He said, "God's don't become humans."
Many times I have shared the story of how, in 1984, I listened to a missionary describe a conversation he had with a gentleman cab driver from a country that views Christianity with great skepticism. The missionary hoped to learn what it is about the Christian faith that the man found so difficult to accredit. He asked about belief in a supreme being. He asked about miracles. He asked about scripture, and more. Finally, the missionary asked outright, “What is it about Christianity that is so difficult for you to accept?” Without hesitation the man replied, “Gods do not become humans!”
God Incarnate
What we celebrate in just a little over a week is the very fact of what the cab driver could not endorse. The very term, “incarnate,” is a declaration of Jesus’ taking on our human bodily nature and form. He was God personified in human flesh. Both the fact and the implications of that truth are astounding!
Matthew, Luke, John, Paul, Isaiah, Zechariah, the psalmist—they all confirm the incarnation. It was prophesied in the Old Testament and recorded as fact in the New.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
– John 1:1, 14, ESV
From this series of verses, we learn that not only did God take on flesh and bone, and pitch his tent among humanity; we also learn that Jesus is the Creator, that by him all things were created, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made.
Don’t make the mistake many make by confusing “the Word” here with the written word we have in the Bible. This is an entirely different “Word.” The phrase is ὁ Λόγος (ho logos). Many of you are familiar with the Logos Bible software. This is where they get that name. I’m not suggesting that “Word” is an errant translation. It is not. It’s just that λόγος is so rich with meaning that it is difficult to express it succinctly in English.
Think of λόγος as collective reason, or a compilation that represents something much larger than the single term. If some task, perhaps a dangerous mission, is under consideration, you may respond to the one in authority, “Just give the word and we will make this happen.” We may speak of historical accounts of the church by saying, “We have the word of the early church fathers.” By this we mean huge collections of writings.
Lange and Schaff put it this way:
The Word absolute, the one whole, all-embracing, personal manifestation of life; hence without the qualification: the Logos of God. It certainly includes also the divine reason or consciousness; though in the Scriptural usage λόγος never denotes the reason itself, but only the matured expression of the reason, word, speech, as a whole, the personal spiritual essence of God made, in its whole fulness, objective to itself, as its own perfect expression and image.1
Jesus is God’s word to us, so much so that Jesus could tell Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”2 Jesus, in the flesh, is the entirety of God’s revelation to us. He is the Alpha and he is the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.3
Servant of Humanity
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
– Philippians 2:5-8, ESV
There are those who speculate that God took on flesh to fully identify with and understand the suffering of humanity. I can’t go there and retain a view of God’s omniscience. God understands suffering, likely even better than we do. I have come to the view (just my opinion) that God took on flesh partly so that we could be convinced that he understands the human condition.
A Larger Picture
Another purpose of Jesus coming in the flesh is to serve as our best and final mediator between God and humanity.
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
– 1 Timothy 2:5-6, ESV
Jesus Christ, the righteous is our advocate before the Father.4 When confronted with our own sin, it is Jesus, and only Jesus, who is qualified to plead our case
The Savior
This is the part of Christmas that is not heartwarming and lovely. Jesus came in the flesh to die in the flesh because there had to be a sacrifice for sin. For the effect to be permanent,5 the sacrifice had to be sinless and perfect.
The Messiah had to be both divine and human, God and man. He had to be a descendent of Eve. Speaking directly to the serpent, God said:
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.
– Genesis 3:15, ESV
It is Eve’s offspring that will bruise the serpent’s head, thus, the Messiah had to be human. Some refer to this prophecy as “the Main Event” of the Old Testament. In fulfillment of this prophecy, Jesus becomes the most significant man to ever tread on earthly soil. It is Jesus alone who, through his birth, death, and resurrection, brings life to every believer.
That, my friends, is a worthy reason to celebrate! The Creator became part of his creation to right the wrongs we brought to the relationship. This is good news; very good news, indeed.
1. John Peter Lange, J.P. and Schaff, P. (1868) A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: John (p. 54). Logos Bible Software: Bellingham, WA
2. John 14:9
3. Revelation 1:8
4. 1 John 2:1
5. Hebrews 7:27; 10:10
