Some of the most meaningful conversations happen in the most unexpected places. Recently, I met Dr. Wade Mumm on a flight from Denver to Springfield, Missouri. We enjoyed the most delightful, deep theological conversation about our Lord. During the conversation, he posed an idea about Jesus that truly caused me to more appreciate more fully the weight of the choice Jesus made to become incarnate. In fact, it sent me into a deep study of the Bible.
Consider this question:
When Jesus chose to become incarnate, was it forever? In other words, is the risen, ascended Christ seated at the right hand of the Father right now permanently—fully God and fully man for eternity?
As I began studying God’s Word, searching for guidance to answer these questions, what He revealed deepened my sense of wonder not only at who Jesus is, but also at what He willingly chose to do for you and me. It is so profoundly humbling that I am very excited to share it! So let’s start with the beginning.
In the Beginning. Before a single atom existed in this physical universe, there was God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—three persons in perfect, eternal fellowship. Each one was fully and wholly Spirit. Jesus explained to the woman at the well: “God is SPIRIT, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24) God the Father is a being with no body to be seen or perceived with physical senses. He is everywhere and yet, in the physical sense, nowhere to be perceived. He, in all His glory, is boundless and uncontained. (For a fuller discussion on the nature and attributes of God, read or listen here.)
The Holy Spirit is the one whom the world “cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.” He dwells inside human bodies. He has no body of His own. Paul explained: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Jesus, the Son—before the Incarnation—existed in the beginning in the same unbounded, purely supernatural mode. The Bible explains:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him.” (John 1:1–3)
The pre-incarnate Son was co-creator, co-equal, and co-eternal—existing in what Paul calls “the form of God.” (Philippians 2:6) He used the same Greek word (morphē) that means “the real, essential nature of a thing.” He was not merely God-like. He WAS God, in the fullness of divine, spiritual being.
In the beginning, there were no physical limitations; there was only the infinite, radiant fullness of the triune God.
Charles Spurgeon, preaching in London more than a century ago, tried to help his congregation feel the weight of what was about to happen in Heaven the moment it was time for the Son to go to earth to rescue humanity:
“How do angels crowd around to see the Son of God take off his robes. He laid aside his crown; he said, ‘My Father, I am Lord over all, blessed for ever, but I will lay my crown aside, and be as mortal men are.’ He strips himself of his bright vest of glory… to dress himself in the simple garment of clay.”
My friend, it is so good for our souls to feel the weight of the great sacrifice of Jesus becoming incarnate! Why? Because it draws us into a greater mindset of this great state-of-the-heart called “thankfulness,” which waters the fruit of God’s Spirit within us.
Now, I want to be honest with you—I don’t think God’s Word gives us a direct answer about whether Jesus chose to permanently become incarnate. But what it does give us is astonishing enough to inspire unending thankfulness. Just see if this information does not deepen your wonder and multiply your thankfulness too!
Let’s begin with the staggering decision made from before the foundation of the world.
“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8
Did you catch that? The decision that Jesus made to become incarnate and pay the ultimate price was made “from the foundation of the world.” At a moment chosen in the eternal counsel of the Trinity, a decision was made unlike any ever made in all of existence. Jesus would not merely visit humanity. He would not take on flesh the way an actor dons a costume and later removes it. He would become flesh. And again, the question that has arrested my thinking ever since my conversation on the plane is: Was this decision permanent? The Bible explains the incarnation:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
Notice the Greek word translated “became.” It seems decisive and final. The Word did not appear as flesh. He did not simulate flesh. He became it — with all that implies: hunger, weariness, tears, and blood. He who had existed from eternity as purely Spirit now had fingernails, a heartbeat, and a mother. Tony Evans described it this way:
“All of God, all of divine nature deposited into humanity — the fullness of God dwelling in him in bodily form. Since God became a man, the incarnation in the person of Jesus Christ, you have someone relating to you who can really relate to you, because when God became a man he came into the realities of life, the realities of oppression, the reality of social conflict, the reality of poverty, the reality of family struggle, the reality of life and death.”
And Jesus did not take on a sanitized, comfortable version of human existence. He took on the whole of it — the grief, the weariness, and the pressure of a body that gets hungry and a heart that gets broken. His incarnation was not a controlled divine experiment. It was a total, unreserved entry into the human condition.
What did Jesus lay down?
Paul gives us the clearest window into this transaction in Philippians:
”…who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:6–8)
Notice the two uses of “form.” The form of God was exchanged for the form of a servant or slave. He did not pretend to be human while secretly remaining unaffected. He entered into the full reality of human existence — knowing the cross was at the end of the road and knowing, in full, what a human body could suffer.
