Was Jesus incarnate?
All words, just like people who exchange them, have a history. Incarnate is a word from Latin.
The root of the word is carnal, which we know as flesh. It is a great word I've found in comprehending how Jesus, dramatically, became a man in the seen changing world of the flesh.
Mary was herself not at the beginning of Jesus, as God. It did not start with Mary, because Jesus was at the beginning as the Son of God. As an aside, her cousin was the mother of John the Baptist. of which John, the author of John, speaks of "as the Baptist," in the Gospels as the heralder of Jesus.
Alpha and Omega
Mary is referred to by those knowledgeable in the discussion as the virgin God bearer. Jesus however was with God, as the begotten son of God, in the beginning. God did not have only a beginning, but is both beginning and ending. Maybe a mobius strip might serve as an illustration here. This would make God both the beginning and the ending, meaning to me, forever.
Mary then, remains in her time. But by emphasizing her as the mother of God, she is easily thought, by association, to be before the beginning of the Son, or at least, in the beginning. This beginning would suggest the only beginning, even before God Himself, which of course is untenable.
It is important not to lose the understanding that Jesus
was God, as the Son of God, before the time of Mary, who herself was the "God bearer" in the process of God becoming a Man. Did I say that correctly?
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us
As a child, it was presented to my understanding by association that Jesus began born of His mother Mary. This would be true, but because Jesus was God from the beginning, it was only true when Jesus became a man, from which He would return as God in the beginning. Always the emphasis was on the seen rather than on the unseen spirit.
There, I've said enough for this entry. I'll chew on this for a time, which takes me back to the beginning of this effort beginning with the introduction of the word incarnate.
Reincarnate carries the image of us living our lives over and over in an effort to get it right, without grace. This sounds to me like someone in a prison locked in a bubble of time that is self repeating from which no one is ever free at last.
Incarnate rather is a single individual event in which God becomes Man for time. A time when He suffers stripes for our healing and dies for our sins as the last sacrifice, totally deserted by God. He then, after dying on the Cross, while still dead for three days, goes down into hell to preach to those lost in the flood, from which He returns, is seen by hundreds, and ascends to heaven. I know of no story anywhere or at any time to even come close to match anything like it.
Between the subject and the verb
I will continue comprehending it. How does one believe it? A belief is a doctrine, inert and still, but believing, is as action, bringing it into existence just like God, who believing spoke everything into existence. That exhilarating task is my never-ending hope, all the while praising God for His Existence and the existence He has given me.
