God man - Article 2/39

2. OF THE WORD OR SON OF GOD, WHICH WAS MADE VERY MAN

THE Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.

In the Bible, as in much ancient literature, the more important the character the more outrageous the stories associated with their beginnings. Consider the greatest Old Testament king – David. There are three tales of his start on the journey. There is the choosing of the young son of Jesse; the playing of the harp to soothe the soul of Saul and the slaying of a giant. None of these stories speaks of the existence of the others or is referred to later on in the more historical text. But they speak of a man who will be shepherd, psalmist and warrior.

Andrew Lincoln says 'Matthew's and Luke's birth stories … provide the features that would be expected of an ancient biography's depiction of the beginnings of the life of a great figure' ('Born of a Virgin?' SPCK 2013).

Article 2 uses the virginal conception of Jesus to clarify what John's Gospel says is 'the word made flesh'. It needn't over-bother us. It is who the baby grew into that is important.

Brian McLaren offers this, 'Jesus says … that the invisible God has been made visible in his life' (A New Kind of Christianity). And so we move rapidly from Christmas to Easter.

O'Donovan links Articles 2-4. The statements about Jesus' incarnation, death and resurrection should not, for him, be separated. Down the years other theologians have disagreed, seeing Jesus' 'It is finished' as the moment God and humankind are reconciled and making the resurrection more about the Father's verdict on the Son than about the act of reconciliation. O'Donovan is a joined-up theologian.

Article 2 wants us, above all, to value the uniqueness of Jesus. Our faith, in the extent to which it is a visible thing, is about one person and us as witness to that person who has done for us, once and for all, everything that is necessary.