Christianity: Incarnation and Redemption

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People have been offering sacrifices to various gods since the beginning of time. They would bring the appropriate animal into the temple and present it to their god according to the traditions of their people. The Israelites in the Old Testament built altars to present burnt offerings to worship God or obtain His favor and forgiveness. The Mayan people sacrificed humans to give their gods the life-giving fluid of blood. This practice was extremely common in ancient times, but is rarely practiced anywhere in the world today. What major event would take away the need for us to present sacrifices to God in order to experience His supernatural grace and forgiveness? The event that ended our need to present sacrifices to God is redemption through the incarnation of His son Jesus. Jesus had to become incarnate, possessing both a human and divine nature, in order to bring redemption for the human race.
The incarnation of Jesus was the first step in God’s plan to save humanity and restore our relationship with Him. This seems completely ridiculous to some people, but it was necessary for Jesus to take on human nature. The Bible presents us with several passages of Scripture that reveal to us Jesus’ true identity as the second person in the Trinity. John 1:1-14 refers to Jesus, the son of God, as “the Word”. It explains that this “Word” was in the beginning, was God, and became flesh and dwelt among us. Another passage found in Philippians 2:1-18 clearly states that Jesus shared God’s nature. When these two passages are considered together, they imply that the “Word”, which is Jesus, became human while at the same time maintaining a divine nature. Jesus had to become a creature so that we could imitate Him and follow His example. He ex...

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...human, we are not redeemed and are still living hopeless lives in sin.
Christian tradition as we know it today has been greatly influenced by the incarnation of Jesus and the redemption provided by His death and resurrection. If Jesus had not come down to earth from heaven and taken on human nature, our Bibles would be extremely different and we would still be offering sacrifices in temples to atone for our sins. We wouldn’t be able to personally encounter God, because the veil would never have been torn. The idea that Jesus was both God and human in nature is impossible to completely understand, but it is vital to the validity of the message Jesus preached during his time as a human being on earth. Without the incarnation and redemption, Christianity is not much different than any of the other religions whose followers have little hope or assurance for the future.

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