Summary: Written and Published April, 2020: This article is a simple and straight forward explanation of four biblical reasons why God had to come into this world He created and take on human flesh, becoming a man. I hope the reader can appreciate the meticulous efforts we make in every article to present the evidence from Scripture proving the scope of what we are teaching. This article has some similarities to Article #30, but eventually gets into other areas.

 

One of the fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity is the revelation of God as to who and what He is in relationship with man. For the Jews in the Old Testament, He was known to them as the Lord God Almighty (Jehovah Elohim Shaddai – Ex. 6:1-8). When God turns back to acknowledge Israel’s calling in the future tribulation, a period of time after the church has been removed from the earth, He will be seen and known again in His relationship with the Jews (Rev. 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 21:22). But when Christianity replaced Judaism as God’s sanctioned religion and the Christian dispensation commenced, God was revealed as the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son came to reveal God as “Father” in the newly formed Christian relationship. When Jesus went back to His Father, He asks the Father and He gives the believer the Holy Spirit, the eternal seal of this relationship (John 14:16). The Christian commission is to go to all nations, baptizing converts in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

One of the distinct features of Christianity is the necessary confession that Jesus Christ is Son of the living God (Matt. 16:15-18). This profession is the “rock” on which God builds His church. To get to this point, God must bring about in one’s conscience the conviction of other truths. The Son is the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God the Son in eternity past – before the beginning of creation (John 1:1-3). Then the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). That is, the Son of God took on human flesh and became a man, being born of a virgin in Bethlehem. Why was this necessary, God the Son becoming a man?

John’s first chapter also gives us the revelation we just mentioned above – part of the Son’s mission was to reveal God as Father in the newly formed Christian relationship (John 1:18). I have adequately taught this important Christian truth in books and other articles on the website, so we will limit it here. But the revelation of this relationship was dependent on the Son becoming a man and His obedience as a man before God to accomplish the work of redemption. In association with this work, there are at least four good reasons from Scripture why Jesus Christ had to come from heaven over two thousand years ago.

 

  1. Because of what God required

  2. What was necessary as to Satan

  3. To bear away our sins

  4. In order to sympathize with us

 

In considering the first reason, we come to realize that the glory and majesty of God required it. If the Son was to take up mankind’s cause, then God had to treat Him accordingly. If God had completely cut off mankind because of Adam’s disobedience, it would have been a righteous act, but there would have been no love in it; if He would have winked at man’s sin and passed it by, it might be considered love, but He would no longer be holy, righteous, and just. By the cross, God’s majesty and glory were made good. This was impossible anywhere else, or by any other means. There Christ perfectly glorifies God as to His majesty, as for His holiness and righteousness against sin, and as concerning His love and truth. All that God is, in Himself, was perfectly glorified by this Man’s obedience (Phil. 2:5-8). The will of God was for the Son to come into the world and be condemned to death on the cross (Rom. 8:3). To appease and glorify God’s holiness and righteousness concerning mankind’s sin, Jesus, as a man, would become a perfect sinless sacrifice (Heb. 10:1-12). This so glorified God.

 

John 13:31-32 (NKJV)

31 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.

 

Therefore, this Man who did this work is today found in glory. God glorified Jesus in Himself and did so immediately. He has been exalted to God’s right hand and is sitting there today. There is a Man exalted in the glory of God. Where all others from Adam on have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), Jesus did not. Where He is, at the right hand of God, displays the righteousness of God concerning man’s sin (John 16:10), as well as being the only adequate measure of the value of His work. On the cross this Man, who knew no sin, was made by God to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). All Christians are found to be in this Man now sitting at God’s right hand, the righteousness of God in Him.

 

Hebrews 2:10-11 (NKJV)

10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

 

The means was by making Jesus a perfect sacrifice through the things He suffered, hanging on the cross. The outcome or results were bringing many sons to glory whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. This Man who did the work is the one who sanctifies; those He sanctifies are Christians; both are made one in union together.

In considering the second point, we have Satan in view.

 

Hebrews 2:14 (NKJV)

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

 

It was through death that Satan exercised all his power. This verse teaches us that by becoming a man and willingly submitting to death, Jesus destroyed Satan’s power. When He was raised from the dead all Satan’s power was annulled. There is title to this now, but not yet the full exercise of this truth. Although saved and possessing eternal life, the believer still walks in this world in a mortal body. And many Christians over the last two thousand years have departed their bodies to go on and be with the Lord (Phil. 1:23). What we do have currently as Christians is the release from the fear and bondage of death (Heb. 2:15). The believer’s death should be a joyful event. But it is in the rapture of the church where the believer will realize the fullness of victory over death – our bodies will be glorified to be like the Lord’s resurrected body. We will be taken to our Father’s house in heaven to live in the presence of God’s glory forever. The following two verses are directed specifically to Christians:

