Why Christ Became Man
1 Timothy 2:1–7
Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all. 1 Timothy 2:5–6

The death of Christ on the cross is the true meaning of the incarnation. Christmas by itself is no gospel. The life of Christ is no gospel. Even the resurrection is no gospel. For the Good News is that sin has been dealt with, that Jesus has suffered its penalty for us and as our representative so that we might never have to suffer it, and that therefore there is nothing left for all who should believe on him but heaven.

Any gospel that talks merely of the Christ-event, meaning the incarnation without the atonement, is a false gospel. Any gospel that talks about the love of God without at the same time pointing out that this love led him to pay the ultimate price for sin in the person of his Son on the cross is a false gospel. The only true gospel is the gospel of the Mediator, who gave himself for our salvation.

Furthermore, just as there can be no gospel without the atonement as the reason for the incarnation, so also there can be no Christian life without it. Without the atonement the incarnation theme easily becomes a kind of deification of the human and leads to arrogance and self-advancement. With the atonement the true message of the life of Christ, and therefore also of the life of the Christian man or woman, is humility and self-sacrifice for the obvious needs of others. The Christian life is not indifference to those who are hungry or sick or suffering from some other lack. It is not contentment with our own abundance, whether that is the abundance of middle-class living with its home and cars and clothes and vacations, or whether it is the abundance of education or even the spiritual abundance of good churches, Bibles, Bible teaching, or Christian friends and acquaintances. Rather, it is the awareness that others lack these things and that we must therefore sacrifice many of our interests in order to identify with them and thus bring them increasingly into the abundance we enjoy.

Paul wrote of the incarnation, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9 KJV). But this is also a statement of the atonement and of the Christian life. In fact, it occurs in a chapter in which Paul is speaking about the duty of the Christians at Corinth to give of their money for the relief of less fortunate brethren who lived in Judea. We will live for Christ fully only when we are willing to be impoverished, if necessary, in order that others might be helped.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.