The Gospel of Jesus Christ (11) The Incarnation of Jesus Christ

​“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14)
 
Review
We’ve been talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. When explaining the gospel in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul said, “He promised [the gospel] beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:2). Moreover, Jesus Himself said that all of the Scriptures are about Him.
 
So, for the last few months, we’ve explored how the gospel is revealed through signs, events, and figures in the Old Testament.
 
Gradual Revelation of Jesus Christ
First, we explored what’s called the ‘Protoevangelium,’ which means, ‘the first gospel.’ Right after Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the forbidden tree, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
 
Here, we find some important elements of the gospel such as the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God would have His Son be born of a virgin woman. Even though Satan would strike His heel by nailing Him on a cross, Jesus would eventually crush Satan’s head by being resurrected from the dead.
 
And just as God said, “When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Gl 4:4) to redeem us and give us adoption to sonship.
 
Second, we looked at animal sacrifice written about in Leviticus chapter 1. In the Old Testament, a lot of animals were killed and shed their blood because people’s sins were exchanged for their blamelessness when they laid their hands on them.
 
The animal sacrifice served as a shadow of Jesus’ sacrifice for the sin of the world since “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith” (Rom 3:25)
 
Third, the Passover lamb refers to Jesus Christ. When God sent the last plague, the death of the firstborn son, on Egypt, He gave the Israelites a way to avoid the plague, which was to kill a lamb without blemish and put its blood on the doorframes of their houses. When God saw the blood on the doorframes, death passed over them.
 
Likewise, Jesus came to the world as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and He was crucified on the day of preparation of the Passover when the Jews killed lambs to celebrate the festival. By doing so, Jesus set us free from slavery to sin and fear of death.
 
Fourth, the bronze snake lifted up in the wilderness also serves as an indication of what Jesus would do to save humanity. When the Israelites complained against God, He sent snakes to bite them, and those who were bitten by the snakes died. But God gave Moses a way for the Israelites to be healed. It was to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who looked at it lived.
 
The bronze snake represents Jesus. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that those who believe in Him may have eternal life in Him.
 
Lastly, we talked about high priests and what they did on the day of atonement. No one could enter the Most Holy Place where God’s direct presence was, but a high priest could enter just one day a year on the day of atonement for the forgiveness of all the Israelites’ sins. To make atonement, the high priest killed a goat and sprinkled its blood on the atonement cover in the Most Holy Place.
 
Likewise, Jesus Christ came to the world as our eternal high priest. But He didn’t enter the Most Holy Place with the blood of a goat but with His own blood, and thus obtained eternal redemption for us.
 
Now, all those who believe in Him and whose sins are washed away by Jesus’ blood can enter the Most Holy Place with Him beyond the curtain and have a close and direct relationship with God.
 
These are the important indications of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we’ve talked about thus far. And when we look closely at each of them, we find how gradually God revealed His plan of salvation in the Old Testament.
 
In animal sacrifice, one animal was killed for one person’s sin. But, one Passover lamb was slaughtered for one family. One snake was lifted up in the wilderness for whoever was bitten by snakes. And finally, one goat was sacrificed for one nation, Israel.
 
Through these indications, God continually expanded the value of one. And we know how far the value of just one sacrifice would be enlarged in the Scriptures because God sent His one and only Son as a sin offering for the whole world. John 3:16-17 says,
 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God sent his Son… to save the world through him.” (Jn 3:16-17)
 
Finally, when the time had come, God sent His one and only Son to save the whole world, not just one person, a family, or a nation. Jesus died on the cross to make atonement for all people on earth.
 
That’s the reason Paul said,
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1Tm 1:15)
 
“[God] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” (1Tm 2:4-6)
 
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Ti 2:11)
 
Paul also said in Romans 5:18, “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” (Rom 5:18)
 
What all of these verses emphasize is that the sacrifice of one man, Jesus, brings forgiveness and life to all people. There’s no one in the world who can be excluded from the work of salvation Jesus achieved on the cross.
 
