What is the Meaning of the Divine Incarnation?

In ancient times, God interacted with humanity in various ways. At one time, God appears in the form of a flame of fire in the bush; then at another time, in the form of angels, and a third time in the form of a flame of fire. It is time, however, for God to take flesh and become a human being like us in every respect except for sin alone. This is something that surpasses all imagination and exceeds all human thought and reason. If the Divine Incarnation is thus the greatest and most significant event in human history, then what does it mean for God and man?

The Incarnation is a Clear Expression of the Essence of Love

If the purpose behind the creation of man was for this unique creature to enjoy a life of holy fellowship with God, then the incarnation also comprehends the extremity of this love. For just as God loved man and created him in order to grant him joy, love, life and the divine glory, so also has He come down to him, taken his nature and became man in order to restore to us this life of holy fellowship. This fellowship in turn revived us from our fall, raised us up from our death and granted us eternal life after the death, of which we became worthy after the disobedience of Adam, our first parent. [16] The Holy Scripture speaks of this: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). The Father’s intention was to fill this hungry being, and so He presented him with the true living bread, granting him the gift of His incarnation so that he might receive the living bread that came down from heaven which, if anyone eats of it, he will live forever. This bread which He gives is His body which He offers for the life of the world. Thus, the Lord declared by His own pure mouth, “he who eats of Me will live through Me” (Jn 6:51–55).

Sin shattered the unity between God and man, but the Lord Jesus restored this unity through His incarnation and ushered it into the boundaries of eternity, for in His person alone do God and man meet — divinity with humanity — in a union without separation, without mingling, without confusion and without alteration.[1]This is what the Apostle Paul declares in his letter to Ephesus: “that He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth” (Eph 1:10). And thus He says to His Heavenly Father, “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am …  I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17:24–26).

It was the Heavenly Father’s intention that the Son should participate with mankind in this human nature, that He might resemble His brethren in everything, as the Apostle Paul, author of the epistle to the Hebrews, says: “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself [17]