Incarnation (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A) : Revision Note

Belief in Jesus as Incarnate Son

• The word Incarnation comes from Latin and literally means 'to put on flesh'

• The incarnation is when God took on human flesh - became human - in the person of Jesus

• This is a key belief held by Catholics and nearly all mainstream Christian churches 

• This belief means that Jesus was the incarnate Son of God

  • He is the ‘Son’ part of the Trinity that makes up the Christian understanding of God

  • He is the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecy that a Saviour would come to earth

    • The prophet Isaiah said that ‘The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’ (Isaiah 7:14) 

    • Immanuel means ‘God with us’ and Jesus fulfils this prophecy as he is God incarnate, present in the world

• The incarnation is not the belief that Jesus was ‘half God and half man’

  • It does mean that Jesus was both fully human and fully God

  • Jesus had both a human nature and a divine nature

  • This means that Jesus is the meeting point between God and human beings, between heaven and earth

  • This makes him unique

Jesus as Fully Human

• Jesus had a full human nature and experienced all the normal aspects of human life, except sin

• Jesus was born to a human mother, Mary

• Jesus had a human body, as he explains to his followers:

• Jesus felt hunger and thirst

  • For example, after he fasted in the desert for forty days after his baptism 

• Jesus felt compassion for others

  • The shortest verse in the whole Bible is John 11:35: ‘Jesus wept’ which records his compassionate reaction to the grief of Lazarus' sisters at the death of their brother

• Jesus felt human emotions such as fear and suffering, especially during the events that led up to his death on the Cross

• Jesus suffered a painful human death on the Cross

Jesus as Fully Divine

• Jesus is referred to as the Divine Word or the ‘Word of God’

  • This idea is explained in John’s gospel, which says:

• 'The Word' is another term for the Son of God, and so this passage explains that Jesus was God (the eternal Word) made flesh

• Because Jesus was truly God, He had God’s power and authority

• Jesus had the authority to forgive sins, which is something only God can do

  • This is seen when he healed the paralysed man, saying, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ (Mark 2:5-7)

• Jesus could work miracles, and performed so many miracles that John’s gospel records the fact that:

• The miracles that Jesus performed showed his divine power 

• He had the power to heal the sick

  • For example, a blind man called Bartimaeus

• Jesus could raise the dead

  • For example, his friend Lazarus was raised from the dead:

• Jesus was resurrected after his own death, as the events of Easter mark

• In the Gospels, Jesus is also referred to as the Son of God

  • The most notable occasion was during His trial before the Sanhedrin (Jewish High Council)

• The phrase Son of the Blessed One is equivalent to Son of God because Jewish people avoided saying God’s name aloud

• Jesus’ response I am shows that he is aware that he is fully God, because this is the same Hebrew phrase God used to identify himself to Moses in the book of Exodus

  • It is for this reason that Jesus was put to death

Scriptural Origins of Belief in the Incarnation

• The key source of information about belief in the Incarnation is found in the gospels: the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible, the Christian holy book

• The four gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

• Each gospel gives accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and this is where the descriptions of Jesus as both fully God and fully human come from

• Another key source of authority teaching Catholics about the Incarnation is the Nicene Creed, the statement of beliefs, which affirms that:

  • Jesus is consubstantial with the Father, which means Jesus is of the same divine nature

  • Jesus is God from God, true God from true God

  • Jesus was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man

The Creed therefore explains very clearly that Jesus was fully God and fully human

Significance of Belief in the Incarnation for Catholics

• The Catholic Church teaches that the Incarnation happened:

  • To show God's love for humanity

  • So that God the Son (Jesus, the second person of the Trinity) could enter humanity

  • To teach humans how to live

  • To bring salvation from sin

  • To make eternal life possible

• This influences Catholics today

  • It helps them to understand more about the nature of God, for example his power in being able to come to earth in human form

  • It helps them relate to Jesus more, because he shared human characteristics and experiences that they go through

  • It helps them to realise how much love God has for them because he came to earth and suffered and died for them

  • It gives them an example and teachings for how to live

  • It gives them hope that there is eternal life after death - Jesus lived, died, and returned to heaven and this helps them to see that they might also be able to achieve this