The Seven Transformations: Ch. 2.1 - The Problem of the Incarnation

Now that we have a solid understanding of what God does, which is salvation, we also understand who God is, the sovereign savior and creator, the author of life.

But examining the accounts of the Gospels and the letters of the New Testament leads to a problem, which is that God does not seem to be the only actor in the plan of salvation.

This tells us that although we now know who God is as a function of what He does, we need to delve deeper into who He is as a personal being.

The Bible clearly shows God as the main doer and cause of salvation.

Yet Scripture also makes key distinctions, especially in the New Testament, which cannot be denied.

There is the Father, and there is the Son, both highlighted as key figures in this great work of the Gospel.

There is also the Spirit, albeit less obviously than the first two.

Nevertheless, we know that there is only one God, because there is only one self-existent creator.

Exodus twenty, verse three commands us to have no gods besides Yahweh, the giver of the law, and also the one who made the earth.

In Isaiah forty-three, verse eleven, this same Yahweh says that besides Him there is no savior.

And in Isaiah forty-four, verse six, He says that besides Him there is no other God.

So far, so good.

One plan of salvation, one savior, one supreme God.

It makes sense in our logical minds, and even Jews and Muslims can agree to that one.

But the Bible is anything but logical.

You can't finish reading the first verse in the Bible without believing in a personal being that is self-existent and omnipotent.

And you can't finish reading the first chapter of Genesis without believing that everything came into being from nothing in six literal days.

Keep on reading, and you have to be confronted with the reality that all humanity originated from two people, which is more scientific than most people realize, believe it or not, that angels slept with human women and had giant evil offspring who were worshiped as demigods, that a worldwide flood wiped out everything because humanity had corrupted itself, that a small family built a huge boat and saved two of every kind of animal, that the languages were supernaturally confused by God as judgment against arrogance, that a man named Abraham interacted with a physical manifestation of God and shared a meal, that fiery judgment fell from the sky on evil towns, that angels can disguise themselves as human beings, that a man named Joseph had dreams that predicted the future, and that a man named Jacob wrestled with God, all in just the first book of the Bible.

Nothing about any of these events is logical or has an explanation we can ground in the rules of physics or chemistry.

And yet, they are reported to you very matter-of-fact, presenting you at each juncture with a test.

Do you pass the test and believe? Or do you reject the test and say that the Bible is a ridiculous, haphazard collection of stories just like every other ancient mythology? As Christians, we accept these truths as part of our overall mystery of faith, because our faith is not founded on things that have their ultimate explanation in the rules of the world.

No, our faith is founded on a sovereign God, and that sovereign God is mysterious, confounding to the mind, absolutely alluring, and eternally profound.

So now we return to the problem, and that problem, though it is obvious even as early as the first chapter of Genesis, comes to a climax in the New Testament with the arrival of Jesus.

This problem is that what you read does not make sense according to the rules of logic and according to the rest of Scripture, at least on the surface.