INCARNATION (from later Latin, in canton°, first used by Irenwus, A.D. 180, derived from in and carnem, into flesh), the permanent assumption of human form or human nature by a divine personage. In the Christian religion, the incarnation sigats the assumption of hu man Nature by in Jesus Christ. The classical statement is John i, 14, °And the Word became flesh, and tented among us.' This is the central teaching of the Christian religion, and the source of its claim to universal accept ance and to finality. Very intimately bound up with it, though distinguishable from it, are the important teachings of the divine sonship of Christ, his sinlessness, his pre-existence and virgin birth and inevitable deductions affecting the Trinity (q.v.) and the atonement (q.v.).
I. Sources in the New The gospels show how the disciples became convinced of the incarnation as a fact. The impression of the greatness of Christ's person ality; his miracles, which showed his sovereign power over disease and nature; his sinlessness, proved not so much by express declaration and outward conduct as by a combination of the most penetrating ethical insight and moral power with an entire absence of any sense of sin or moral failure or need of forgiveness; the intimacy of his knowledge of God and communion with him; his claims that moral character and future salvation were decided by relation to himself ; his assumption of au thority to forgive sin, and his promises of rest to weary souls, who came to him; the experi ence of this forgiveness and rest in their own hearts — all predisposed the disciples to this belief. Yet the most powerful factor, taken in connection with the foregoing elements, was Jesus' claim to be the Messiah (qv.), who had been prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures and was a familiar figure in the later current Jewish literature. This claim meant nothing less than that he would be the future judge of all men, the bringer of the super natural kingdom of God, and king in that king dom. This claim was acknowledged by Peter at Caesarea Philippi with Christ's joyful ap proval, was constantly .asserted by implications of more than human authority and by the use of the phrase, aSon of Man,* which means nothing more nor less than Messiah, and was maintained, although Christ knew that it would cost him his life, in reply to the High Priest's question in the trial before the Sanhedrin.
The resurrection, however, decisively and for ever settled the matter in the mind of the dis ciples. After that event, they had no further doubts. John's gospel truly represents the growth of their faith to the climax, when Thomas calls the risen Jesus, Lord and my God.' (b) The early Church consequently pro claimed Jesus the Messiah, sitting not on David's throne, but at the right hand of God, and cited the resurrection as proof. They called' Jesus Lord, using the very word used of Jehovah in the Septuagint, and in connections which exclude any other reference. The open ing chapter of the earliest Pauline Epistle, 1 Thessalonians, associates God and Christ on terms of practical equality. 2 Cor. iv, 4, 6, and Col. i, 15 assert that Christ is the image of the invisible God cf. 2 Cor. v, 19. 1 Cor. viii, 6 and Col. i, 16-18 make Christ the mediator of creation. 2 Cor. iii, 17 identifies him with the divine Spirit, and, according to the best modern expositors, Paul in Rom. ix, 5 calls him aGod blessed forever." The earliest epistles already show that the pre-existence of Christ is no new idea to be explained and enforced, but the com mon property of Christians, cf. Rom. viii, 3, 1 Cor. xv, 47, 2 Cor. viii, 9, Gal. iv, 4. These thoughts are developed at length in Phil. ii, 6-11 and Col. i, 15-20. The familiar and incidental reference to these teachings as matters of course in the belief of the Church dispose us to believe that they have their root in Christ's own declarations of pre-existence as recorded in John's gospel, John xvii, 5, 24; viii, 58; iii, 13; vi, 62, 33, 38; xvi, 28 etc. The other New Testament writers shared these views of Christ's pre-existence, cf. Heb. i, 1-3, and 1 John i, 1-4. The Prologue of John i, 1-18, is the climax of the development of the teach ing in the New Testament.