By Hank Hanegraaff

Like the Trinity, the doctrine of the incarnation is often considered to be logically incoherent. While many issues surrounding the incarnation, such as the precise modes of interaction between Christ’s divine nature and His human nature, may transcend our human understanding, the doctrine of the incarnation does not transgress the laws of logic.

First, to understand the logical coherence of the incarnation, one must first consider the imago Dei (image of God). Because God created humanity in His own image (Genesis 1:27), the essential properties of human nature (rationality, will, moral character, and the like) are not inconsistent with His divine nature. Though the notion of God becoming a clam would be absurd, the reality that God became a man is not.

Moreover, it is crucial to point out that though the God- man is fully human, He is not merely human. And though the divine Son of God took on all the essential properties of human nature, He did not take on that which is nonessential (e.g., sinful inclinations). Indeed, as Adam was created with- out a proclivity toward sin, so the Second Adam (Jesus) was untainted by original sin. And like His moral perfection, Jesus’ other divine attributes (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, and so forth) were not undermined in the incarnation.

Furthermore, while Jesus Christ voluntarily refrained from exercising certain attributes of deity, He did not divest Himself of a single divine attribute (John 1:14; Philippians 2:1–11; Colossians 1:15–20; Hebrew 2:14–18). With respect to His omniscience, for example, His human nature may have served as a filter limiting His knowledge as a man (e.g., Mark 13:32). Nonetheless, Jesus’ divine omniscience was ever accessible at the will of the Father. To put it directly, there is no incoherence in the biblical teaching that the eternal Son of God added humanity to His divinity such that He will forever remain one person with two distinct natures, neither confusing His natures nor becoming two persons.

Finally, it is more than intoxicating to reflect on the real- ity that just as Christ is incarnate in the image of humankind, so humanity is being refashioned in the image of God. As Athanasius of Alexandria, widely regarded as the greatest theologian of his time, well said, “Christ was made man that we might be made God.” Or in the words of Peter, we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4 nkjv). This, of course, is not to say that we, though redeemed, possess God’s incommunicable attributes. Certainly none among us can claim self-existence, immutability, eternality, omnipotence, omni- science, omnipresence, or absolute sovereignty. Thus, far from being reproductions of God, human beings are more correctly portrayed as reflections of God.

That humans are created in God’s image simply means that they share, in a finite and imperfect way, the communicable attributes of God. Among such attributes are personality; spirituality; rationality, including knowledge and wisdom; and morality, including goodness, holiness, righteousness, love, jus- tice, and mercy. These attributes in turn give us the capacity to enjoy fellowship with God and to develop personal relation- ships with one another. Theologian Millard Erickson summed it up nicely when he wrote that “the image of God in humanity comprises those qualities in God which, reflected in man, make worship, personal interaction, and work possible.”

The glorious reality is this: despite the fall, you and I continue to be bearers of the image of God. This reflection of the divine image in us has been blemished, yet not obliterated. James, the brother of Jesus, affirmed this truth when he wrote that men are “made in God’s likeness” (James 3:9). Through sanctification, God is renewing an image that as yet is blemished and broken. We have taken off the “old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9–10).

Indeed, it is liberating for believers to revel in the reality that in the consummation of all things God will completely restore the imago Dei in fallen humanity. Had the incarnate Christ not come in the image and likeness of man, there would be no hope for humanity to be refashioned in the imago Dei.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1, 14 NJKV

For further study, see Ronald H. Nash, Is Jesus the Only Savior? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 84–91; and Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, Orthodox Christianity, Vol. II: Doctrine and Teaching of the Orthodox Church (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2012).

***Note the preceding text is adapted from The Complete Bible Answer Book: Collector’s Edition: Revised and Expanded (2024). To receive for your partnering gift please click here. ***