Did God Become A Man?

So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.
John 1:14

No doubt this is one of the most amazing scriptures in all of the Bible. I do not claim to fully understand it. That God could humble Himself and become a man blows me away. The all-knowing, all-powerful One who spoke the world into existence now needs to have His diaper changed? God Himself nursing in the arms of a loving young mother? God the toddler discovering His own creation?

Muslims deny that Jesus could be God in flesh. They agree that He was a great prophet, but they clearly deny His divinity. One of the reasons is Muslims are taught that God is infinite and that He could not become a finite man. They say it doesn't make sense. How can God who is dependent on nothing, then become dependent as a man. They say that by definition God is not dependent upon anyone, therefore to become dependent is impossible.

Many religions of the world have pathways for men to become gods, but in Jesus Christ we see the reverse-God became a man.

Some say that this belief in the diety of Christ was made up later by the disciples of Jesus and was not at all what God intended or what Jesus taught. However, many times Jesus referred to His own deity. In Mark 14 He infuriated the Jewish high priest by His claim and it drove the Jewish leader to want to crucify Him for such blasphemy. Jesus often interchanged the titles “Son of God” and “Son of Man” to refer to His duel nature and on several occasions used the phrase “I am” to refer to Himself-a phrase every Jew understood to be attributed only to God. Jesus also specifically states that He and the Father are “One” (John 10:30).

Perhaps the most significant was Jesus’ acceptance of worship (Lk. 5:8, John 20:28). The fiercely held “One God” foundational belief of the Jews absolutely forbade worship of anything or anyone but God, yet Jesus did not correct those who worshiped Him.

The fact that God would desire for us to know Him so much that He became one of us is revelatory of His character. A character of deep unconditional love and boundless compassion. He totally identified with us by becoming one of us.. He entered into our struggle. He faced our fears. He overcame our sin. He became our sin.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21

Maybe what blows me away the most is not that Jesus would become a man, but that He would become sin. He loved us and became one of us. He identified with us and took our sin from us. No one can fully comprehend this no matter how long they try. Only God can understand the kind of love that He has for us. What an amazing God!

“And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Eph. 3:17-19 NLT

Chris