An Infant God?

"Why did Jesus have to be God?"...I think as believers we have all faced this question, especially during Christmas. For whatever reason, people have a really hard time understanding how on earth a baby in a manger was the God of the universe, the One who created everything! It might be easier to believe He was God when He was out and about performing miracles, or even when He rose from the dead, but when He was lying in a manger? When he was a toddler walking around the home of Mary and Joseph? As a school aged boy playing with his friends? Was He really God, and did He even have to be at that point?

Well think about this for a moment...

A perfect, holy, Creator, God makes man who in turn is also blameless and living in perfection. In the sovereign plan and design of that holy God, man falls, disobeys, and sin enters the ENTIRE human race. From that point on, there is no longer fellowship between the two (God and man), it seems from the perspective of creation, to have forever been marred. YET, God had a greater design, a more perfect plan then anyone could fathom. His glory would be displayed in an indescribable and unfathomable way. God would make a way, a way for man to restore the relationship, to be cleansed from their iniquity forever, and to enjoy eternity in heaven with Him. The solution? Jesus Christ, His perfect Son, God in the flesh.

The incarnation of Christ baffles the human mind. In order to save us God had to become man. The Son assumed a genuine human nature in order to: perfectly obey God’s law (in order to fulfill the covenant of works), suffer and die on the cross as a vicarious atonement and rise again victorious over Satan, sin and death. It is a tremendous blessing to us that the Mediator will forever and ever be both God and man. For eternity we will be able to look at the scars in our Lord’s hands, feet and side. His glorified human body will be an eternal testimony to His supreme love; the love that caused Him to descend from the room of heaven to the filthy manger in Bethlehem and the painful road to Golgotha.

So there you have it, the answer to an age old question. Was Jesus God in that manger...yes, and more importantly, did He have to be...yes. He CHOSE to submit, to love, to redeem, to reconcile, to restore, and to one day glorify.

As we reflect this month on the true Christmas story, stop and marvel at the reality of the incarnation...be amazed once more, glorify the risen Christ with the angels in heaven, and remember why it had to be, and more importantly why He did it.