Incarnation

Overview

Today we’re going to look at a fundamental belief of the Christian faith — the doctrine of the incarnation. It’s a belief that’s unique to the Christian faith, that the eternal, infinite God became a human being in Jesus Christ — a physical, limited, vulnerable, mortal being in history. The implications of this doctrine are vast and many, but we’re going to focus on something specifically astounding in Philippians 2.

Paul takes a basic practical human problem, the problem of fighting, and he brings to bear on it the doctrine of the incarnation. He says in order to solve the problem you need to understand the incarnation. So let’s see how he does it in these three parts: 1) the heart that fights, 2) the heart that makes peace, and 3) he shows us how to get that kind of peaceful heart.