God Became Man
Q22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to Himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin.
The Son of God became man. ‘It was not that, being man, He afterwards became God; but being God, He afterwards became man.’ (Athanasius). Of His own free and gracious will our Lord took our manhood in order that God’s great love might act through it for our salvation. Yes, and also that He our Saviour might love us with both the everlasting love of the infinite God and the sympathetic affection of the true human heart. In His one Person there is both the love of God and the sympathy of a brother for every one of us.
A true body and a reasonable soul. Some people have thought of the body as evil, because it is material. But matter is not evil. God made the earth as well as the heavens and made it good. Our Lord took flesh and blood of the seed of Abraham. His was as real a body as mine is. He hungered and thirsted, He wept and was weary. He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. Even after His resurrection He said to His disciples: “Behold My hands and My feet that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).
As His body was not a mere ghost or phantom or appearance, but a real body, so also He took a true human soul. In the early Church some men said that the Saviour took a human body but that the Divine Word was His reasonable soul. But the Gospels show that He took our human thinking soul as well as our Body. He spoke of His human will in distinction from the Divine will, in His human mind He increased in wisdom, He sorrowed, He rejoiced, He had righteous wrath against those who misused His Father’s House.
Born of the Virgin Mary. As His Divine nature had no mother, so his human nature had no father. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowed her so that Christ was begotten by extraordinary or supernatural generation. By the power of the Holy Spirit Christ was conceived and born without sin. His Virgin Birth was the proper beginning of His sinless human life. Mary was given grace for her blessed place as the Mother of our Lord. In herself she was a sinner who needed the saving grace of God as truly as we do. He whom she bore was God. To Him we come for Divine grace and truth, for human love and sympathy.
– W. C. Robinson (adapted)