 

John 11:25-26 (NKJV)

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NKJV)

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

 

Some time ago the Spirit of God directed me to the Lord’s statement to Martha by the tomb of her brother Lazarus in John eleven. Although it lacks the details that Paul’s statement contains to the Thessalonians, remarkably the two are very similar. The conclusion I was brought to is that both speak of the same event – the rapture of the church. For the Christian, this is when we gain the full victory over death. However, for those on the earth during the future tribulation and millennium, death is still in play. The tribulation period speaks for itself – it will be the most horrific time the world has ever seen (Dan. 12:1, Matt. 24:21-22). Death will play a large role in the events of that time, both of the good and the bad. But Satan will be bound in a bottomless pit at the beginning of the millennium (Rev. 20:1-3). The only death during the thousand years will be the judgment of God on the rebellious. At the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium, all the dead will be raised, judged, and cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-15). You do not want to be found before the white throne as part of this judgment. Scripture teaches that Jesus must reign on the earth till He has put all enemies under His feet, putting an end to all rule and all authority and power (1 Cor. 15:24-25). This will be the thousand years. “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:26). This will be at the great white throne judgment when all the dead are raised and cast into the lake of fire, the eternal place of torment for the wicked and unbelieving. Those whom God had saved on the earth during the millennium will then have mortality removed from their bodies.

In a general sense there are two resurrections: one to life and the other to condemnation (John 5:28-29). Do not make the mistake in thinking these will happen at the same time. The resurrection to condemnation is at the great white throne event (Rev. 20:11-15), which precedes the eternal state (Rev. 21:1-6). The resurrection to life has two parts: first, the rapture, which will include all the Old Testament saints and all members of the New Testament church, the body and bride of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-14); second, a separate resurrection to life of all the tribulation saints who were martyred during that period (Rev. 20:4-6). The lives of God’s chosen and sealed Jewish remnant for the tribulation (Rev 7:1-8), I believe, are generally saved and preserved by God for the length of this time, although they endure unspeakable hardship (Matt. 24:15-22). This is the seed from which God will build the nation of Israel, prospering, increasing, and blessing them during the millennial time. Israel will become the greatest nation on the face of the earth, inheriting the full extent of the Promised land.

The next reason Jesus had to become a man was to bear our sins away on the cross. As Peter says (1 Peter 2:24), “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree…” God couldn’t die, but a man could. Jesus, in obedience to God, takes our sins with Him under death and into the tomb. When He was raised, He no longer had our sins. Exalted to the right hand of God, He is there without the sins He bore on the cross. Jesus is the display of the righteousness of God, that is, this Man glorified and exalted and given this place. And all Christians are in Him as He is sitting there. All the sins of the believer are gone forever. God can never again think about imputing any sin to a true believer – He has placed us “in Christ.” And with our sins forever gone, we have no guilt; we have a perfect conscience (Heb. 9:9-14, 10:1-12). This means we should constantly be at peace with God (Rom. 5:1). His sacrifice was once and forever. It is in perpetuity – forever ongoing and constantly applicable. This is the efficacy and value of His sacrifice and blood before the eye of God on our behalf (Heb. 9:22-24).

We can see that, for the believer, the first three reasons are already accomplished. The fourth reason involves the Lord’s ongoing present-day ministry for Christians, as we walk as pilgrims and strangers in this world, which is not our home. He is our merciful and faithful High Priest in heaven at the right hand of God, ever living to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:24-26). The following passage from Hebrews emphasizes these points:

 

Hebrews 2:16-18 (NKJV)

16 For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. 17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

 

God keeps the elect angels by His sovereign power. This is not redemption; God does not redeem angels. But God does give aid to man, that is, He has provided redemption and reconciliation through the death and blood of Jesus Christ. This is what verse sixteen above is teaching. Therefore, Jesus had to leave heaven in order to take on human flesh and become a Man. In all things He had to be made like His brethren (human). Why? Verse seventeen gives us two reasons: as a man He could be the sacrifice which would be the propitiation for our sins (the 3rd reason at the start of this article) and it would enable Him to be a merciful and faithful High Priest for us now (the 4th reason).

The aid God gives Christians is not just eternal salvation and redemption. He also provides the help we need for our walk in this world. And let us not forget our struggle against the flesh or the wiles of the devil. Jesus became a man so that He could learn and experience the frailties of human existence (everything except sin). He has gone through every trial, everything that could hinder or oppose Him. In doing so, it enabled Him to become a merciful and faithful High Priest, who can and does sympathize with our weaknesses. Going directly to God’s throne of grace, Christians obtain mercy and receive grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:14-16). The time of need is now, while we’re in these mortal bodies and walking as strangers in this world.