Why God Had to Become Man

God is pure spirit, infinite in all perfections, untouchable, far beyond any means of measure or definition. He exists in himself, and for himself, with no beginning and no end. 

 

Man is his creature, created from nothing. Yet he seeks to love and be loved, for the human soul ever seeks to rest in that supreme pure love of the Creator God.

But man has a fallen nature; we are sinful.

Reason tells us that a love-friendship between the two natures is impossible; the gap is so wide —infinitely wide and beyond measure. The solution demands a basic sanctification of the lower nature in order to establish some kind of bond between the infinite God and us.

We can understand that God as God, by his very nature, can love only that which is Godlike, all pure and divine.

St Paul seems to penetrate the mystery when he writes: “The Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God. After all, the depths of man can be known only by his own spirit, not by any other man; and, in the same way, the depths of God can be known only by the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:10-11).

We know about the maternal love of a mother for her child because of their nature, but there is nothing in man that merits the pure love of an all-pure, infinite God simply because of the immense difference in nature.

We need a bridge, a means of communication, to bring about some kind of equilibrium to make this love-friendship relationship possible. The answer to that came from God himself: the Incarnation.

God’s Response: The Incarnation

The Incarnation was the only possible response of the heavenly Father — to place himself on the same footing as man by becoming man. A divine, unspeakable condescension!

This condescending act of the Creator was to change the whole history of the world. The second Person of the Blessed Trinity would  be born to a virgin mother by the infinite power of the Holy Spirit. He would send his angel Gabriel to ask her consent: “And the Word was made flesh and He dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). And he was named Yeshua, or Jesus.

This Jesus would assume the nature of man while also remaining totally divine, thus possessing two distinct natures in one person.

As man, this Jesus would now share all man’s limitations, weaknesses, his finiteness—even unto death (Heb 4:15).

Although seen as a human being, he remains a divine Person, the only son of the  Father. “I and the Father are one…he who sees me sees the Father also” (Jn 14).

This mystery of the Incarnation remains one beyond measure, beyond human reasoning. It is the bewildering power of God’s love made manifest in and through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

It must, however, be understood that the love revealed to man is that love expressed by the human heart of Jesus; hence the worldwide devotion to the Sacred Heart.

The impact of the Incarnation on all history is far beyond words or description — yet it is a marvellous reality.

Fr Ralph de Hahn is a priest of the archdiocese of Cape Town.