A Child of God - Part 3

We have talked about the catastrophic nature of the fall of man. How man is hopeless, godless and in a world controlled by the father of sin, Satan. The only way that man could be restored to the relationship he had with God before the fall, could only be accomplished through a mediator. Someone who has a legal standing with God and at the same time can sympathize, understand and represent man before God. The all-knowing, all-wise God, knew before creation what Adam would do and also had the plan to completely restore man to the same relationship that he had before Adam disobeyed his Father and Maker. (Ephesians 1:3-6) How would God do this? He would have to take the liability of man's treason upon Himself. The Apostle John tells us that God the Word became flesh. (John 1:1, 14) Deity put on humanity (flesh). 

The question of the humanity and deity of Jesus has been the battle ground of controversy from the time of the early church, has been mostly among philosophers, and theologians. Why? Because, Jesus is a puzzle to them. To the natural mind He is a mystery. (1 Corinthians 2:14) In the history of man, no man has ever had such a remarkable impact as He. He changed liars to truth-tellers, lazy men to workers, thieves to honest men, and so much more. Basically, He changes one's nature the moment they take Him as his Savior and crowns Him Lord.  So, to understand the deity and humanity of Jesus, to comprehend the incarnation we must ask ourselves, "Could the Son of God have been incarnate if His body had been conceived by natural means, (the union of a man and a woman)? Would it have been possible for God to have come into a child born of natural means and dwell in the child and be incarnate?" 

The latter part of this question could not be because scripture reveals to us through the Apostle Paul, "for al1 have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) and "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12) If Jesus had been born through the natural means of man and God had come into Him, He would have been nothing more than a sinful man with God dwelling in Him. He would not have qualified as the sinless Son of God. The only way that man could be redeemed would have to be by the incarnation. It would have to be one who would not be subject to death, nor subject to Satan. The fact is, during Jesus' earthly walk, He was not a subject of death, neither was He a subject of Satan. Death had no dominion over Him until the sins of the world had been laid upon Him on the Cross. (1 Peter 2:24) 

Jesus was not mortal nor immortal, but was a perfect human as Adam was before the Fall. If God could have changed the nature of a child after birth so that He could be incarnate in the child, He could as well have changed the nature of the whole human race in the same way. Although man would have benefited greatly by this, to do this would have been an injustice to God Himself and to Satan. The reason behind this is, the sin problem would not have been legally settled and the penalty of man's transgression would not have been legally paid. This would have opened the door for Satan to cry foul. Although Satan himself is corrupt, it would have given him the right to accuse God of bending justice in favor of man. So, man's redemption would need to be accomplished on complete legal grounds. The Redeemer would have to be a man. He must be one over whom Satan had no legal claims, no authority over and be sinless as Adam had and was before the fall. The only way that this could come about was in the way the angel Gabriel revealed it to the virgin Mary, "And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35) The incarnation was the only solution to the human problem.

The incarnation is the basic miracle of Christianity. It proves the preexistence of Christ and is the foundation and reason for all subsequent miraculous manifestations of divine power. The incarnation of deity with humanity would provide the very thing that man was in dire need of, the perfect Mediator. Although Jesus' time on earth served many purposes and fulfilled all the law and all that the prophets foretold of Him, it all culminated with His main mission, to die as a substitute for the sin of all humanity. His death was to pay the price for all the evil and wickedness of man. The just for the unjust. The righteous for the unrighteous. This was all Gods doing. (Isaiah 53) The sinless Son of God would freely lay His life down (John 10:17-18) to satisfy justice and pay in full the sin debt that no person on earth could ever pay. Jesus said, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) 

Although it was man who betrayed God, the Father's desire to have a family of son's and daughter's was so great, that His love moved Him to to make things right between Himself and man through the death of His only begotten Son. (John 3:16) To think of such love staggers the imagination. The Apostle John tells us, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God." (1 John 3:1) Take a moment and meditate on such an wonderful truth. The brilliant Creator of everything seen and unseen; the most holy, righteous, perfect, Almighty God took it upon Himself to restore mankind to His intended, legal and rightful position as His children. All one has to do is to confess Jesus as Lord with their mouth, believe in their heart and receive Him as Savior. This act of faith transforms the sinner instantly by-means-of new birth an gives them the right to become a child of God. (John 1:12) PTL