“The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw His glory, the glory which He received as the Father’s only Son.” – John 1:14

A story is told of a Moravian missionary went to preach the gospel to the slaves in the West Indies.

Failing as a free man to reach them, he became a slave himself, and went with them to their toils in the fields and into all their hardships and sufferings thus getting close to them. Then they listened to him.

This illustrates Christ’s condescension to save the world.

We must notice that it was the same person who was in the beginning, who was God and who made all things, who is here said to have become human.

The Bible says Jesus Christ was manifested in the world as the “express image” of the invisible God! (Hebrews 1:3).

The Jesus of the Gospel story is the God of the eternity, the Jehovah of the Old Testament; it was “God manifest in the flesh” (Matthew 1:23; 1 Timothy 3:16).

The reason for the incarnation was the salvation of man.

The Good Shepherd came to seek and to save His sheep that were lost. He came in human form that He might get nearer to the human sinner.

Christ remembers that He suffered being tempted as a human and when He sees His people in their struggles, He remembers when He endured the same and is ready to sympathise with and help them.

We would not understand God in His invisible glory; and Immanuel came and in human form lived out the divine life, showing us God’s thoughts, character and feelings, especially God’s grace and His love for sinners.

This was one of object of the incarnation – it revealed in a way men could understand the things of the invisible God.

Then Christ became man also that He might leave life by actual experience so as to be the Savior who would sympathise with us in all our experiences of temptation, struggle and sorrow.

We are sure now, when we come to Christ in any need, that He understands our condition to know how to help us.

We have a High Priest in heaven who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, because He was tried in all points as we are (Hebrews 4:15).

Christmas is a vivid reminder that Christ became human also that He might taste death for every man, thus abolishing death for His people (Hebrews 2:9).

He remembers what He suffered being tempted as a human and when He sees His people in their struggles, he remembers when He endured the same and is ready to sympathise with and help them.

That is why we must adopt the same character when dealing with our fellow human beings. However anointed or spiritual we might be, we are still human – made of flesh and blood who are subject to make mistakes and be tempted.

Prayer:

Almighty God, thank you for the gift of being human. You have put the treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of me. Help me to be a blessing to my fellow human beings in this world, as You became human to save humanity. For the glory of Your Name, Amen!