LEARNING FROM THE GREATS OF THE PAST
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A dear friend of mine set up a temporary WhatsApp group this year on which he posted a short quote every day during December about the INCARNATION from Thomas Watson (1620–1686) the Puritan writer’s book entitled: A Body of Divinity.
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These are just a few quotes of a whole chapter of amazing thoughts on the INCARNATION. All of us who received the daily portions were inspired and dazzled by them:
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‘Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.’ I Tim 3:16
“In his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross. Christ’s humiliation consisted in his incarnation, his taking flesh, and being born.
"It was real flesh that Christ took; not the image of a body (as the Manichees erroneously held), but a true body; therefore, he is said to be ‘made of a woman.’ Gal 4:4. As bread is made of wheat, and wine is made of the grape; so Christ is made of a woman: his body was part of the flesh and substance of the virgin. This is a glorious mystery, ‘God manifest in the flesh.’
In the creation, man was made in God’s image;
In the incarnation God was made in man’s image.
“How could Christ be made of the flesh and blood of a virgin, and yet be without sin? The purest virgin is stained with original sin. This knot the Scripture unties. ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and overshadow thee: therefore that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.’ Luke 1:15.
‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,’ that is, the Holy Ghost did consecrate and purify that part of the virgin’s flesh whereof Christ was made. As the alchemist extracts and draws away the dross from the gold, so the Holy Ghost refines and clarifies that part of the virgin’s flesh, separating it from sin. Though the Virgin Mary herself had sin, yet that part of her flesh, whereof Christ was made, was without sin; otherwise it must have been an impure conception.”
“Why was Jesus Christ made flesh? It was love in God the Father to send Christ, and love in Christ that he came to be incarnate. Love was the intrinsic motive. Christ is God-man, because he is a lover of man. Christ’s taking flesh was a plot of free grace, and a pure design of love. God himself, though Almighty, was overcome with love.
Christ incarnate is nothing but love covered with flesh.
"As Christ’s assuming our human nature was a masterpiece of wisdom, so it was a monument of free grace.
Christ took our flesh upon him, that he might take our sins upon him.
Christ took our flesh that he might make the human nature appear lovely to God,
and the divine nature appear lovely to man
“As Christ being clothed with our flesh makes the human nature appear lovely to God, so he makes the divine nature appear lovely to man. The pure Godhead is terrible to behold, we could not see it and live; but Christ clothing himself with our flesh, makes the divine nature more amiable and delightful to us. We need not be afraid to look upon God through Christ’s human nature.
“It was a custom of old among shepherds to clothe themselves with sheepskins, to be more pleasing to the sheep; so Christ clothed himself with our flesh, that the divine nature may be more pleasing to us. The human nature is a glass, through which we may see the love and wisdom and glory of God clearly represented to us. Through the lantern of Christ’s humanity we may behold the light of the Deity. Christ being incarnate makes the sight of the Deity not formidable, but delightful to us.
“See here, as in a glass, the infinite love of God the Father; that when we had lost ourselves by sin, God, in the riches of his grace, sent forth his Son, made of a woman, to redeem us. And behold the infinite love of Christ, in that he was willing thus to condescend to take our flesh. Surely the angels would have disdained to have taken our flesh; it would have been a disparagement to them. What king would be willing to wear sackcloth over his cloth of gold? but Christ did not disdain to take our flesh. Oh the love of Christ!
“He came not in the majesty of a king, attended with his life-guard, but he came poor; not like the heir of heaven, but like one of an inferior descent. The place he was born in was poor; not the royal city Jerusalem, but Bethlehem, a poor obscure place. He was born in an inn, and a manger was his cradle, the cobwebs his curtains, the beasts his companions; he descended of poor parents. One would have thought, if Christ would have come into the world, he would have made choice of some queen or personage of honour to have descended from; but he comes of mean obscure parents, for that they were poor appears by their offering. ‘A pair of turtledoves,’ Luke 2:24, which was the usual offering of the poor. Lev 12:2.
“He was poor, that he might make us rich. 2 Cor 8:8.
He was born of a virgin, that we might be born of God.
He took our flesh, that he might give us his Spirit.
He lay in the manger that we might lie in paradise.
He came down from heaven, that he might bring us to heaven.
And what was all this but love? If our hearts be not rocks, this love of Christ should affect us. Behold love that passeth knowledge! Eph 3:19”
The other thing that these quotations did for me was to underline and appreciate the work of great Christian writers from the past. In our day and age there is an underlying dismissal and disrespect of the past because we think that modern ideas are far more superior. Actually, this proves the opposite. Can you name ANY modern theologians that have come up with such theologically sound and insightful thoughts which at the same time are so spiritually profound and relevant to our lives?
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Here are some of the lessons that Watson draws from the truth of the incarnation:
“Seeing Christ took our flesh, and was born of a virgin, let us labour that he may be spiritually born in our hearts. What will it profit us, that Christ was born into the world, unless he be born in our hearts, that he was united to our persons? Marvel not that I say unto you, Christ must be born in your hearts. ‘Till Christ be formed in you.’ Gal 4:19.
As Christ was made in our image, let us labour to be made in his image.
Christ being incarnate was made like us, let us labour to be made like him.
“We should labour to be like Christ, in humility. ‘He humbled himself, Phil 2:2. He left the bright robes of his glory to be clothed with the rags of our humanity: a wonder to humility!
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“Let us be made like him in zeal. ‘The zeal of thy house has eaten me up.’ John 2:17. He was zealous when his Father was dishonoured. In this let us be like Christ, zealous for God’s truth and glory.
“Was Christ made like us? Let us be made like him, in heavenliness and contempt of the world. Let us not be ambitious of the honours and preferments of the world.
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“Was Christ incarnate? Was he made like us? Let us be made like him in holiness of life. No temptation could fasten upon him.
“If Jesus Christ was so abased for us; took our flesh, which was a disparagement to him, mingling dust with gold; if he abased himself so for us, let us be willing to be abased for him.
“Jesus Christ, having taken our flesh, has ennobled our nature, Our nature is now invested with greater royalties and privileges than in time of innocence. Before, in innocence, we were made in the image of God; but now, Christ having assumed our nature, we are made one with God; our nature is ennobled above the angelic nature. Christ taking our flesh, has made us nearer to himself than the angels. The angels are his friends, believers are flesh of his flesh, his members. Eph 5:50 and chap 1:13.
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The same glory which is put upon Christ’s human nature,
shall be put upon believers.”
There is a legacy of deep spiritual insights available to us as modern believers and we will do well to seek them out and treasure them.
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If we do not respect and listen to the great spiritual men and women who have gone before us we will be very poor indeed!
FOOTNOTE
Quotations in this article are from A BODY OF DIVINITY by Thomas Watson p,140-147
The whole book can be found here:
https://www.apuritansmind.com/wp-content/uploads/FREEEBOOKS/ABodyofDivinity-ThomasWatson.pdf
Also you can get it free on Kindle
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