1. To provide mankind an everlasting revelation of the invisible God in visible form.
John 1:14, 18—“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
John 14:9—“He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Colossians 1:15—“He is the image of the invisible God.”
Other reasons are:
2. To die for sinners and to save from sin.
We have already seen that the sin which binds man consigns him to death. He may suffer eternal death himself, or he may be the beneficiary of a substitutionary death of a perfect person. Since God, as pure spirit, could not die for sin, man’s case was grave, in fact, hopeless. Only by God’s becoming a man could man hope to live again.
Heb 2:14, 17—“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,… He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
This does not imply that God was forced by external factors to become a man—God cannot be “required” by us to do anything. However, once he, by his own will chose to redeem us, there was no other option. He had to become a man. This is known as hypothetical or consequent necessity.
Hebrews 10:4, 5, 8–10—“It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…. Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me…. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
1 John 3:5—“He appeared in order to take away sins.”
3. To give men his own eternal life.
Below we will discuss the active and passive obedience of Christ. There we will find that the death of Christ in itself is not technically enough for our salvation. His death merely erases our guilt and our obligation to die. But this is not enough. God does not merely require us to be released from the penalty of the Law; he also demands us to keep it perfectly. This can only be accomplished by imputing Christ’s life of perfect obedience to mankind to give us positive merit.
In many states, even after a convicted felon had paid his debt to society in prison, he is not qualified to serve in public office, carry a gun, or even vote. Why not? He has paid the penalty, but some privileges are extended only to those who have kept the law of the land. Likewise, heaven is not merely for those whose debt has been paid, but for those who have lived a perfectly obedient life.
John 10:10, 11—“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
John 6:51—“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
4. To know human life from the inside by personal experience.
- Only a human could be a perfect high priest.
Hebrews 2:17–18—“Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
This includes not only propitiation (negative), above, but also positive representation to God on our behalf.
b. Only a human could be a perfect high priest.
John 5:22, 27: The Father gave Jesus authority to judge “because he is the Son of Man.” The Greek has no article before Son, stressing the quality of the humanity of Jesus. Because of his experience as a sinless human being, Jesus is the best possible judge of sinners. It is not because he is any wiser than the other persons of the Trinity.
5. To provide an ideal and perfect example to believers
a. An example of what believers should be now
1 John 2:6—“The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
1 Peter 2:21—“Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”
b. An example of what believers will be hereafter
1 John 3:2—“We know that when He appears, we will be like Him.”
Stand Firm! 