The historical event of an infant's birth in Bethlehem in approximately 6 B.C. was but the external and physical expression of a singular and never to be repeated divine action. The theological implications of what transpired on that night must be explored in order to understand the divine reality of the event.
Although Jesus was undoubtedly regarded by most of His contemporaries in Palestine as but the physical "son of Joseph" (Lk. 2:48; 3:23; 4:22; Jn. 1:45; 6:42), the divine factors of His birth and Being could only be recognized by divine revelation. The recognition that Jesus was God as well as man could not be surmised by "flesh and blood", human reasoning, but only by the revelation of His Father in heaven (Matt. 16:17).
Even prior to His physical birth the prophets indicated that the expected Messiah would be God expressed in humanity. Through Isaiah, God told Ahaz that "a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14), which Matthew explains, means "God with us" or "God in us" (Matt. 1:23). Later Isaiah explained that "a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; ...and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6), names which evidence the deity of the expected Messianic child.
Christmas can only be understood theologically as the singular divine event that it was if we recognize that the eternal and infinite God intervened and took action to intersect with man in space/time human history in order to invest Himself in a human creature for the purpose of assuming the consequences of sin and restoring humanity to its divinely intended function. The God of the universe voluntarily took the initiative of acting in His grace to condescend and "come down from heaven" (Jn. 3:13; :33,38) in the Son in order to meet man where he was, on earth in his fallen, sinful condition, becoming a man Himself to bear the death consequences of sin, which only a man could bear, since God cannot die.
A theological consideration of Christmas must commence with an understanding that the Son of God was existent prior to His being born as a baby in Bethlehem, and being given the name "Jesus." The Son existed eternally in the Trinitarian oneness of the Godhead. As "eternal God", and remaining so when He became a child (cf. Isa. 9:6), He was and is immutably and unchangeably divine. Becoming a man could in no way alter His deity.
In the Christological explanation that Paul wrote to the Philippians, he explains that "although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped..." (Phil. 2:6). The Son pre-existed as God. That Paul refers to His "existing in the form (morphe) of God," does not imply a an exact replica, or a secondary configuration, as some have suggested, but indicates that the Son existed as the very essence of God's Being, functioning in the enactment and expression of that Being by independent prerogative.
If Jesus did not pre-exist as the Son of God prior to His becoming human as the Son of Man, then He could not be the eternal God. If Jesus came into existence only at His physical birth in Bethlehem, then He was not a part of the eternal triune Godhead, and could not have been the God-man with the necessary divinity to forgive sin (Mark 2:7; Luke 5:21) as the "God and Savior" (Titus 2:13) of mankind. But because He was eternally pre-existent as the Son of God, the "Lord of glory" (I Cor. 2:8), in becoming fully human and functioning derivatively as a man, He could still say, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) - that not merely a oneness of purpose or intent, but a oneness of divine essence, "true God and eternal life" (I John 5:20).
In accord with the divine purposes expressive of the divine character of justice and grace, God the Father, in mutual determination with the Son and the Spirit, determined to send the Son on the redemptive mission to restore mankind to God's functional intent.
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). "He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32), both in incarnation and atonement. Jesus Christ was "sent by God" (John 17:3) to do the will of God (Jn. 6:38), to speak the words of God (John 3:34), and to do the works of God (Jn. 14:10), in order that "the world might be saved" (John 3:17) and "the world might live through Him" (I John 4:9).
Jesus was continually conscious that He was sent by God the Father. "I proceeded forth and have come from God, ...He sent Me" (John 8:42), Jesus told the Jewish authorities. He explained to His disciples that He had "come forth from God, and was going back to God" (John 13:3); "having came forth from the Father, and come into the world; I am leaving the world again, and going to the Father" (John 16:28). Jesus was forever conscious of His divine mission to man, as well as the necessity of man's "believing Him whom God sent" (John 5:38; 6:29). In His intimate prayer wherein He foresaw the accomplishment of the divine work (John 17:4) in His own death, Jesus said, "I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me" (John 17:8).
The sending of the Son was at the precise point in human history that God had determined. "In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman" (Gal. 4:4). All of the preparatory preliminaries had been accomplished in the Abrahamic promises and the Mosaic Law of the old covenant. The focal point of history is indeed the divine intervention into the space/time context of humanity in the sending of His Son to become a man.
The sending of the Son to become a man was with the complete consensus of the Son to enact the divine mission. Being of one mind with God the Father, the Son was not a hesitant or reticent participant in the decisive endeavor to act on man's behalf. He was not forced by compulsion to assume the role and personification of the Messiah. Rather, He willingly and voluntarily condescended to waive the privileges of His divine function and subordinate Himself to God the Father in what is often referred to as His "humiliation."
Paul explained that in an attitude of humility Jesus "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:5-7). The word that Paul employs for Jesus' self-emptying (kenosis) means "to counteract the function of" or "to lay aside the use of" something. The question must then be asked: "What did Jesus empty Himself of?" Did Jesus divest Himself of His deity in order to become a man? No, for He could still say, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) in essence, as God. Did Jesus lay aside His divine glory? No. The glory of God is in the expression of His character, and when the Word became flesh, John reports that "we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14). Did Jesus cast off some of the incommunicable attributes of His deity which were incompatible with humanity, such as the omni-attributes of omnipotence, omniscience or omnipresence?
Willingly consenting to become the God-man, Jesus recognized that His function as a man was by the indirect receptivity of the works of God. "I do nothing by the direct initiative and instigation of divine function," Jesus said repeatedly (John 5:19,30; 12:49; 14:10), but "the Father abiding in Me does His works" (John 14:10). Even the supernatural and miraculous manifestations evidenced during Jesus' ministry on earth were by the indirect functional receptivity of God's action. Peter declared in his first sermon on Pentecost that Jesus was a man "attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him" (Acts 2:22).
The self-emptying of the Son in becoming a man did not divest or deprive Him of His eternal deity which cannot be altered. The self-emptying of the Son must be understood as the deferment of His direct divine function in order to allow for indirect divine function in "the man, Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5), who was faithfully receptive to such divine function in His behavior for every moment in time for thirty-three years.
God's purpose in the incarnation of His Son with man in the enfleshed person of Jesus Christ was to reveal Himself to mankind in order to redeem men and restore them to His created intent. Jesus Christ as "the visible image" of the invisible God (cf. II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), revealed God as no one other than the "only begotten Son" could do. He revealed God (Matt. 11:27) and explained Him (John 1:18) so completely and efficaciously that Jesus could say, "From now on you know Him and have seen Him" (John 14:7).
The self-revelation of God in the incarnation of the Son revealed that God had not given up on man. In the action of His grace God revealed His love (John 3:16; I John 4:8,16) in His willingness to give His only begotten Son to become a man and die for men (Rom. 5:8) in vicarious assumption of the consequences of men's sin.
The incarnation and the atonement are inseparably linked. Jesus came to die! "The Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for all" (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; I Tim. 2:6). "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8). "He partook of flesh and blood, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14). The teleological purpose of the incarnation is that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (II Cor. 5:19) as Mediator (I Tim. 2:5) and Savior (Lk. 2:11; John 4:42; Titus 2:13; 3:6; I John 4:14). God wanted to restore man to His created intent by offering a new creation by His Word whereby His life was again invested in man to be expressed through man unto His own glory.