The Greek word behind “made Himself of no reputation” is “kenōsis,” that is, “self-emptying.” He did not empty Himself of His divinity. As we have explored in the study on the substitute, He had to remain fully God in order to be qualified to pay the ultimate price for our sin. But what He did was voluntarily set aside the independent exercise of divine prerogatives and wrap Himself in the raw limitations of human existence. He who was omnipresent could now only be in one place. He who was omniscient “grew in wisdom.” (Luke 2:52) He who upheld the universe by the word of His power had to learn to walk as a baby.
So is there proof that this union was permanent?
The Bible does not answer this question with a single definitive verse. But when you trace the biblical narrative—from Incarnation through Resurrection to Ascension—a compelling picture begins to form. Paul writes in 1 Timothy:
“God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16
Notice the arc of this verse. Jesus was manifested in flesh and received up in glory. Remarkably, there is no moment in between where Paul says He shed the flesh to re-enter glory as pure Spirit. He was received into glory along a continuous line of embodiment—the same body, transformed and glorified, but a body nonetheless. The resurrection accounts go out of their way to establish this physical continuity. When Jesus appeared to the gathered disciples, they were convinced they had seen a ghost. He would not let that misunderstanding stand for even a moment. He said:
“Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Luke 24:39
And then Jesus asked for food and ate a piece of broiled fish in their presence. This is not the behavior of a being who has returned to pure Spirit. This is the glorified God-man—eating food in a real body, with friends who could reach out and touch Him. Then there was Thomas. Jesus appeared and said:
“Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:27)
Thomas fell to his knees: “My Lord and my God.” That confession burst from a man who realized the wounds he was touching were the wounds of the eternal God—and that those wounds were still there. The Incarnation had not ended at the cross. It had not ended at the empty tomb.
And then there was the Ascension. Forty days after the resurrection, as the disciples watched, Jesus was taken up into a cloud and received into heaven. He did not dissolve. He did not dematerialize. He ascended—bodily, visibly, and physically. Luke records this twice, in his Gospel and again in Acts, as if he wants to make absolutely certain we don’t miss it. And the angels’ words that followed should permanently reorder our understanding of what heaven currently contains:
“This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11
The angels confirmed that the same transformed body the disciples recognized on earth was going right up into Heaven. Jesus did not go to heaven just as a Spirit reclaiming what He had laid aside for thirty-three years. He went as the God-Man—carrying the clear identity of humanity with Him. It seems the Bible implies that the body of Jesus is, right now, in heaven. He has a real, glorified, physical, locatable body and is interceding for us as a High Priest:
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:14–15
He sympathizes because He has been us. He was hungry. He was exhausted. He wept. He bled. He died. And that experience did not evaporate at the resurrection. It was glorified and carried with Him into the throne room of heaven, where He “always lives to make intercession” for us before the Father. Hebrews 7:25
Right now, as you read these words, the Son of God is interceding for you at the Father’s right hand—in a body that still bears the marks of what it cost to save you.
Another aspect of the incarnation that is mind-blowing is that Jesus became joined together with humanity even with the full knowledge that we were His enemies!
Just imagine for a moment two people who are fundamentally, irreconcilably opposed to each other. They are such bitter enemies that even being in the same room together is impossible. You would never see one of them voluntarily move into the other person’s house, adopt the other person’s last name, wear the other person’s clothes, and live the other person’s life, right? You would never join yourself to what you despise or what you consider beneath you or irredeemably broken, right? This should profoundly alter our view of God. We so often have an unhealthy fear that, at best, God tolerates us—or, that He is perpetually disappointed, distant, and holding us at arm’s length because of how far we have fallen. But I think we are challenged to look at the incarnation and decide if we can really still believe this false narrative. God would never become humanity if He despised us.
The union itself is proof of God’s amazing love!
Jesus wove His eternal divine nature together with human nature in a bond so complete and so enduring that it appears the two have never been separated. Jesus was fully God and fully man—in one person. Although we made ourselves His enemies, He entered into enemy territory to take us back. Jesus didn’t just build the bridge to reconcile fallen humanity to God the Father; He appears to live on it—interceding for us.
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” Romans 8:34
Oh, what a Savior! Oh, hallelujah!
Before we close, I want to give you a preview of the second part of this study for tomorrow, where we are going to follow this thread from the Second Coming, to the resurrection of believers, to the final battle at Armageddon, and to our status as joint-heirs with Christ! My friend, it seems the nail prints on the hands and feet of Jesus are the eternal signature of His love. Come back tomorrow. This journey gets even more remarkable.
Prayer:
Father, I am undone by this. The thought that Your Son — boundless, purely Spirit, and eternal—stepped into human flesh and perhaps never stepped back out of it makes His sacrifice more glorious than I have words for. I confess that I have often thought of the Incarnation as something Jesus did and then finished. I don’t understand all of this, Lord. I hold it with open hands. But what I do understand is that Jesus gave more than I knew and loves me more than I have yet fully grasped. Let that truth work its way so deep into my heart that thankfulness becomes the natural, steady rhythm of every part of my day. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
