Why Did the Lord Dwell Among Us?
Why Did the Lord Dwell Among Us?¹
As we celebrate the birth of Christ from the Virgin, perhaps we ask ourselves: What are the reasons that led the Lord of glory to take a body and dwell among us, to become in appearance as a human, and to be born of a woman like the sons of men?
There is no doubt that redemption is the primary reason for the Incarnation. The Lord came into the world to save sinners; He came to redeem them; He came to die and to offer Himself for many.
This is the main reason which, had Christ done nothing else, would have been sufficient to justify His Incarnation.
And Christ came to fulfill divine justice and to reconcile heaven and earth.
We can also say—beside the work of redemption and reconciliation—that the Lord Christ came to act on behalf of humanity. And just as He represented it in death, He also represents it in everything required of it to do. Humanity fell short in all its relations with God, so the “Son of Man” came to represent all humanity in pleasing God.
During His Incarnation, the Lord was able to present to humanity the ideal image of what a human should be as the image and likeness of God. He offered the practical example, so much so that St. Athanasius the Apostolic said: “When the image in which man was created became corrupted, God came down to present to them the original divine image.”
Also, when the leaders erred in interpreting the divine Law and presented it to the people according to their mistaken understanding—mixing it with their own teachings and traditions—the Lord came to present to humanity the divine Law as God intended it: pure from human errors in understanding and interpretation.
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Redemption Is the Primary Reason for the Incarnation
The first man sinned, and his sin was against God Himself: he disobeyed God and broke His commandment. He also wished to become great, to be like God, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:5). In the midst of this temptation, we see that man did not believe God, who said to him regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). On the contrary, he believed the serpent, which said, “You shall not surely die.”
After eating from the tree, we see that man began to lose his faith in God’s omnipresence and His ability to see what is hidden. He thought that if he hid, he could escape God’s sight. And when God held man accountable after the sin, we see the man speaking in an improper manner, placing part of the blame on God, saying: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me” (Gen 3:12).
It is a set of errors directed against God: disobedience to God, rivalry with God in His knowledge, not believing God in His warning, lack of faith in God’s power, and lack of reverence in speaking with God.
Man sinned against God—the unlimited God—therefore his sin became unlimited. And an unlimited sin requires an unlimited punishment. And there is none unlimited except God. Thus, God Himself had to perform the work of atonement…
This is the summary of the whole problem in brief…
Man sinned, and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).
Therefore, man had to die, especially since God had warned him of this death before he transgressed the commandment, saying: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Thus he deserved the judgment of death, and he had to die.
The death of man was the only fulfillment of God’s justice. And if man did not die, God would not be just, nor truthful in His prior warning…
This principle is explained extensively by St. Athanasius the Apostolic in his book On the Incarnation of the Word. As he explains the necessity of man’s death, he also explains, conversely, the problems that stood against man’s death. What were these problems?
Man’s death was against God’s mercy, especially since man fell victim to the devil, who was more cunning than he!
Man’s death was against God’s honor, for he was created in the image and likeness of God—so how would the image of God be destroyed like this!?
Man’s death was against God’s power, as though God had created a creature and could not protect it from the devil’s evil! Thus the devil would seem to have won the battle!!
Man’s death was against God’s wisdom in creating humans, and as St. Athanasius says, it would have been better for man not to have been created than to be created for such an end!!
Finally, man’s death was against God’s intelligence—how could there be a problem that God’s mind could not solve!?
Thus, man’s death was against God’s mercy, honor, power, wisdom, and intelligence. And divine wisdom had to intervene to solve this dilemma…
Thus the Person of the Son intervened to solve the dilemma; and the Son, as St. Paul says, is “the wisdom of God and the power of God” (1 Cor 1:24), and the Book of Proverbs calls Him “Wisdom” (Prov 9:1).
Now we ask: How was God’s wisdom able to solve this dilemma?
The solution was atonement and redemption. Someone had to die on behalf of man, to redeem him and save him. And no other being could accomplish this redemption except God Himself—not an angel, nor an animal, nor a spirit, nor any other creature. Why?
Because the one who would die must be both human and God.
First: Every created being is limited and therefore cannot offer an unlimited atonement that satisfies the unlimited punishment for the unlimited sin.
Second: Because the sentence was issued against man, therefore a man must die.
The only solution was the Incarnation: that God descend into our world, born of a woman. According to His divinity, He is unlimited as God, able to offer an unlimited atonement sufficient to forgive all sins of all people in all generations.
And according to His humanity, He can represent humanity, condemned to death, in paying the price of sin. For this reason, the Lord Christ deliberately called Himself “the Son of Man” in many contexts…
If we understand this truth, what spiritual lessons can we learn from it in our lives? This is what we wish to contemplate now…
Meditation…
Meditate, blessed brother, that every sin you commit is directed against God Himself and is no different in its judgment from the sin of Adam and Eve. It is, like their sin, unlimited, because it is directed against the unlimited God. Thus its punishment is unlimited and is forgiven only by an unlimited atonement…
Every sin you commit is disobedience to God. It is a form of challenging God and disregarding His commandments (John 14:15).
Therefore, when David sinned—committing adultery and murder—he did not say, “I have sinned against Uriah the Hittite and his wife,” but said to God: “Against You only have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight” (Ps 50:4). Truly, “sin is exceedingly sinful,” as Scripture says (Rom 7:13).
And every sin you commit is borne by Christ, for He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world” (John 1:29). “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6).
Perhaps you, brother, take sin lightly, and take its forgiveness lightly, and think that as soon as you confess it, it ends. And you do not consider how this sin is forgiven through confession; therefore you find the matter easy and do not feel the weight of what you are doing!
Your sin, brother, is not forgiven except by the blood of Christ, for “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb 9:22). So what, then, is the role of the priest in forgiveness? Is reading the absolution or saying “God absolve you” everything? Certainly not. For this word alone is not enough…
When the priest grants you forgiveness, he performs a transfer: he transfers the sin from your account to Christ’s account. He moves the sin from your head to the head of the Lamb who bears the sins of the whole world. Then Christ erases it with His blood.
I even dare to say that when Christ Himself said to a person, “Your sins are forgiven,” this statement alone was not sufficient without the Lord’s blood. Rather, the meaning of the Lord’s words to a person, “Your sins are forgiven,” is: I have accepted to die for these sins, and I have accepted to erase them with My blood. Therefore consider them forgiven, for they are dipped in My blood. For if a mere declaration of forgiveness were enough, why then the Incarnation, and why the Crucifixion and redemption?
Because of your sin, brother, the Lord emptied Himself, took the form of a servant, was born as a human, and endured all the weakness of humanity. Because of your sin He fled from Herod to Egypt; because of it He was tempted by the devil; because of it He was persecuted by the Jews, insulted, reviled, spat upon, struck, crucified, and died. If you know all this, how can your heart bear to sin?
You must know well that every sin must stand before God’s justice to give an account before Him: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).
Therefore, on the Feast of the Nativity, contemplate His love for you, His striving for your salvation, and how He came for your sake.
Truly Christ came to save the world (John 3:17). He came to seek and to save that which was lost… But was that everything? No—there are other reasons that require another article…
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Karaza Magazine, Year Six (Issue Two), 10-1-1975.
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