What does it mean that Jesus became human?

by Aneurin Britton

If you are a Christian, the Son of God becoming human means absolutely everything. The Son of God becoming a man, has eternal impact on us, on Christ, and our relationship to our God.

What is important to know is that Jesus remained what He always had been, God. Yet in the greatest of mysteries Jesus became fully man. In the heavenly realms there is a man named Jesus Christ, God the Son, in a physical body and that is good news for us!

So, let us dive in what does it actually mean that Jesus became human?

Firstly, in John’s gospel we see that God reveals himself through the Son, the Son enters into history, fully human, by being conceived of a virgin and born into our world. Pause for a moment and meditate on this, the Creator of our world, the entire universe, entered into our world. That is incredible! In John 1, John explains to us how huge it is that God revealed Himself by becoming a human being. John 1:1-5 we see the Son of God (the Word) as the life-giver the ultimate light and hope for us all. By John 1:14, we see that ‘this Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’

This gospel begins with the revelation of God in human form. That is good news for us because God chooses to come into our brokenness, He chooses to step down into our mess, He chooses to come into the darkness as the great light that will not be overcome by darkness. God comes intimately, He does not remain distant like the gods of other world religions, no, here the Father sends the Son by the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to us, to bring us to life and into relationship with Him. John is saying here that the Eternal Son of God reveals God by uniting Himself to humanity forever.

Secondly, God unites Himself to us to rescue us. John 1 shows us, that the Son came to bring life, to reveal who God is. If we place our faith in Christ, we are united to Him and are saved. We need a new representative, a new figurehead, a new humanity in fact! In the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, all humanity shared in great rebellion and sin. Adam perfectly represented us as our figurehead, he stumbled just as we would have stumbled, if we were there. Our representative before God disobeyed Him and sin entered the hearts, minds and bodies of all humans and the whole cosmos. As a result, we now need a new representative. At the same time, we need a Saviour who represents us before God. We need a fully human Saviour! That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, God becoming human forever to rescue humanity!

Thirdly and finally, Jesus came to resurrect us. After Jesus died on the cross, he was placed in a tomb. He then physically rose from the dead. Jesus then walked this earth in His heavenly body! He ascended into Heaven in his fully human body to be with His Father, to reign, and intercede for us. By this truth we live in confidence and can praise God for verse 2 Corinthians 15:55 “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” Our victory is won in union with Christ, as he died and rose again and ascended into heaven.

So, what does it mean that Jesus became human?

Everything! God has revealed to us Himself through it, he has rescued us by union with Christ, through our union with Him we now have new life and a guarantee that we will be raised from the dead. We can live life as it is meant to be lived by the power of the Spirit. Ultimately, we will be with God forever because Christ became man!