In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. … So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. (John 1:1-2, 14).Before he came to this earth, Jesus was the infinite Word of God
The infinite Word of God became a finite human being to show us two things. God wanted us to know he knew what it was like to be human and to give that perfect sacrifice so that we can know what it is like to be divine. In Jesus, God was human, with us. In Jesus, we are divine., with God.
Without that incarnation, we could easily say that the infinite God, Lord of heaven and earth and all powerful and omniscient, did not know how hard a life his creations had.
And that was to a large point true. Yes, he was all-powerful. But his view of us and his relationship with us was one of distance, not closeness, one of sympathy but no empathy.
When Jesus became manifest in the flesh, all of a sudden, the Lord of the Universe who was living in many ways vicariously in Jesus, knew what it was like to be a helpless baby, totally dependent on his mother and father.
As Jesus grew up, he found out the effect of raging hormones. He felt hunger, he experienced real thirst. He found out what it was like to hurt his foot on a rock.
These are all little things, all part of the human experience. They are all things we take for granted. But not God. He only knew them second-hand.
Jesus gave him first hand knowledge.
But Jesus also gave us first hand knowledge of God. What would God be like if he were human. There was Jesus. How would God react to things? Look how Jesus reacted.
Could God really live his whole life and never once do something wrong? That is, if he were really human? The answer was yes.
But it took the power of God living in the humanity of Jesus to do so. Jesus was that perfect fusion of God and man that we could be, but never are able to be.
With Jesus, we know that God knows what it is like to be like us. But with Jesus, we know what it is like to be like God. Jesus brought God to us and brings us to God.
He is like that transformer on a high wire high voltage line. God is the high voltage that if we touch it, we die. He is too holy. But Jesus was the transformer. He was God so he could touch God; but he was also God in the flesh, so he could touch us.
And through him, we could touch God.
That is the point of Christmas: the entry into this world of the Son of God in human form.
He just wanted to know us better, so we could know him better.
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