Incarnation also has a positive side. It brought God into man. It made God and man one. Nearly two thousand years ago there was a Man on this earth who was a combination of God and man. Was Jesus Christ just man? Was He just God? He was both God and man. Many Bible teachers call Him the God-man. He was not merely a man of God, but a God-man. He was the complete God and a perfect Man.
According to the genuine revelation of the Bible, in such an incarnation neither the nature of God nor the nature of man was lost, and no third nature was produced. Christ is a God-man with both the divine nature and the human nature, each existing in Him distinctly.
Our Redeemer is a God-man. By His incarnation for the accomplishment of redemption, He, as the very God, took this step of making Himself one with man. He participated in man’s blood and flesh. Hebrews 2:14 tells us, “Since therefore the children have partaken of blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner shared in the same.” If He had not had man’s blood, how could He have shed His blood for man’s sins? Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). As human beings, we need human blood to wash away our sins. Because our Redeemer partook of man’s blood, He could shed His blood for our sins.
When the Son of God became incarnate, He did not leave the Father in the heavens. Although I used to think so over fifty years ago, I gradually discovered by studying the Word that the Son and the Father cannot be separated. They are distinct but not separate. The Son Himself tells us clearly that He came in the Father’s name (John 5:43) and that the Father was with Him all the time (John 16:32). He and the Father are one (John 10:30; 17:22).
As Christians, we believe there is only one God. To believe in tritheism, that there are three Gods, is a great heresy. We have only one God, yet our God is triune. He is three in His Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Yet He is one God. We have no way to reconcile this. However, we do know the revealed fact that our God is triune, that He is three-one.
God’s plan is mainly the work of the Father, His redemption is mainly the work of the Son, and His application is mainly the work of the Spirit. The Father planned, the Son redeemed, and the Spirit applies.
The three are distinct but not separate. When the Son came, the Father came with Him. When the Spirit came, the Son and the Father came (John 14:17, 23). We do not believe in modalism, a heresy which says that when the Son came, the Father was over, and then when the Spirit came, the Son was over. We believe that God is three-one, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as one God coexisting and coinhering from eternity through eternity.