The Incarnation
Referenced in: The Gospel Isn't a Song, It's a Verdict
The Christian claim that the second person of the Trinity; the eternal Son, the divine Logos; took on full human nature in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Not that God pretended to be human. Not that a human being was promoted to divinity. But that at a specific moment in history, the infinite and the finite were united in one person without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation (Chalcedonian Definition, 451 AD). Jesus is fully God and fully man; two natures, one person. This is the central paradox of Christianity and the only bridge between the upper and lower story: in the Incarnation, the God who is there enters the world of verifiable facts, and meaning touches matter. The resurrection is the vindication of the Incarnation; if Jesus rose, His claims about who He was are true.