The God Who Became Human: A Biblical Theology of the Incarnation (Book Review)

Graham Cole. The God Who Became Human: A Biblical Theology of the Incarnation. New Studies in Biblical Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2013.

Today skepticism about religious claims and objective truth has become the norm. This is especially true with regard to the supernatural claims of the Bible. Liberal and postmodern theology has so influenced our country’s perception of Christianity that many do not know the religious significance of Easter and Christmas. This is a reality that Christians must face if they give an answer for the hope they have in Christ. It is also an obstacle that must be overcome for many who are considering the claims of the gospel. And no place is better to confront an increasingly secular culture than the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Fortunately, Graham Cole’s recent book does just that. In The God Who Became Human: A Biblical Theology of Incarnation, Cole, the Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School (Birmingham, Alabama), provides an articulate and biblical explanation of the Incarnation. Divided into six chapters, Cole follows the trajectory of the biblical narrative to show how the Bible itself develops the doctrine of Christ’s Incarnation. As has come to be expected with Cole, his writing is rich in exegesis and far-reaching in impact, as he engages church history, systematic theology, and issues in contemporary culture.

Summary

The first chapter sets the pace by defining terms and illuminating the theme of Incarnation as it relates to the doctrines of God and man. In the second chapter Cole explains how the patriarchs and other Jewish leaders replicate some of the Incarnational themes found in the creation account. The third chapter is about redemptive history as a whole. It considers especially the historic period of Israel’s history. In this chapter he also touches on typology, which is a crucial component to his argument.

The fourth chapter is about the realization and culmination of the Incarnation found in the New Testament. The fifth chapter is more philosophical, considering Anselm’s question: Cur Deus Homo? Answering from the biblical text, Cole explains how and why God became man, turning at the end of the chapter to consider Thomas Aquinas’s contribution to the doctrine. The sixth and final chapter shows the ramifications of the Incarnation on our theological systems.

Evaluation

Focusing on the strengths of The God Who Became Human, chapter one introduces the reader to three terms that relate to the way Scripture uses human imagery to speak of God. Instead of relying on the general language of anthropomorphism, Cole presses for more precision.  By using a three-fold taxonomy (e.g., anthropomorphic, anthropopathic, anthropopraxic), he brings light to the fact that God is described with various kinds of language in Scripture. The disadvantage to this classification is that sometimes language overlaps. God is said to have eyes that run all over the earth in 2 Chronicles 16:9. Likewise, in speaking of his patience, Exodus 34:7 says that God is slow to anger (anthropopathic, right?), but literally it reads “long-nosed” (so anthropomorphic). In any case, the reader is greatly helped by Cole’s attention to language.

Moving to chapters three and four, Cole explains how the Incarnation is one component of Jesus’s Messianic identity. In this section, he explains that Jesus fulfilled the typological realities of the Old Testament Christ. In chapter four, he outlines the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, as well as the Epistle to the Hebrews, and he makes this helpful observation: “In Hebrews the implied incarnational theology of Matthew and Mark gives way to an explicit one” (104). He calls the reader to remember the significance of Matthew’s genealogy and Mark’s New Exodus theme, which both allude to the Incarnation.

In all of these New Testament books, he shows how the New Testament authors appropriate Old Testament offices and types to explain the two natures of Christ’s Incarnation. That said, Cole is reticent to say the Old Testament prophets expected an Incarnation in the way it came to be revealed in the New Testament (91–95). In fact, against many popular interpretations (e.g., B. B. Warfield, Ray Ortlund, Jr.), Cole spends time in passages like Micah 5:2 showing why the verse does not conclusively prove Christ’s deity in the eyes of the Old Testament prophets. All in all, when the whole of Scripture is considered, the faithful reader of the Bible is left with no option but to affirm with Thomas—“My Lord and my God!”

The culmination of his work reaches its conclusion in chapter six where he systematizes a theology of the Incarnation. Relating biblical theology to historical theology, Cole states, “This study thus far has yielded conclusions that are classically patristic” (143). The reason this chapter is crucial to the book is because it shows how the Incarnation has been approached in recent history. After laying out a biblical theology of the Incarnation, Cole shows the implications of how one thinks concerning the doctrine in the minds of individuals such as Karl Barth, Martin Luther, Mark Noll, and Jürgen Moltmann. This enables the reader to take a lot of the biblical data and see where these scholars ideas might lead if they do not have a precise understanding of the incarnation. Accordingly, this interaction with modern scholarship helps clarify what the rest of the book demonstrates, and it challenges the reader to do the hard work of systematic theology.

Conclusion

In the end, while the book is not apologetic in nature, it can be utilized to bolster the faith of Christians and answer objections to skeptics. Cole’s volume strengthens the already-reputable New Studies in Biblical Theology series, edited by D. A. Carson. It provides pastors with a great biblical resource on the Incarnation. And it affords students of the Bible an excellent model for founding a dogmatic position in biblical theology, all the while appropriating from historical theology, so that the evangelical witness can engage contemporary revisions of Christ’s person with an orthodox Christology. Cole’s work wonderfully equips the church to know Christ and more than that, to worship him as the Incarnate Lord.

Andrew Keenan, Content Assistant at The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals