What is the Purpose of the Incarnation? 

 9.West had a post recently discussing Christmas Hymns.  In it he links over to Issues, etc., and a conversation around What Child is This.  Along the way, the question arises as to the point of the Incarnation.  As is typically the case with Issues, etc., everything has to be about the cross.  Jesus' death is what everything focuses on, and should focus on.  In this case, the resurrection is included, but so often the focus is on the crucifixion that I both wonder why the LCMS doesn't put Good Friday ahead of Easter Sunday as to relative importance, and also what they think the purpose of the resurrection was?  I'll leave that for another day.

In this case, the incarnation serves only as a means of getting the second person of the Trinity to die.  I'm not denying that this is a reason, perhaps even one of the most significant reasons, but to focus on it exclusively is to miss a key element of Christianity.  Christ assumes our nature in order to heal it.  Hence the significant focus in the Gospels on healing in Christ's ministry.  It is a flaw in Augustine, and more significantly in the Reformers, that they focused so much on St. Paul's letters to the Romans and Galatians (and, of course, their interpretation of such), that they missed the point of the Gospels.  It is significant that the Dispensationalist school of thought developed the notion that the Gospels were targeted toward the Jews, not the Gentiles, and it was [their interpretation of] Paul's teaching that is binding upon Christians.

To quote St. John Chrysostom:

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit, that He may save me. - Homily on Christmas Morning

The point of Christ's assuming human nature wasn't merely to die, but rather to transform that nature. Death was the avenue for conquering death ("Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death), but the incarnation was the avenue for transforming human nature.  To quote C.S. Lewis, "The Incarnation worked 'not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by the taking of the manhood into God.'... Humanity, still remaining itself, is not merely counted as, but veritably drawn into, Deity." - The Weight of Glory.

In a 2005 lecture presented at C.S. Lewis Summer institute in Oxford, College English teacher Chris Jensen had the following to say:

As Vladimir Lossky has observed, a treatise of St. Anselm of Canterbury called Cur Deus Homo (completed in Italy in 1098 AD) deeply colored popular Western notions f salvation by presenting the idea of redemption in isolation from the rest of Christ's life and work.  By so doing, the main focus of salvation became the cross and passion, where Christ is seen to have effected a change in the Father's attitude toward fallen men.  Oddly, this forensic model suggests that an angry God needs to be cured rather than the sinful or mortal human beings.  Salvation as deification, in contrast, accents human healing and transformation, looking to the Cross but additionally to the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

As Mr. Jensen furthers state, the implications are significant, making Christianity about the change of the man, not just the acceptance of an idea.  I find that Pastor Wilkens limited world fails to live up to the glorious message of the full Gospel.