A. Introduction: Article XVII spoke of the promise which God made to fallen man to “give His Son, who should be made of a woman, to bruise the head of the serpent and would make him happy”. Thus there follows quite naturally from this an article concerning the birth of Jesus Christ, the incarnation of the Son of God.
B. The article describes in detail the characteristics of the human nature which the Son of God assumed.
1. It was a real human nature. Jesus Christ was truly man.
a. There were some in the early church who taught that the human nature of Christ was only an appearance. But this is not the case. He was born as any other child. He also had flesh and blood and was like us in all things except sin.
b. This means also that Christ was a definite individual with an individual human nature. He was not red or black or yellow; He was white. He was born a Jew with all Jewish characteristics, measured a certain height, had a certain color eyes and hair, a definite complexion, His own characteristics.
c. It was taught by Dr. A. Kuyper that Christ did not possess a human nature, but Human Nature in general. Whatever this may mean, Kuyper taught that Christ did not possess a definite and concrete human nature, but a general human nature. This is however a denial of the human nature of Christ, for a general human nature is an abstraction, and an abstraction has no reality concretely.
d. This article also emphasizes that Christ assumed a central human nature. He was not born on the outskirts of mankind, but took hold of our human nature in its center. He was not born a Hottentot, but a Jew in the line of the covenant.
1) This is denied by the Anabaptists who are referred to in this article. They taught that Christ did not assume the flesh and blood of His mother but that God created a special human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, but apart from her.
2) But it is nevertheless the teaching of Scripture that Christ was born in definite generations. His geneology can be traced back to Adam. The generations of Christ form a large pyramid wide at the base in Adam, but narrowing down through Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and finally reaching its peak in Mary who was the last remnant of the royal house.
3) Christ’s human nature was principally and organically in the loins of the promised line from the very beginning of the time until He was born.
e. In this connection also it must definitely be maintained that Joseph was not the father of Christ.
1) There are some that the human nature of Christ was formed through definite a physical intercourse between Joseph and Mary, and that that human nature the Son of God assumed.
2) But it is plain from Scripture that this is not the case.
a) When Joseph learned that his wife was with child, he thought that she had committed adultery, and was about to put her away until an angel explained the matter to him. Matthew 1:18-25. Thus also Isaiah 7:14.
b) Mary’s question of the angel, “How shall these things be, seeing I know not the a man”, is certainly asked by her because she knows that Joseph cannot be the father of the child.
3) We must conclude therefore, that the Holy Ghost worked upon the womb of Virgin Mary that He took the place of a father.
f. This is all important, for:
1) Only if Christ was like us in all things could He also take upon Himself our sin. The nature that sinned must also bear the penalty of sin.
2) It is only thus that Christ is the true seed of the woman, the Head of all His elect people.
2. The human nature that Christ assumed was a complete human nature.
a. Christ was not only born with a human body, but also with a human soul.
1) This is emphasized by the article: “and did not only assume human nature as to the body, but also a true human soul, that he might be a real man. For since the soul was lost as well as the body, it was necessary that he should take both upon him, to save both.”
2) The soul is the seat of our thinking and willing. Besides, therefore, the ffact that Christ possessed a divine mind and will according to His divine nature, He also possessed a human mind and will with respect to His human nature.
b. This is necessary as the article states in order that He may also save our depraved souls.
3. Christ’s human nature was also a weakened human nature.
a. Christ did not assume a strong human nature as Adam possessed in Paradise, but one that was weakened by the curse active during four thousand years. Although we never read of Christ being sick, the possibility waas certainly there. He became tired in body and mind. He was often hungry and thirsty. He bore for thirty three years all our infirmities. And finally He also died.
b. This was necessary, because He had to become like us in all things in order to bring the sacrifice for sin as our Mediator. Heb. 4:1.
4. But Christ’s human nature was also sinless.
a. Only in this respect was Christ different from us. He possessed no personal guilt, although He became guilty for us.
1) He was preserved from original guilt because guilt is imputed to the person, and He was personally the Second Person of the trinity. Besides, it seems as if guilt is transmitted only through the father.
2) He was preserved from original pollution because He was divinely conceived. Mary herself was not free from original pollution, but the Holy Spirit operated in such a way that the pollution of Mary’s nature, which Christ assumed was not passed on to Christ.
b. This also was important, for:
1) Only because Christ was free from guilt, could He take our guilt upon Himself.
2) Only because Christ was the holy child of God could He walk the way of perfect obedience and willingness to perform the Father’s good pleasure.
C. Conclusion.
1. The article mentions:
a. This was all the fulfillment of God’s promise made to the fathers by the prophets.
b. Christ came in the fulness of time, the time definitely appointed from all eternity by the Father.
c. It is for this reason that Christ is Immanuel, that is to say, God with us.
2. We may well add:
a. The incarnation is a transcendent miracle which we cannot possibly understand. It is the wonder of God unto our salvation. God brought forth the Eternal out of the creature of time; the holy One out of the unholy, the perfect Mediator out of a fallen human race. Countless times during the Old Dispensation, this was shown to be impossible; but every time God brought forth the promised seed.And finally, a virgin conceived and brought forth a Son. Miat is impossible always for man is possible with God.
b. In Christ is the closest possible union between the divine and the human. And therefore Christ is indeed Immanuel, God with us, the basis for our everlasting covenant fellowship with God.