Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed. Hebrews 2:14-18 The Message
Scared to death of death. I think that pretty much describes how a lot of people feel about death. The best news to those of us that feel this way is that we don’t have to be scared to death of death because of a life – the life of Jesus. He literally came to die for us so we can have victory in our lives. I came across this passage in The Message translation this week in my Bible study and felt that it had so much good news packed into these 4 verses. This passage has to do with the incarnation, or God becoming flesh. God came to earth as a baby and lived on earth as a man. We hear that story out of Luke a lot around Christmastime. But this is a story for all times and we need to remember everyday exactly what God did for us by becoming flesh.
Three things happened as a result of God coming in the flesh:
By His death He rescued us from death– When He died on the cross, He freed us from death. He rescued us from the penalty of our sins by paying the price with His life.
To Destroy the Devil’s Hold on Death – Because He embraced death and took it on Himself, He destroyed any power the devil has over death and He gives us victory over death – all of us who are scared to death of death. He came to fight war for us, to engage the enemy of all enemies who held the power of death over mankind, until through His own death, Jesus defeated him. Because of Christ’s victory, we have victory and we don’t have to be afraid of death anymore.
To Experience Life as We Experience it so He can Help Us – There is no temptation that we will experience in life thatJesus doesn’t already know what it feels like. Because He lived on this earth as a man, He knows what it is like to be human. Sometimes that is hard to wrap our heads around – that He was human like us. Even when we see pitures of Jesus as a human we still tend to separate Him from humanity because of His deity. It is hard to imagine Him walking the earth but He was the fullness of God in human form.
The reason God sent His Son to be born a baby covers so much more than just a manger at Christmas. It covers our sins. He came to rescue us because we needed something to span the massive divide between us and God. Jesus was the only answer because He could span the gap being both man and God. He brought God into life and He brings God into our lives.
This from Kelley Minter explains The Incarnation beautifully:
We have the indicatives: we’re forgiven, purified, children of God, overcomers, anointed, and confident that we know. We also have the imperatives: we’re to love each other like Christ loved while not loving the world system. Only the incarnation makes both the
idicatives and the imperatives possible.
idicatives and the imperatives possible.
Whatever it is we face in life, whatever grieves our soul, He’s felt it. He is our example and our advocate. His life, sacrifice and love brought hope into a desolate and broken world and as His children we have that hope in our lives.
