What do we understand by the word “incarnation?”
“Incarnation” means “becoming flesh”, taking on flesh (Latin caro; Greek sarkosis, enanthrōpēsis, “becoming man”). It means that the Word of God took to himself full human nature, yet without sin, and was made Man, without ceasing to be, by nature, God. He became what he was not, while remaining what he was.
The Gospel of John teaches:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was what God was… All things came into being through him… In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind… And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We beheld his glory, glory as of a Father’s Only-Begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (Joh 1:1–5, 14)
The Gospel of St Luke offers this account of the Lord’s incarnation:
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold
, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and you will call his name ‘Jesus.’ He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God. (Luk 1:30–35)
The Creed insists on this so that no one should imagine that the Son of God took only flesh, a body, as the heretic Apollinaris taught. He became perfect man, consisting of a rational soul and a body; for, in the axiom of St Gregory the Theologian, “what is not assumed is not healed, but what is united to God is saved” (St Gregory the Theologian, Epistle 101, to Cledonius; see Q094, Q095). Had he not taken a human soul and mind, our soul and mind would remain unredeemed.
