Incarnation of Christ

Why the Word Became Flesh: 7 Reasons the Incarnation Was Necessary to Fulfill God’s Plan of Redemption

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By Daniel L. Sonnenberg

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1.5). He came for no other purpose than to redeem those whom the Father has given Him. Hodge affirms this declaration when he says, “the only reason Christ came in the flesh was because of the fall…Christ came into the world voluntarily to save his people from their sins; to seek and save the lost.”[1] Christ’s coming into the world as not only God, but also Man, is of critical importance to anthropology and Christology. It was necessary for the Word, the second Person of the Trinity, to become man to fulfill God’s plan to redeem fallen humankind.  A survey of some of the Christological and anthropological literature supports this premise and supplies several listings of the reasons Christ had to become a man. Continue reading →

Why the Word Became Flesh: Appendix A, Table 1

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By Daniel L. Sonnenberg

The table below (Appendix A, Table 1) accompanies the paper entitled “Why the Word Became Flesh: 7 Reasons the Incarnation Was Necessary to Fulfill God’s Plan of Redemption.”

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Advent: Athanasius’ "On the Incarnation"

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“Now in dealing with these matters it is necessary first to recall what has already been said. You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. We will begin, then, with the creation of the world and with God its Maker, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning. There’ is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in the beginning. “

by Daniel L. Sonnenberg, Wilmington, NC