Why the Incarnation?

The month of December is the most wonderful time of the year! People everywhere are in festive spirits and make plans to spend time with their families. While many holidays are celebrated all over the world (including Festivus), there is none more popular than Christmas. It is the most recognized Christian holiday, and it is enjoyed and celebrated by many non-Christians as well. 

While people will identify Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, there are many other aspects of this holiday that are not thought about. For example, who is this Jesus and why is His birthday so important? Why does the whole world celebrate/remember His birthday? I am not sure if you have pondered these questions but they are definitely worth investigating. 

Christians believe, as the Bible teaches, that Jesus was born miraculously through a virgin. He was called Emmanuel, which means “God with us”. He was/is God (see here), who took on human nature and was born on the earth. But why? What was the reason for Him to become a man? There are two ways this question can be answered – objectively and subjectively.

The Objective need for the Incarnation 

When we approach it from an objective view, we take into consideration the facts of the argument. What was the factual need for the Son of God to be born as a human being? Or what did humans lack that God had to take on human form to accomplish? A very simple, yet profound, answer to this question is that humans lacked fellowship or friendship with God. 

When God made man and woman, he made them in His image. He gave them the ability to be aware of themselves and to be aware of their surroundings. Because of this, they were able to enjoy God and also each other. There were no barriers between God and humans. Nothing prevented humans from living in the manner God had intended and to have perfect fellowship with Him. However, this did not last forever. Humans disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which God had prohibited. And because of man’s disobedience, there was a cosmic shift in creation. 

Humans were now afraid of God and did not want to be in His presence (Gen 3:10). God’s most wonderful creation rebelled against Him and avoided Him. God was still merciful and did not destroy them. However, He knew that His word was violated and that humans lacked the ability to make amends or restore the fellowship. Humanity was now stained with sin, and death made its way into the human race. Every human born was now born with the stain of sin; they sinned more and violated God’s commands easily, and consequently, suffered death. Only God could make a way for humans to enjoy the fellowship that they enjoyed with Him before sin came into the world. This could be done only by destroying sin and its effects, namely death, and that is the exact reason God became a human, in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus restored fellowship with God

Even before His birth, the angel told Joseph in a dream that Jesus would save His people from their sins (Matt 1:21). When Jesus first appeared to the public, John the Baptist said that He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus forgave people their sins during His earthly ministry (Mark 2:5), and said that He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). 

Moreover, He never succumbed to the power of sin. When He was tempted, He did not give in; rather He was victorious over every temptation (Matt 4:1-11). He was tempted in every way that humans are tempted, yet He did not sin (Heb 4:15). He was the Only one whom sin could not overcome and could not conquer. 

But the ultimate freedom from sin was obtained when Jesus took our sins upon Himself and died on the cross. God condemned sin in Jesus’ flesh, and through His death, defeated sin. And through His resurrection, He defeated the power of sin, namely, death. Jesus inaugurated a new era in which humans could have fellowship with God again without any hindrance. What was lost in the garden of Eden through the disobedience of one man – Adam – was gained, and more, through the obedience of one man, Jesus. This was the objective reason for the Incarnation – to restore the fellowship between God and man. 

The Subjective need for the Incarnation

From a subjective standpoint, we are not considered with facts but with feelings and personal perspectives. And in this case, we have to wonder why God felt the need to become human. And this question has only one answer – Love. 

God’s love for humans did not cease when they disobeyed Him. He continued to love them and was also patient with them, enduring the sins they committed against Him. In His love, He established the sanctuary and the temple in the Old Testament. Through the sacrifices offered for sin, God made a way to live with His people. He never abandoned them but loved them (us) with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3). Everything in the  OT was a preparation for the final solution. And His ultimate display of love was seen in the person of Jesus Christ. 

We read in John 3:16, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus came to this world because of the Father’s love for us. God, by nature, is love and Jesus is the manifestation of God’s love for us (1 John 4:8-9). In Jesus, we can see the true extent of God’s love in that God did not even spare His own Son for us (Rom 8:32). We were God’s enemies because of our rebellion, but God loved us. He demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). And Jesus gave Himself on the cross because of the love He had for us (Gal 2:20). Jesus took on the form of a slave and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:7-8) in order that God and humans may be reconciled. God’s love for us is so infinite that nothing in all of creation can separate us from Him (Rom 8:38-39). 

So much more can be said about God’s love for us. Infinite volumes have been written explaining the depths of God’s love but they, together, fail to scratch even the surface of it. We can never comprehend why God loves us but we can be sure that He does. And this love He has for us compelled Him to become human and be born of a virgin. This is the birth we celebrate!

A New Christmas!

Maybe you have celebrated many Christmases and have never wondered why Jesus was born. Or maybe Christmas in the past did not focus on Jesus and His love for us. It might be that Christmas has been about spending time with the family and exchanging gifts. But this year, Christmas could be different when we realize that Jesus was born in this world so that we could have perfect fellowship with God. 

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:19) and now extends this reconciliation to all who believe in Jesus and turn from their sin. Jesus came so that we might have life in all its abundance (John 10:10). 

Let’s turn to Jesus, the birthday boy, and call on Him for this abundant life and fellowship with God.

Merry Christmas!