Why does the incarnation matter

So why does the incarnation really matter so much? Jesus experienced the challenges of growing up Luke and of being tempted Matt. He knows what it means to be hungry Matt. In fact, since He lived in the First Century, in which there were no modern conveniences, His life was probably much harder than ours. Jesus is our Great High Priest Heb. So, when we pray, we have a uniquely qualified Great High Priest Who truly knows what human struggles are like. Therefore, we can have confidence to pray in His name.

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. As we approach the end of this Christmas season, I keep returning to the doctrine of the incarnation. As a human child, he grew. He first crawled then learned to walk, just like us. He fell and bruised his knees, just like us. He even lived through puberty, just like us. He grew in wisdom and knowledge, just like us. He was like us in every way save one — he knew no sin.

He entered into his creation that he might redeem and renew it. This is the Doctrine of the Incarnation: God became man so that we might become one with him through his body. Because John was the only apostle who lived into his twilight years, he had a lifetime to reflect on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his first epistle, John expands on the incarnation to fight the heretical group called the Gnostics.

The Gnostics taught a false dualism between God and the world. Simply, they believed God is holy; creation is not. This corrupt physical realm has trapped us.

This belief had profound implications for the ways Gnostics worshiped. They worshiped God in heart and mind only — never through physical means — for the physical world is corrupt.

The Gnostic God is too holy to soil himself by entering his creation. First, the incarnation affirms that Jesus is a flesh and blood human.

He was not a phantom nor a ghost like the Gnostics taught. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh through his mother Mary. John says that what was from the beginning — God — he has he has heard, seen, and touched. Because Jesus is the Word of God made physical, our worship of Jesus must be physical. Our faith is a sensory faith, and our religion is a tangible religion. Because the Word of God entered into the physical realm of our existence: he took human nature upon himself.

It is the pole star of human destiny, the hinge of chronology, the meeting place of the waters of the past and the future. More than a festive way to spend our late Decembers, the doctrine of the Incarnation is perhaps the central truth in Christian doctrine. It is found in almost every Christian creed or statement of faith which, incidentally, should all be based upon Scripture.

We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles and teachings, His substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people and personal, visible return to earth. Those are very important phrases: "God's only begotten Son. These are a part of the doctrine we call The Incarnation: That Jesus, pre-existent and fully God, was conceived of the Virgin with a real, tangible, physical body.

Sometimes we have this false notion that Jesus kind of floated along and wasn't really a man. Incidentally, John the Apostle combated a group of people that believed Jesus was God but not fully man.

They emphasized the deity of Christ but disavowed His humanity. But that is what the doctrine of the Incarnation is all about. It is so important that we believe it and practically understand it. Jesus Christ was born of a woman. He was born to parents. He had uncles, aunts and cousins. He hungered. He thirsted. He got tired. He fell asleep. He yawned. He had internal organs and hands and feet and hair. His family was a part of a tribe of people in Israel. His family had traditions and beliefs.

They celebrated holidays. They celebrated birthdays and traditions and sat around and had conversations. They laughed and cried and talked together. The application of this is powerful: God wanted to identify with us! Our Christmas carols echo this. In the end, this is a mystery; you either believe it or you don't.

But here are five reasons why the Incarnation is important. It means that God is on our side. He is not a distant deity, judging us and hurling thunderbolts from heaven. He made himself weak and vulnerable. He is infinitely above us, but he came alongside us. It means that God understands us. At one level, this is true anyway; he's God. But Hebrews says, "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are — yet was without sin.