The Purpose of The Incarnation

The Birth of Jesus is no small thing in the history of humankind.
This was God becoming man - the Incarnation.
The Bible only talks about one incarnation - Jesus Christ.

So why did God have to become Man?

1, To reveal who God really is what God is really like

After the Fall, sin separated man from God. Sin was a barrier that disconnected man from God (Isaiah 59:1,2)
Man could not know or understand God. Hence, Man developed his own ideas of who God is, what He is like. So much of this is a wrong and distorted picture of God.

But Jesus came to reveal to us who God really is and what God is really like:

Hebrews 1:1-3
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Colossians 1:15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Colossians 2:9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

Jesus is the image (exact representation) of the invisible God.

Through all that He said, did and the life He lived, Jesus revealed God to us.

If we want to know who God really is and what God is really like - all we have to do is to look at Jesus.

Jesus is the embodiment of the invisible God.

Jesus revealed that God is love.
Jesus revealed that God heals us, delivers us and works miracles in our lives.

2, To reveal what man was supposed to be like

God created Adam as His own son (Luke 3:38), in His own image, with His own life and nature. This gave Adam the ability to accurately represent God here on earth.

However, this was lost in the Fall.

After the Fall - man became sinful. Sin dominated man. Man became wicked, evil - and lost his capacity to represent God. In fact we didn't know what we were to be really like.

The Bible call Jesus the Second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47).

However this Second Man did not sin like the first man Adam.

He walked in perfect obedience to the Father.

He taught us how we should live.

He revealed to us what we ought to be like.

That's why for those of us in Christ, the Scriptures call us to walk as He walked.

1 John 2:6  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Jesus is our Standard.

The Lord Jesus come to make us New Creatures. He makes us new on the inside, restores us in the image and likeness of God and empowers us to now walk as He walked.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Ephesians 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

3, To be the Perfect Substitute

Sin has its consequences.

The Bibles tells us that sin disconnects us from God (Isaiah 59:1,2), blocks the blessings of God (Jeremiah 5:25), and sends us into an eternity in hell (Romans 6:23).
Sin also put us in a place of bondage and slavery to the devil.

Sin has to be paid for.
Blood had to be shed to make atonement for sin. (Leviticus 17:11)

No human person could intervene - because  every human born of Adam - was born in sin. (Romans 3:10,23  Romans 5;12). Everyone born of Adam, was born a slave to the devil.

But in the incarnation, a Man was born. He was part of the human race. Fully Man. Born of a Virgin. Yet he was not part of Adam's race. He was born by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was born without sin. He was not born subject to the devil.

This Man - and He alone had no sin. He was not subject to the devil.

This Man - and He alone could now become the Perfect Substitute for the human race. He and He alone, could shed His blood to make atonement for the sins of the entire human race.

And that is what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

1 John 2:2  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Isaiah 53:10  .. When You make His soul an offering for sin,

1 Timothy 2:5  For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:6  who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,

Romans 5:1,9,10
1  Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
9  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.