Why Did Jesus Leave Heaven and Become Man?
Jesus Was on a Mission From God
The Lord does not work indiscriminately without any purpose in mind. Everything has a purpose and is mandated by God’s nature. This includes why the incarnation was necessary.
To Confirm God’s Promises
“Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Rom. 15:8). At least three hundred specific prophecies were fulfilled that could not have been realized if Jesus did not have a human body. Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). He kept the laws that were imposed on Israel, and what the Old Testament fathers could not do-keep the law-Jesus fulfilled in his human life.
To Reveal the Father
From the beginning of time, God desired fellowship with his highest creation. In the garden, it was God’s custom to walk with man. Later God dwelt in the tabernacle and, later still, the temple. When Jesus came, he was able to reveal the nature of God in human flesh. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18).
To Become a Faithful High Priest
Jesus could not today carry out his high priestly functions if he had not become a man.
“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5:1). Because of that, Jesus is our great high priest. “Wherefore, he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).
To Put Away Sin
A chief purpose in the incarnation was that Jesus could be born without sin, live without sin, and ultimately die for the sins of the world. When God clothed Adam and Eve with skins of an animal, he was symbolically covering their nakedness, as one day the sacrifice of a lamb would cover the spiritual sin of God’s people. This sacrifice was predicted by Abraham, who told Isaac the day would come when “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8). When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he recognized the prediction would soon be completed by calling Christ; “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
To Destroy the Works of Satan
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). After Satan tempted Eve to sin, and she fell, God predicted that the seed of the woman (Christ) would crush Satan’s head. Obviously, Christ had to be born of a woman to deliver the blow to Satan, so Jesus was born of Mary. When Jesus on the cross cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30), he was signaling the end of several things, among them the fact that victory over sin and Satan had been completed.
To Provide an Example
By becoming a man, Jesus was able to show men how they ought to live. The Christian is responsible to live a holy life. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6).
Peter exhorted his readers, “Christ… leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Over the years certain people have believed that Jesus came to earth for the sole purpose of being God’s example of righteousness. In doing so, such people deny his work of redemption. In truth, his incarnation accomplished both purposes.
