Personification

Jesus’ existence did not begin with His birth or conception, but He pre-existed Creation, as made by Him and for Him. Jesus was both with God and God Himself. That such a divine Person exists is taught throughout Scripture, starting in Genesis. The plurality within the Godhead makes it possible for God to be intrinsically a ‘God of Love’.

In Jesus, God took on human nature, so He could die for our sins as a fellow human, taking the penalty we deserve for our sins. In fact, this was planned from Eternity; right from the foundation of the World. When Jesus took on humanity, this was an addition to His divine nature, not a subtraction of His divinity.

This addition was indeed an emptying, since as a human being, Jesus was subject to all the things that humans are subject to, such as hunger, tiredness, and temptation. The only difference is this, not only was He without sin, He was incapable of sin. And like all humans, He was also subject to death. Indeed, this was the whole reason He came. 

However, because Jesus never lost His divinity, no one could have killed Him if He had not laid down His own life. This is why He bowed His head first, and then gave up His spirit on the cross; the usual order would be to die and muscles go limp and the head collapse. In His divinity, He could not die.

God created us and therefore owns us, and has the right to make the rules for us. He has set a perfect moral standard of which we fall short (Romans 3:23). He is perfectly just, so must punish moral shortcomings. Since our shortcomings offend His infinite holiness, the punishment must also be infinite. Either we must suffer such punishment, or else a Substitute must endure it in our place (Isaiah 53). This Substitute must fulfil two conditions: (1) He must be fully human to substitute for humanity and (2) He must be fully Divine to endure God’s infinite wrath (Isaiah 53:10), since a mere creature could not withstand it.

An ideal mediator between two groups should ideally be a member of both. Thus, Jesus is such a mediator, because He is the only member of both groups: ‘God’ and ‘man’. Moreover, since the Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), this Substitute had to die to pay for our sins.

Therefore, we must never lose sight of the truth that Jesus is God incarnate. He is the source of grace and truth. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the One who make it possible for us to know the Father. Let us worship Him as Lord and God.