INCARNATION OF CHRIST

   one of the key and unique BELIEFS of CHRISTIANITY which teaches that JESUS CHRIST, the SON OF GOD, was both fully God and fully human. This is quite different from other ancient religious MYTHOLOGIES where a God either takes on human form or has human offspring who are part God and part human. In Christian THEOLOGY the CREATOR GOD took on human form to become fully human while, at the same time, remaining fully DIVINE. Early Christian CREEDS went to great lengths to explain what this meant while at the same time distinguishing Christian teaching from similar sounding PAGAN notions of God-men. The NICENE CREED, for example, says "I believe...in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God; Light of Light; Very God of Very God; Begotten, not made...who...was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man...." Elaborating on this, the CREED attributed to ATHANASIUS says "He is God, of the Substance of the Father...and he is Man, of the Substance of his Mother...Perfect God; Perfect Man...Who although he be God and Man, yet he is not two, but is one Christ. One altogether; not by conversion of Godhead into flesh, but by taking Manhood into God; One altogether; not by confusion of Substance but by unity of Person..." For CHRISTIANS this is a crucial DOCTRINE because they believe that it enables Jesus Christ to act as MEDIATOR between God and man. See 1 Timothy 2:5.