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Christianity Today, January, 2008 |

Ongoing Incarnation

Would Christmas have come even if we had not sinned?

Philip Yancey | posted 1/10/2008 08:52AM

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Then, assured of that new identity, we go forth to recover God's world. Duns Scotus called his approach "the Doctrine of the Absolute Primacy of Christ in the Universe." Those who root their identity in Christ have a holy mission to reclaim territory that has been spoiled. The Christian ministers to the poor and suffering not out of humanistic motives, but because they too reflect the image of God; insists on justice because God insists on it; and honors nature because it stands as God's work of art, the background setting for Incarnation.

Not long ago I had a conversation with Makoto Fujimura, an esteemed artist who founded the International Arts Movement to encourage Christian artists to look to their faith for inspiration. "So many contemporary artists turn to other religions, like Buddhism," he says. "I remind them that God is about creation from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation, in which God promises to make all things new."

Among Jesus' final words, in Revelation, are these: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." John Duns Scotus must be smiling.

Related Elsewhere:

Yancey's previous columns are available on our site.

Other articles on the Incarnation are in our Christmas section.

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January 2008, Vol. 52, No. 1

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Clarence E. Roberts

Posted: January 22, 2008 9:48 PM

This a very insightful article. God is Father, Son and Spirit, a relational Being. It's a relationship so beautiful and joyous that the couldn't keep it to themselves. From the foundation of the world humans were predestined to be sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus. Through the incarnation of Jesus, all humanity shares intimately in the relationship of God the Trinity. Jesus is our life. We now live in His ascended humanity. Now Jesus, the God/Man, who dwells face to face with the Father in the fellow-ship of the Spirit, shares forever, the beauty and joy and blessedness of His shared life with the Father and the Spirit. God's sole purpose in creating was to adopt us. That eternal purpose has already been accomplished in Christ. Amen!

P.E. Winter

Posted: January 13, 2008 4:04 PM


Why should a protestant/Lutheran be concerned with either Scotus or Aquinas. They are the epitome of Scholasticism, the very group that Martin Luther had fought against to regain the Gospel? Pastor Yancey, do you wish to return to Rome?

Ephrem Hagos

Posted: January 13, 2008 9:37 AM

"Ongoing Incarnation" is a misnomer! A standing, exact reverse of incarnation at the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, as is actually the case, by which all will know God firsthand and personally is beyond comparison. There is much we still do not know because we accept as our authority for sound doctrine anybody else except the knowable Person and teaching of Jesus Christ. Just like Paul did! (1 Tim. 1:11)

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