Why god was incarnated

OSO version 0. University Press Scholarship Online. Sign in. Not registered? Sign up. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content. The Resurrection of God Incarnate. Find in Worldcat. Go to page:. The Bible gives a number of reasons for why Jesus had to come, why that mysterious mix of divinity and flesh was necessary.

Here are five of the reasons mentioned in the Bible:. To become more like us. Jesus learned things about the human experience by becoming human and by his suffering. To show us how to become more like him. Even as Jesus experienced human life and learned to sympathize with us, he also provided an example of how to live the perfect life. Paul talks in 1 Corinthians about aspiring to be more like Jesus.

To defeat sin and death. This separation meant that we could not be with God, who loves us and wanted to be reunited with us. To show us his love. The fact that God the Son came and paid the penalty for our sins, buying us with his own blood Acts , shows how far God is willing to go to get us back.

To offer us salvation. Jesus said that we achieve eternal life by believing in him John When he defeated sin and death on the cross , Jesus became the high priest who intercedes on our behalf, and if we believe he was God and raised from the dead, we are saved Romans So, Jesus not only rescued us from something, he opened the door for us to believe in something.

You could argue that one of the things Western Christians most misunderstand about Jesus is his human side, especially given the point mentioned earlier about what Jesus learned by becoming human and suffering. However, the cross is obviously the center of the Gospels. For that reason, here are two major things we need to understand about the cross:. I see a cross on the steeple! The navigator knew the church meant that chances were good the inhabitants no longer were cannibals and would be governed by biblical principles.

This world is governed by the powers of darkness Jn. The incarnation challenged Satan in his own arena:. Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, And deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage Heb.

To be regenerated means a whole new life, one that reflects the image of God and godliness. For two years, Wallace gathered information from the leading libraries of Europe and America. He could no longer deny that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. So Wallace abandoned his project and became a Christian. Later he wrote one of the finest novels ever written concerning the time of Christ, Ben Hur.

Only the incarnation can make possible such a change and enable sinful people to live God-filled, God-centered lives. The incarnation proves that God does not hide Himself, hoping people will find Him. The Bible says God created man in His image and likeness Gen. People, by nature, are spiritual beings.

The Assyrian and Babylonian gods were barbaric and brutal. In contrast, the many Greek gods, such as Zeus and Jupiter, were whimsical, often portrayed as constantly quarreling with one another. How sad to think of the countless offerings of one kind or another that were made to appease those neurotic, false deities of the ancient world. Even today, the personal God of Scripture is still unknown in many societies.

Failure to appreciate the significance of the incarnation has caused many people to customize their ideas about Jesus. The incarnation was to bring light to those who abide in the darkness of their own notions about God Jn. Yet many people will continue to refuse to worship Him.

The humanity of Jesus the Christ does not mean that He was less than fully God. He was not part man, part God. He was not God disguised as a man. The incarnation does not mean that His Godhood mixed with His manhood to make Him a strange type of third being. The fundamental position of faith is that Jesus the Messiah was wholly God and wholly man and that He came to redeem and regenerate sinners and to reveal the true God. If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.