The Purposes of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ (2)

“But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Heb 2:9)
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb 2:14-18)

Review
Over the past month, as we observed Advent, we have reflected on the purposes for which Jesus came into this world by taking on human flesh. First, through John chapter 1, we reflected on Jesus, who came to bring us grace and truth. Jesus was the Word of God, through whom all things were created in the beginning. John declares that this Word became flesh and came into the world. And John emphasizes that He was full of grace and truth.
This grace and truth explain the purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. Jesus came to us when we were living in sin, cut off from our relationship with God and heading toward eternal death. And He took upon His own body all our sins, shed His blood, and died on the cross, paying the full price for all our sins. This is the grace that Jesus has granted to us.
Moreover, Jesus came to us in our ignorance—when we didn’t know God and lived as if this world were all there was. By doing so, He made the invisible God visible to us. He also fulfilled all the prophecies of the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. In this way, Jesus took on flesh and came into this world in order to reveal grace and truth to us who were living in sin and ignorance.
Two weeks ago, in addition to the Gospel of John, we also examined other passages in the Bible to reflect on additional purposes for which Jesus came.
First, Jesus took on flesh in order to show us the true model of obedience. Obedience is the most essential key for us to live in a right relationship with God and to live as His people in His kingdom.
However, living in full obedience to God’s word is not as easy as it sounds. Therefore, Jesus came into this world clothed in the same weak human flesh as ours, and by obeying God perfectly, He showed us the true example of obedience and called us to follow that path.
Even for Jesus, wholehearted obedience to God was not easy. That is why He prayed that the cup of suffering might be taken away from Him. Yet His prayer did not end there. He also prayed, “Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Mt 26:39).
In this way, Jesus fully obeyed the will of God, even though that obedience brought Him tremendous suffering, sacrifice, and ultimately death itself. The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered, and having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.
What made Jesus’ obedience perfect was the motive behind it. We discussed various motives for obedience. Some obey God’s word out of fear of the consequences of disobedience; others out of a sense of duty; still others in expectation of the blessings that obedience may bring.
But Jesus’ motive for obedience was none of these. His obedience was grounded solely in the Father’s love for Him and in His love for the Father. This is what enabled Jesus to move forward in complete obedience to God’s will, even in the midst of suffering. This is the model of obedience in Jesus that we are called to follow.
Second, Jesus became human and came into this world in order to show us the true model of what it means to live as a human being created in the image of God.
Scripture tells us that all human beings were created in the image of God. Sadly, however, sin has distorted that image within us and caused us to lose its true form. As a result, we have lived forgetting the true purpose and direction of life, and the true happiness that can be found only when we live according to that purpose.
But by taking on flesh and coming into this world, Jesus Himself showed us the image of God. Through His life, His words, and His actions, He bore witness to what a person who lives according to that image truly looks like. In this way, Jesus enabled us to put off our old self and to live by putting on the new self. This new self is one that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator. This is the second purpose we discover in Scripture for which Jesus took on flesh and came into the world.
 
The Book of Hebrews
These are the themes we have discussed thus far regarding the purposes of Jesus’ incarnation. Although Advent has come to an end, today I would like to conclude by reflecting on additional purposes of Jesus’ incarnation through the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews is a crucial book that helps us grasp who Jesus truly is. The Gospels present the life of Jesus in a biographical manner. They tell us how He was born, how He lived, how He died, and how He rose again. Through the Gospels, therefore, we learn essential and foundational truths about who Jesus is.
Hebrews, however, is somewhat different. While it also focuses on who Jesus is, the author of Hebrews places greater emphasis not on the specific details of how Jesus lived or the particular words He spoke, but on exploring the theological significance of His person and His work.
In other words, through the Gospels we learn about the life Jesus lived on earth, and through Hebrews we come to understand the deeper meaning of who He is and what He has done for us. Both are essential, and together they help us see Christ more fully and clearly.
 
The Purposes of Jesus’ Incarnation in Hebrews 2
In Hebrews chapter 2, the author points out some purposes behind Jesus’ coming in the flesh. We will explore these purposes under four main points. Some may sound familiar from our previous reflections, while others help us see even more clearly why Jesus became human.
 
1. To Taste Death for Everyone
The first reason is written in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9. Let’s read it together.
“But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Heb 2:9)
Here, Jesus being made lower than the angels refers to the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus was God far above all the angels but He was made lower than them by becoming human. And there was a reason for this. By taking the form of a human body, He was able to taste death for everyone.
One thing we know about God is that He is Spirit. As it says in John 4:24, “God is spirit.” Because He is Spirit and doesn’t have a physical shape, it’s impossible for us to see Him with our physical eyes.
But Jesus, the Son of God, became human so that people could see Him with their physical eyes, touch Him, and feel the warmth of His hands. By taking the shape of a visible human body, Jesus showed us the invisible God. But that was not the only purpose.
The most important reason for the incarnation of Jesus was to experience death on behalf of all people. The Spirit cannot bleed or die. Therefore, Jesus became a human being in the flesh primarily so that He could suffer, shed His blood, and die. And the reason Jesus had to experience death on the cross was that He took upon Himself our sins. The wages of sin is death, and so Jesus endured death on the cross in our place, because of our sins. We will look at this in more detail shortly.
 
