Perhaps the most wondrous fact of the incarnation is that it made it possible for the Immortal One to die! The living God cannot die. Man’s sin deserved and demanded death (Rom. 1:32; 6:23), thus dooming man to an eternal destiny separated from the God of Life (Isa. 59:2; 2 Thess. 1:8-9). God in love devised a way to provide salvation for sinful man without compromising His own just and righteous Character. Serving as man’s Substitute, He would Himself pay the death penalty for sinful man. In order for this to be done, God must Himself become a Man "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9). The Immortal One cannot die, but God took upon Himself our humanity and the God-Man could die and did die for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 3:18).

Yes, He was born to die. His very purpose for coming into this world was to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15; John 3:17), and this saving work was accomplished, not in Bethlehem’s cradle, but on Golgotha’s cross. His birth made His death possible; His death made our salvation possible. The Bible describes it this way: "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).

Let no one misunderstand the significance of the incarnation. God became flesh, and God became a Man, but He did not become the Son. He became a partaker of flesh and blood, and He "was made like his brethren" (Heb. 2:14,17), but it was not by His incarnation that He became the Son of God. John chapter 1 teaches that the eternal Word was made (became) flesh (v.1,14). Paul used similar language is used to communicate the fact that the Son "was made (became) of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3). He who ever was the Son of God became the Son of David by human birth. The eternal God became a man, born of the house and lineage of David. The eternal God did not become the Son of God.

The Lord Jesus once posed a question to the Pharisees which they could not answer: "What think ye of Christ (the Messiah)? Whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them...If David, then, called him Lord (in Psalm 110:1), how is he his son?" (Matthew 22:42-45). The Pharisees were silenced by this question, but years later this very question was answered by another Pharisee whose eyes had been opened by God’s grace. The answer is given by the Apostle Paul and recorded in Romans 1:3-4. Whose son is the Messiah? In His humanity ("according to the flesh") He is the Son of David (Romans 1:3). In His deity He is the Son of God (Romans 1:4), and thus He is David’s Lord. His resurrection was the final proof that He was everything that He claimed to be.

The Lord Jesus did not become God at the incarnation, nor did He become the Son. The incarnation was when God’s eternal Son assumed our humanity, without ceasing to be God. The Son of God became the Son of Man, that we, the sons of men, might become the sons of God (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26). May we ever be filled with wonder and praise for His condescending love and grace by which He stooped so low in order to raise us so high! "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1).