest surviving image of Christ Pantocrator.

Note: The following is a devotional message which I shared with my fellow deaconesses at our Christmas party this year.

I would like us all to think about a quote from one of the Church Fathers. Athanasius of Alexandria was bishop of that Egyptian city in the fourth century A.D. His most famous work is titled On the Incarnation, and deals with the reality of Christ’s coming to earth as a human being. In that short book, Athanasius says something rather extraordinary: “He was incarnate that we might be made god,”¹ or as it is often loosely quoted, “He became man that man might become God.”

If this quote strikes you as problematic, you are not alone. After all, was the original sin of Satan not a desire to become God? The words of Isaiah 14:14 – “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” – are often seen as an echo of Satan’s rebellion.²

But Athanasius was talking about something different when he referred to man becoming god. Whereas Satan seeks to supplant God and literally become the ruler of all that is, Athanasius was speaking of union with Christ.

This is the union we celebrate at Christmas: the Son of God became one with humanity by taking on a human nature. The word incarnation literally means “to become embodied” – to participate in our flesh and blood.

In opposition to those who argued that the Son of God could not possibly have taken on a human nature, Athanasius argued for the physical reality of Christ’s incarnation. Without it, he argued, salvation was not possible.

There are some wonderful New Testament passages that speak about this. First is John 1:11-14, which says of Christ that,

“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

By taking on human flesh, Christ revealed God to us in a new way, dwelt among us as he never had before, and made it possible for us to become children of God. All of us had a one flesh union with our mother before birth. Through his incarnation, our new birth in Christ forms a union that is even more powerful. Since he is God’s only begotten Son, we are able through our union with Christ to become children of God as well.

Christ’s taking on of human flesh also allowed him to defeat both death and the devil. The writer of Hebrews says,

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

How can Christ free us from the power of death? By suffering death himself in a human body and taking on that which was our due. In our union with him, he takes on our death and transfers his resurrection life to us. Romans 6:4-11 says,

“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

In our present state, we still struggle with sin, and we will experience physical death if Christ does not first return. But our eternal reality is a resurrected life and complete freedom from the sin that still entangles us. It was necessary for Christ to fully share our humanity for these things to be possible. Our union with him is somewhat like the marital union, where the two persons are certainly distinct, but the Bible can speak of them as “one flesh.” We are one flesh with Christ, as Paul makes clear in his instructions to husbands in Ephesians chapter 5.

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:25-32)

The implications of this are difficult for many people to accept. In fact, no words of Christ offended people more than when he said, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh,” and later added, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:51, 53-56) This message was so controversial that many of Jesus’ own disciples deserted him.

Even today, we tend to think of our salvation in purely spiritual terms. It is not often that we stop to consider that our union with Christ is closer and more real than our union with any human being: that we are truly one flesh with him. We accept that it was necessary for Christ to take on a human body for us to be saved, and that his shed blood is sufficient for our forgiveness, but we do not often think about how our union with Christ sustains us every day of the Christian life. It is a great source of comfort to know that we are really and truly held by the one who gave himself for us.

So, as you look at a nativity scene this Christmas and see the baby Jesus in the manger, think about why Christ took on flesh and blood for you: to take your sins upon his own body on the cross, and to grant you the righteousness that he achieved day after day of his human life. Your union with Christ is so firm, so powerful, so unfailing that you need never fear that you will be lost. Our one flesh relationship with him truly does bring us eternal life. That is the purpose of his incarnation and therefore the purpose of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

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PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE:

• “Assurance of Salvation in the Reformed and Lutheran Traditions” at 1517

1. Athanasius of Alexandria. On the Incarnation, Popular Patristics, trans. John Behr (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012), 107.

2. All Scripture quotations are from the 1995 New American Standard Bible, copyright The Lockman Foundation.