I think that’s what God wants all people to know. Because God wants all people to understand this truth, He gradually expanded the value of one sacrifice in the Old Testament. If Jesus had come to earth and died right after Adam and Eve sinned, no one would have been able to fully understand the meaning of His sacrifice.
 
So, God kindly revealed many indications of Jesus in the Old Testament so that when He finally came, people could understand the meaning of His sacrifice and believe in Him. It’s amazing to see how all the indications, symbols and prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament were fulfilled in His life. That shows how amazing God’s plan of salvation for us is and how faithful He is.
 
God planned to send His Son as a sacrifice for all people’s sins when the very first sin came into the world, and He has faithfully worked for it for such a long period of time. Even now, He is working for our salvation. Even though Jesus came and achieved our salvation 2,000 years ago as promised in the Bible, the promise of His return still remains.
 
When He first came, He became like us. But when He comes back, we’ll be like Him. We’ll be resurrected into His glorious image. No one has ever experienced it, but we know that day will surely come because the One who plans it, promises it, and works for it is God almighty. He never fails to keep His promises. That’s whom we should rely on and put our trust in.
 
The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
All right. That’s what we’ve talked about so far regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve focused on how Jesus’ ministry of salvation is illustrated and promised in the Old Testament.
 
Now, it’s time to move on to what Jesus actually did to save us. So let’s go back to where we began, Romans chapter 1. In Romans 1:1-4, Paul said,
 
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 1:1-4)
 
I personally think this is the best summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it contains a lot of its important elements.
 
So far, we’ve focused on how God promised the gospel beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son. Now, let’s talk about His earthly life.
 
One of the fascinating facts about the Son of God is that He had an earthly life, which means that He actually lived on earth like us. He was born as a baby, grew up under His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, and had siblings, who became Jesus’ followers after His ascension.
 
Jesus ate food and slept like us. He felt hungry, thirsty, and tired like us. People could actually see Him, hear His voice, and touch Him. And He never hid the fact that He was the Son of God.
 
That makes Christianity unique and different from other religions. Other religions say that we should do something in order to meet God. They try to reach God through penance, austerities, meditation, and more.
 
But the Bible says that God has come to the world because the world couldn’t know Him with its own wisdom. Because there’s no one in the world who can approach God on their own, God chose to reveal Himself to us. The Bible is one of the strongest proofs of this truth. We know who God is because He first let us know who He is through His word, which was written by His inspiration.
 
And Jesus is the culmination of God’s self-revelation. He existed even before the creation of the world because everything was created through Him, the word of God. There has not been a single moment when the Son of God didn’t exist.
 
But the Bible says that the word of God, who was with God and who was God Himself, came to the world in human form and made His dwelling among us. We call Him Jesus Christ our Lord, who became like us in order to save us from our sin and death.
 
John 1:14 says,
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
 
Philippians chapter 2 also describes the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It says,
 
“Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Php 2:6-7)
 
Jesus is God, but He made Himself nothing and took the form of human flesh. Then, we may ask, why? Why did He have to become like us? Why did He have to take the form of a human being? What was the purpose of His being like us?
 
The answers to these questions are the most fundamental truth of Christianity.
 
Two Consequences of Sin
 
There are several reasons for the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and I want us to think about two reasons today.
 
First, Jesus came to the world in human form in order to shed His blood to make atonement for our sins and die. Second, He wanted to reveal who God is to us.
 
These two reasons are closely related to the consequences of sin. The most significant result of sin is separation from God, which results in all of our other problems.
 
Is 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
 
One of the characteristics of God is that He is holy. It means that He can’t be with sin. As light can’t coexist with darkness, God can't coexist with sin.
 
The biblical meaning of sin is not only related to our acts, but also our thoughts, motivations, and the lordship of our lives. Who is the lord of our lives? If it’s us, and not God, we are sinning. The Bible says that we were made in the image of God. We were made to have an intimate, loving relationship with Him. In this relationship, God has given us the authority to look after the world He created.
 
But sin makes us turn away from God. It makes us deny the truth that He is our Creator and thus our Lord. Therefore, sin makes us insist that everything we have is ours: time, money, health, level of education, social position, and more.
 
