Incarnation and Recreation

This paper seeks to examine the way in which T. F. Torrance argues for Jesus’ assumption of a fallen human nature in the Incarnation as essential to the recreation and personalization of our humanity. In the fall, our human nature was corrupted in such a way that we are alienated and estranged from God and are subject in every way to the effects of this fallen life. However, in the Incarnation Jesus assumed not just some abstract form of a human nature but rather the very human nature that needed healing, that is, a fallen human nature. In the act of joining this fallen nature to himself and carrying that with him throughout his entire incarnate life, Jesus heals that fallen nature and offers us a new way to be human. Thus, the assumption of the fallen nature is essential for its healing and for creating this new way to be human.