CHAPTER IV 



SOME IMPLICATIONS OF THE INCARNATION 



WE may now turn away from our discussion of the 

 triune nature of God and man, to consider the revelation 

 of the Godhead under the conditions in which we our- 

 selves live and move, for this is, in truth, the fullest 

 revelation of manhood itself. 



An increasing number of the Christians of to-day are 

 ready to accept the Incarnation of the Godhead as 

 Jesus Christ the Saviour in all its fullness. Not so many 

 years ago the man who professed a belief that the Man- 

 hood of Christ was true manhood, with all manhood's 

 limitations in the regions of knowledge and power, was 

 looked upon with suspicion. St Paul's and St John's 

 teaching of the kenosis, in its plain meaning, was hidden 

 in a cupboard; and, lest any inquisitive person should 

 by chance open the door, that doctrinal skeleton was 

 discreetly wrapped in an ambiguous robe of common- 

 places, so that its outlines should be veiled. The 

 Divinity of Christ was rightly insisted on, but in such a 

 way that often His Manhood became an epiphenomenon, 

 and hence ultimately unreal. At any rate it was isolated 

 from the true spiritual series. The divinity of common 

 manhood was forgotten ; the unsullied godhead that is 

 enshrined in even fallen humanity was unseen ; because 

 the spots that denied the wrapping robes were examined 

 through a lens that left the rest out of focus. Humanity 

 itself seemed a disgrace when no clear thought distin- 

 guished sin from limitation. The miracles of Christ were 

 evidences of Divinity, not of Humanity made perfect 

 in limitation. His prophecies and eschatological teach- 



