Portraits of the Incarnation (Matthew)

The Apostle John's definition of "incarnation" is at once the simplest, most satisfying, and most profound: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." The biblical teaching of incarnation is a doctrine that lies at the very root and heart of our faith as Christians. The books that we know as the four Gospels were all written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God revealed in the flesh. They are not intended to be full biographies, but portraits, portraits of the incarnation, portraits of Jesus Christ. Like four witnesses standing at the four corners of an intersection, all describing the same traffic accident or event, each of the gospel writers brings a little different perspective to the same subject. We might title Matthew's portrait of Christ the Genealogical portrait, Mark's the Prophetical, Luke's the historical, and John's the theological. None is complete in itself, but taken together we gain a beautiful picture of the Lord of Glory...