Following on from yesterday’s post, here are, in summary eight reasons from Hebrews 2 why the incarnation was necessary:

1) Jesus needed to become human that he might lead us to glory (2:10). (see yesterday’s post)

2) Jesus needed to become human that he might call us brothers and sisters (2:11).

3) Jesus needed to become human so that he could die (2:9, 14). The pre-incarnate Son could not die.

4) Jesus needed to become human so that he could destroy the devil, who has the power of death (2:14).

5) Jesus needed to become human so that he could conquer death and deliver us from lifelong slavery to the fear of death (2:15)

6) Jesus needed to become human (like us in every respect) so that he could be our high priest – that is, our true representative before God and our effective mediator with God as the God-Man (2:18)

7) Jesus needed to become human in order to make propitiation for us (2:17). To make propitiation he needed to die, and so needed to be human. But, more than that, the substitutionary sacrifice for human sin needed to be of an appropriate kind, like-for-like. It was necessary that a human should die for the sins of humanity.

8) Because Jesus has been tested as a human, he is able to help with true empathy those who are being tested (2:17).

Praise God that God the Son became the Son of Man to help the sons of men.