Incarnation

Incarnation (from the Latin incarnatio, becoming flesh) denotes the act by which the eternal Son of God took human nature into personal union with his divine nature, being born as the man Jesus of Nazareth. The doctrinal foundation is John 1:14: "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The pre-existent Word — who was with God and was God (John 1:1–2) — entered into genuine human existence, not as an appearance or a temporary possession of a human body, but as a real human being with a human nature complete in body, soul, and experience.

The New Testament presents the incarnation as a voluntary act of self-humbling: "though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor" (2 Corinthians 8:9); he "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). Hebrews 2:14–17 grounds the incarnation in the necessity of the atonement: the Son shared in flesh and blood precisely so that through death he could destroy the power of death and become a merciful high priest, able to sympathize with human weakness. The incarnation is thus not merely the means of revelation but the precondition of the redemptive work — only a genuinely human mediator could represent humanity before God and offer the sacrifice that atoned for human sin.