2. To Break the Power of Death and Satan
Let’s move on to the second reason for Jesus’ incarnation. Let’s read Hebrews 2:14 together.
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14)
When the author of Hebrews talked about Jesus’ death in verse 9, he intentionally used the verb ‘taste.’ But what does it mean to ‘taste’ death? The Greek verb used here is γεύομαι (geuomai), which literally means “to taste” or “to sample.”
When you go to a restaurant, you might see a sampler—a menu that offers small portions of several dishes so you can taste a little of each. In the same way, when we say we “taste” something, it doesn’t mean we experience it fully, but rather that we experience a part of it or get a glimpse of it.
So why does the author of Hebrews use the term “taste” to describe Jesus’ death? First, it is important to understand that the author is not suggesting that Jesus’ death was somehow incomplete or less real than our own experience of death.
 Jesus truly and fully died on the cross. He was scourged before the crucifixion, nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, hung there for six hours, and even had His side pierced by a soldier to ensure His death. No one could survive under such conditions. Jesus’ death was a complete and genuine death.
Yet the author of Hebrews still describes Jesus as having “tasted” death—not because His death was incomplete, but because He overcame death and was raised to life again. The term emphasizes that Jesus experienced death fully, yet death could not hold Him.
The word “taste” is not something we normally associate with death. We can taste food—we can try a little and stop—but death is not something we can taste like food. This is because death possesses absolute power. We cannot die for a moment and then come back to life at will. For us, there are only two possibilities: we either live or we die. The moment we enter death, there is no way to return to life.
But verse 9 says that Jesus only tasted death, which means that death couldn’t completely control or exercise its absolute power over Him. For everyone in the world, death is the last stop of their lives without exception. But Jesus’ death ultimately resulted in glorious victory because He overcame death by being resurrected.
By tasting death, and by being raised from the dead, Jesus broke the power of Satan, who holds the power of death. Sin, condemnation, and death are the strongest weapons Satan uses to make us afraid and to make us his prisoners.  But the weapons lost their power when Jesus was resurrected and overcame the power of death.
As Paul said, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Co 15:55-57)
So, the fact that death was actually defeated and its authority was destroyed by Jesus’ resurrection is really good news to us. Now, we know that our physical death is not the end, but only the start of a new, eternal life. Jesus was raised from death to life so that we, who believe in Him, can also have eternal life in Him after this life on earth.
That’s what we’re to see and keep in mind as Christians. Our lives in this world are temporary, but there’s eternal life waiting for us. If we truly believe that Jesus was raised to life and that there’s eternal life in Him, we won’t be afraid of anything in the world, not even death.
It is precisely to give us this blessing that Jesus took on flesh and came into this world. He fully died on the cross, yet His death is described as only having “tasted” death. This is because God raised Him from the dead. By conquering death and rising again, Jesus broke the power of death—the most formidable weapon of Satan—and gave us eternal life.
 
3. To Free Us from Death
In this way, Jesus delivered us from the authority of both Satan and death. This is the third purpose of Jesus’ incarnation Hebrews talks about. Hebrews 2:14-15 says,
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb 2:14-15)
Hebrews chapter 2 describes our three enemies—sin, death, and Satan. Before we believed in Jesus, we were sinners heading towards eternal death. We were slaves to sin and Satan who captured us and controlled our lives with his powerful weapon, death.
But, the good news is that by becoming human, tasting death, and being resurrected from the dead, Jesus defeated all our enemies and has set us free from the reign of sin, the fear of death, and Satan.
Even though they still have a powerful impact on our lives, they can’t rule over us anymore because we’re now under God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Now, we don’t have to be afraid of death anymore because it was already defeated.
That’s the true freedom and joy we find in Jesus. After Jesus was crucified, during the period when His body was still buried in a tomb for three days, His disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders.
They were afraid to be caught and killed like Jesus. They lost their all their hope. They became powerless and purposeless. But, everything changed when they encountered the resurrected Jesus.
Suddenly, Jesus came and stood in their midst, though the doors were securely locked. Then He said, “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19). And “The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” (Jn 20:20)
Their worries and fear turned into great joy when they saw the resurrected Jesus. And they were no longer afraid of death. Jesus set them free from worry and fear and gave them new hope, peace, and joy. And these are given to us as well. To give us this true peace—peace that goes beyond all circumstances and even death—Jesus became human and tasted death on our behalf.
 
