Christ. (6) Tradition oa to historic events of Christ's life, and acceptance of His Messianic olaim presupposed by the apostolic writers. 111. Scriptural doctrine of the purpose and remilta of the In- carnation. L Cosmic significance of the Incarnation. 2. A crowninjj disclosure of God. 8. For the restoration of man.
Or, otherwise, Christ's functiona u« dijtin^;ulfihed KB those of —
(1) Prophet
(2) Priest.
(3) King, literature.
This term shortly expresses the fundamental fact of Christianity, as St. John describes it in his Gospel (1"), i AAyos <rd/)J iyivero. It signifies the act of condescension whereby the Son ot God, Himself very God and of one substance mth the Father, took to Himself human nature in order to accomplish its redemption and restoration. The NT insists upon the I. as a physical, hi.storic fact (1 Jn 1'), but points for its true explanation to the grace, or love, of God (Jn 3", 1 Jn 4'- '"). The expression of St. Paul, ' mystery of godli- ness' (I Ti 3"), implies, on the other hand, that the redemptive action of God is beyond our power completelj' to analyze or comprehend. Such being the general aspect of the lact, we find the most comprehensive statement of it in the prologue to St. John's Gospel (I'"'*). St. John begins by intimating a plurality of persons within the Godhead ; he describes the functions of the Logos, the objective utterance or self-ex- pression of Deity, in His relation to the created universe of wliich He is the author and sust.ainer, and to man, whose conscience and reason owe whatever illumination they possess to His presence and operation. St. John also teaches, as a further presupposition of his doctrine of the I., the occur- rence of a fall, or process of aversion from God, whereby man became subject to the power of 'darkness' or moral evil. It was to recover man from his state of alienation, and to raise him into the life of divine sonship, that the Word was finally manifested in a human form. After being heralded by the witness of creation, and by the voice of Heb. prophecy which culminated in the testimony of the Baptist, the Word finally made His appearance within the pale of an elect people of God ; His manifestation, however, had a two- fold issue : the incarnate Word was rejected by the chosen nation to which, as touching His manhood (Ro 1"), He belonged ; on the other hand, to those individuals who welcomed Him and recognized His true nature and claim, He communicated a due measure of the fulness of ' grace and truth ' which resided in Himself, impartin" to them ' power to become children of God,' and unveUing to them the glory, i.e. the essential character and life, of the Most High. St. John in this passage strikes the keynote of many varied representations of the Incarnation. It was before all else a unique exhibi- tion of divine qrace ; a supreme manifestation of divine truth. The NT writers dwell now on one, now on the other, of these two aspects of the fact. Thus the Son is spoken of as ' given ' (Jn 3"), or * sent ' (3"- «, 1 Jn 4', Gal 4'), by the Father ; but it was not less true that He gave Himself (Eph 5^,
1 Ti 2«, Gal 2**). That which displayed the groc* of God the Father (Tit 2"), 'the kindne.ss and love of God our Saviour' towards man {ib. 3'), is also to be regarded as exhibiting the grace of the Son (2 Co 8» 13"). The motive of the L is, in short, the redemptive love of God. On the other hand, the I. was a signal manifestation of truth : a revelation of the divine character, suiiplementing and quali- fying that whicli w.os revealed of God in nature, conscience, and history. St. John saj's expressly that ' No man hath seen God at any time ; God only-begotten, wliich is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him' (I's, cf. 14»).
Such, then, is the dominant point of view from which NT writers regard the I.: it is an act of mimerited grace— a movement of divine love to- wards fallen man for his restoration and re-crea- tion ; it is also a culminating moment in a pro- gressive and continuous self-revelation of God (He I'-'); nor is there any hesitation in identi- fying this divine movement with the historic career of Jesus Christ. Historically, however, the recognition of His higher nature started from the acknowledgment of His Messiahship. He was Urst recognized as one whose advent had been foretold, and awaited with eager expectation, for a period of many centuries ; as the promised seed ot Abraham in whom all families of the earth were to be blessed (Gn 12'). Jesus Christ did, in fact, claim to fulfil and satisfy the hopes and anticipations to which successive prophets had given utterance. In ' the fulness of time ' (Gal 4'') He appeared, to cro^^'n the liopes of the elect people from whom, as touching the Hesh, He sprang. It is accordingly necessary to briefly summarize the testimony of OT to the fact of the Incarnation.
i. Witness of OT. — There are elements in the theological conceptions of OT which prepare the mind for the mystery of a divine I., e.g. the doctrine that man is made in God's image (Gn l"), and is capable of intercourse and union with God. Thus Ezk 1" implies that man's bodily structure was essentially adapted to represent tlie form of Deity ; and the revelation of God in nature ( Pa 19' etc.) would suggest the possibility of His self- manifestation under the form of human nature. Further, the so - called ' Theophanies ' of OT — the m.anifestations of J'"8 presence in a created ' angel ' — point in the same direction. Again, the ascription by OT of various titles, func- tions, and relationships to the Godhead, served to prepare the Jewish mind for the Christian doctrine of a triune Deilj', which is necessarily connected with that of the Incarnation. Further, the striking personification of the diWne Wisdom which meets us in such passages as Pr 8^'- (cf. Wis l^'- 8"- 18"") seems to anticipate St. John's doctrine of the creative Logos, or St. Paul's teach- ing in passages like Col P'"". Of special import- ance, however, is the \vitness of jjrophecj', the ' Messianic hope ' being at its root an anticipation of the union of divine and human attributes in a single personality. The main points of Messianic doctrme may be summarized as follows : In its earliest stages prophecy is vague and indetermin- ate. Starting with the promise recorded in Gn 3", it points to a victory of the woman's seed over the evil principle represented by the serpent, the ' seed ' being aftenvards more precisely described as 'the seed of Abraham,' in whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed (Gn 12^ 18'« 22'» etc.). The tribe of Judah is indicated in Gn 49'° as the future depositary of sovereignty over the nations (cf. Nu 24"). 'the passage Dt 18" contributes a further element to the Jlessianic idea, viz. the notion of a prophetic mediator between God and His people, jjrobably in a comparatively late liter- ary form giving expression to the hopes and ideas