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Christ came to earth as God to take upon Himself the flesh and blood of our human nature. That is a profound statement. The baby in the manger had the same human nature as you and I, only without sin.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same…. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. — HEBREWS 2:14, 16–17
Christ came to earth as God to take upon Himself the flesh and blood of our human nature. That is a profound statement. The baby in the manger had the same human nature as you and I, only without sin. Jesus was born perfect. As the perfect man, our Lord Jesus represents the great hope for imperfect people. Sometimes little babies inspire the hope of a fresh start, and how much more this little baby, even when He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
In Christ’s incarnation, God teaches us that we cannot solve our problems on our own. We cannot attain perfection and peace by our own strength. But in Christ, God has done it for us. In the words of church father Irenaeus of Lyon, “When He became incarnate, and was made man, He commenced afresh the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation; so that what we had lost in Adam— namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God—that we might recover in Christ Jesus.”1 Christ came to be like us so that His death would accomplish healing for us. Apart from a true incarnation, there is no true atonement.
Because He is like us, Christ also sympathizes with all the pains and miseries that come from living in a sin-afflicted world. The body that God prepared for the Son “groaneth and travaileth in pain” as our bodies do (Rom. 8:22). When His bodily strength was spent, He slept (Mark 4:38). When His heart broke with grief, He wept (John 11:35).
Because He is like us, we draw encouragement from Christ’s steadfastness in the face of temptation. Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” The comfort in Christ’s temptation is that He experienced the same temptations that we face, but He did not give in. As Christians, we sometimes struggle with painful doubts. We look at our sins, grieve over them, and wonder how we could possibly be saved. How easily we give in to temptation! At even the faintest scent of carnal indulgence, our mouths begin to water. We are discouraged by our failures. At such times we must take refuge in the temptations of Christ, because He passed the test! Our salvation does not depend on our performance but on Christ’s. In His human obedience, we have a grand demonstration that Christ will never fail us. Christ did not come to earth simply to be our moral teacher. If that were His only mission, He could have come as He did in former times, as the Angel of the LORD, without our flesh and blood to encumber Him. Instead, He had to become like us so that He could raise us up to be like Him.
By faith, when we think of Christ, we should see ourselves in Him. As we glimpse at the manger of His birth we can say, “This is my brother, my flesh and blood.” As He grows and matures and continues to do the will of God, we can say, “This is my brother, my flesh and blood.” As He goes to the cross and bleeds and dies, we can say, “This is my brother, my flesh and blood.” When we see Christ seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, we can say, “This is my brother, my flesh and blood.” And when we see Christ return on clouds of glory to take us home to be with Him we will say, “This is my brother, my flesh and blood.” Because of the incarnation, believers can say of Christ what Adam said of Eve—“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”—and what the apostle Paul says to the Ephesians: “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (5:30).
The writers of the Second Helvetic Confession (11.4) explain, “The flesh of Christ, therefore, was neither flesh in show only, nor yet flesh brought from heaven.” Rather, the flesh of Christ is our flesh. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11).
Excerpt from
Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation
By Joel R. Beeke and William Boekestein