God gave us those things to use them for His glory and His kingdom, but sin tells us that we are the owners. Sin makes us live not according to God's will, but to our will. So, sin inevitably severs our relationship with God.
 
As a result of sin, we’ve lost the image of God in which we were made. Moreover, we were separated from Him and thus eternal life in Him. Eternal death became our destiny. Those are the two major consequences that sin brought about—ignorance of God and eternal death. These are the reasons the Son of God became flesh—to allow us to know God and to give us eternal life.
 
1) Ignorance of God
Let’s first talk about ignorance. Before the fall, in our original state, human beings weren’t corrupted and had a direct relationship with God. They saw Him, heard Him, and even walked with Him. They knew God and had an intimate relationship with Him. They didn’t need to learn about God like we do because they already knew Him well.
 
But, after sin entered the world, human beings became ignorant about God. We lost knowledge about God and the close relationship we had with Him. That’s the reason Jesus came to the world to show us who God is again.
 
Just as a good teacher who cares for their students comes down to their level, so did the Word of God. Jesus took on the form of a human being, and He walked among people, spoke to them, and touched them, which means that through Jesus Christ we can recognize our Father in heaven, who is invisible.
 
John 1:18 says,
“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (Jn 1:18)
 
Jesus also said “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9)
 
The word of God, which was invisible, became flesh, which is visible, to make Father known to us. Through Jesus Christ, we can have confidence that God is alive and that He does exist. In other words, we can overcome our ignorance of God because the Son of God has shown Him to us.
 
2) Eternal Death
Second, the Son of God came to earth in order to save people from their sins and their result, eternal death. Because a spirit can’t bleed or die, Jesus took on a physical form capable of suffering and death just to die for us and make atonement for our sins.
 
 That’s the most important ministry of Jesus—to bear our sins in His body and die on the cross. As we’ve talked about with animal sacrifice, atonement demands blood and death because of the principle God set. Because God put the life of a creature in its blood, blood must be shed in order to make atonement for one’s life.
 
That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross. He shed His precious blood to make atonement for our sins. What Jesus ultimately wanted to achieve through the cross was to reconcile us with God because only in God, can we find eternal life.
 
Only Jesus Christ could achieve this purpose because He is the Son of God. He had a body like us, but He was sinless. He was fully human like us, but at the same time, He was fully divine.
 
All of us here have probably already heard about all these things. But still, I want us to think more deeply about the reason He had to become like us because sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking that we know something without actually knowing it.
 
Even though we know about the incarnation of Jesus, it doesn’t mean that we actually understand it until we truly experience what Jesus wants to accomplish in our lives through His incarnation and sacrifice.
 
Jesus Christ came to the world to allow us to know God more, cleanse our sins with His blood to make us pure children of God, and to reconcile us with God. Do you enjoy these blessings in Christ now? If not, what prevents you from having these blessings in your life?
 
I want us to think about this question more deeply so that we can be true, authentic Christians who are really born again through our faith in Jesus Christ and live out our faith in Him by becoming more conformed to His image.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Prayer]
Dear Lord, thank You for giving us this opportunity to think about who You are and who Your Son, Jesus Christ, is.
 
We thank You for revealing Yourself to us through Your word and for sending Your Son to the world as a ransom for our sins. We profess that because Jesus Christ came to the world in our likeness and died on the cross, we are able to know who You are and be reconciled to You. We thank You for every spiritual blessing You’ve given us through Your Son.
 
Oh Lord, let us have deeper knowledge of You. Give us the desire to love You so that we may love Your word of truth and be closer to You.
 
Please open our hearts and minds, reveal to us who You are, especially how much You love us, and fill us with Your presence so that our lives can be filled with traces of Your work. We ask that You mold us and transform us to take after Jesus Christ, Your Son.
 
We give thanks to You, Lord. We pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. God sent Jesus Christ to allow us to know who He is. What do you know about Him through Jesus? Who is God to you? Share some practical things you will do this week to know God and grow closer to Him.
 
2. God sent Jesus Christ to forgive our sins and reconcile us to Himself. How was your relationship with God this week? What has He said to you? What are some things you can do to develop your relationship with God?