4. To Make Atonement for the Sins of the People
Now, let’s move on to the fourth purpose of Jesus’ incarnation. Let’s read Hebrews 2:17.  “For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that… he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” (Heb 2:17)
The fourth reason that Jesus became human was to make atonement for our sins.
In the Old Testament we can find an important principle God set about the forgiveness of sins. Leviticus 17:11 says,  “For the life of the flesh is in the blood… it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” (Lev 17:11)
According to this principle, God established a way for people to make atonement for their sins. They were to lay their hands on unblemished animals and sacrifice them, transferring their sins to the animals. The blood of these animals would make atonement for their sins.
And the animal sacrifice exactly represents what Jesus would do to atone for all our sins. Since a spirit can’t die, Jesus became a human being to take our sins in His body and shed His precious blood to pay the ransom for our sins.
Before being caught by soldiers, Jesus said to His disciples,  “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt 26:28)
That’s the foremost reason for the incarnation of Jesus—to shed His blood and suffer death for us. He gave up His life to give us life. And that’s the reason true salvation is only found in the name of Jesus because He is the only One who came as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins.
 
5. To Help Us
Now, let’s move on to the last reason for Jesus’ incarnation. Let’s read Hebrews 2:18 together.
“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb 2:18)
Another reason that Jesus became a human was to understand us by becoming like us. In the world, we encounter many difficulties and all kinds of suffering that make us frustrated. We’re also exposed to many temptations that make us lose sight of God.
And as weak human beings, we don’t have the power within us to overcome these trials and temptations. We can’t stand on our own, so we always need a helper.
In that sense, Jesus is the perfect helper. He can perfectly understand our difficulties, emotions, situations, and everything not only because He is God who knows everything but also because He Himself experienced all of them as a human.
Jesus was also tempted by many things and suffered a lot. Because Jesus suffered and was tempted just as we face all kinds of suffering and temptations, He is able to perfectly understand us and help us in our times of need. And He also showed us a perfect example of how to overcome our trials and temptations with the power of God’s word so that we can also be victorious in every situation.
If there had been no incarnation of Jesus, we would have claimed that God can’t truly understand us because He is God who is essentially different from us. But the Bible says that God can really understand us and help us because He was also tempted in every way just like us as a human.
So whenever we become weary and frustrated because of our situations and temptations, we are to remember and proclaim that Jesus is not far from us but right here with us. He understands us and helps us in our times of need. Let’s read Hebrews 4:15-16 together.
“We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb 4:15-16)
This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Whenever I face hard times, I remind myself of this passage. It reminds me of the fact that Jesus is truly able to empathize with me and that there’s nothing that He can’t understand. He even understands my weaknesses. He understands my deficiency.
And rather than rebuking me for my mistakes, failures, and sins, He always embraces me with His open arms and covers my sins with His blood. There are times that we may think that God couldn’t understand us or love us because of what we’ve done. We might think, “How can the holy God be with such a sinner and a troublemaker?”
But if that were true, Jesus wouldn’t have come to the world. The reason Jesus came into the world in human flesh was to understand us and help us. We always need a helper and Jesus will never leave us but be with us always.
These are the five purposes of Jesus’ coming in the flesh.He came to taste death on our behalf, to conquer death through His resurrection, to destroy the one who holds the power of death—the devil, to set us free from living as slaves to sin, Satan, and death, to atone for all our sins, and to understand and help us in every way.
Today, I hope we will remember Jesus more deeply. Let’s give thanks as we recall the purposes for which He came to this world in the flesh. And as we come to Him in true faith, I pray that we may experience today the blessings that Jesus desires to give us. May we all live under His grace, enjoying the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and true freedom and peace. Let’s pray.
 

<Closing  prayer>
Dear Lord, we can’t fully express how thankful we are for sending Your Son to save us. We can’t fully comprehend the salvation You achieved through Jesus Christ. So we just say, ‘thank You,’ because that’s the only thing for us to say.
We believe that Jesus became a human to make atonement for our sins and to die on the cross. We believe that He rose again from the dead and broke the power of sin, death, and Satan, and we believe that Jesus is able to completely understand us and help us in our times of need.
We thank You for every blessing that You’ve given us through Jesus Christ. Please allow us to know more about Him day by day until we reach the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
We love You Lord.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Amen.
  
[Reflection Questions]
1. Hebrews 2 speaks of five purposes for Jesus’ incarnation. What are they? Which one resonates most with you, and why?
 
2. What does it mean that Jesus “tasted death”? By tasting death, what did He accomplish, and what blessing does this bring to us? How have you experienced this blessing in your own life?
 
3. How did Jesus atone for our sins? Why were His suffering, shedding of blood, and death on the cross essential for that atonement? How is this connected to His incarnation?
 
4. Because Jesus became fully human and experienced the same struggles and temptations as we do, He can fully understand and help us. How does this truth draw you to Him in your own life?