The How and Why of Jesus the God-Man
Philippians 2:5-11 & 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
- Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
- From Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi we encounter the word “kenosis,” which is usually translated “emptying.” Jesus, in the very form God, therefore completely equal with God, of His own accord, took the form of a servant. Jesus then became human, He who is “the exact imprint of his nature.” (see Hebrews 1:3)
- Paul is attempting to express in human terms and to human minds the greatest enigma of them all. We are not surprised that we humans can never quite grasp the full meaning of “how” God became human.
- The “why” comes next then. Why would it be necessary that God become human? Paul speaks of this, in general terms and as an aside, in his second letter to the church at Corinth. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
- Numbers of other passages in both testaments bear witness to this central and core doctrine.
- In the Hebrew, to celebrate Passover a lamb without spot or blemish only could be used as the sacrifice, and the blood of the animal warded off sin and judgment. It must be enacted once a year.
- Jesus, sinless His entire life, becomes the perfect sacrifice for sin. And once for all. At the cross Jesus, our Passover Lamb, takes all our sin upon Himself.
- Only the sacrifice of the God-Man would suffice.