Great Doctrines of the Bible—God the Father, God the Son/ Martyn Lloyd Jones

23. The Incarnation

There are nine important statements concerning the doctrine of the incarnation: 

1). “the doctrine of the person of our Lord, and the doctrine of the incarnation in particular, show us again the all-importance of the doctrine of the Trinity” (256). 

2). “the doctrine of the incarnation asserts not that the eternal triune God became flesh, but the second Person in the triune God became flesh” (256). 

3). “the doctrine of the incarnation does not say that it was merely an appearance or a form that was taken on by the second Person in the Trinity, but that it was indeed a true incarnation; He did come in the flesh” (256). 

4). “The doctrine of the incarnation does not say that it was the divine nature that somehow became united with human nature and so formed a person”; instead, “it teaches that He took to Himself flesh and appeared in this world in the likeness of man—not a new person, but this eternal Person” (257). 

5). “the doctrine of the incarnation does not teach, neither does it involve the idea, that a change took place in the personality of the Son of God” (257). 

6). “we must never so state the doctrine of the incarnation as to give the impression, therefore, that we say that the Son of God was changed into a man” (257). We should say, “He became flesh, or that took on flesh” (257). 

7). “our Lord did not merely take the appearance of human nature; it was true human nature” (258). (See Hebrews 2:14, 16; 2 John 7). 

8). “The doctrine of the incarnation asserts that our Lord took unto Himself a full human nature. It was not merely partial, it was complete” (258). 

9). “He took on this complete human nature from the Virgin Mary” (259). (See Matthew 1:1; Hebrews 2:14-18).