The Incarnation: The Paradox at the Center of Our Christian Faith

The great 20th Century Christian apologist, G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Life is full of paradoxes. It is full of those apparent contradictions, those incongruous juxtapositions, that point to deeper truths…This is nothing less than the truth that Christ teaches.” The Apostle, Paul, would have agreed with that statement as he wrote about his own experience of this paradox, this reality that lies at the center of our faith.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, “Three times I appealed to the Lord about this [thorn in my flesh], that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’” And then Paul continues with something that seems very strange to modern ears, especially to the secularists of our day: “So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell within me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Whatever weakness, temptation, or sin it was that tormented Paul, like a ‘thorn in his flesh’, it brought him to the realization of a remarkable paradox, that it was his weakness that brought God’s grace to him and that became the means through which God fostered his growth toward sanctity. He came to recognize that somehow that weakness was necessary for his salvation. The same is true for us. Our weaknesses, and our suffering, can be turned into our strengths, by God’s generous grace, that is if, like Paul, we humbly recognize our own personal need for it.

“For power is made perfect in weakness.” This statement seems completely contradictory to the ‘wisdom’ of our day. Our current culture is obsessed with power and self-reference. It teaches us to reverence our ‘perfections’, our talents and to glory in our victories. Paul’s words, though, point to a deeper mystery, or as Chesterton put it, a deeper ‘truth’; a truth that is wrapped in the mystery of the Incarnation and, finally, the cross. In Jesus, God, the infinite One, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, willingly became weak, letting go of any “equality with God, rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross”, for our sake (Phil. 2:6-7).

The Incarnation is the paradox at the very center of our faith. God’s power and glory reached its unimaginable zenith through what appears to the ‘wisdom of the world’ as weakness. God, in all of his infinite glory and power, willingly chose to become weak, taking on our humanity, becoming obedient even to death on the cross, out of an incomprehensible love for us in our weakness. As Paul learned, it is our humble recognition of our own particular weaknesses, and giving them over to God, that makes it possible for God’s saving grace to turn our weaknesses into the means for our own salvation. As Paul realized, “God’s grace is sufficient for me.” It is through grace that “power is made perfect in our weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9-10). Always look to the Cross to find and see the reason for your faith.