Why God Became a Man
R. Christopher from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates asks:
We have been witnessing to an Arab Muslim. His question is “We are not in a position to judge God. He created pain and knows what are its extremes more than man. Does the clayman need to become clay to know what is clay?”
Ray Pritchard’s answer
Your Muslim friend has it backwards. God did not become a man so that he (God) would know what we are like (he already knew that–he made us) but so that we would know what he is like. The clayman does not need to become clay to know what is clay, but the clay will never know what the clayman is like unless the clayman becomes clay himself. This is the whole point of John 1:14. “The Word (that is, the eternal Son of God) became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.” And John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” The Muslim agrees with the first part of this–no one has ever seen God–but the Muslim religion leaves it right there.
Here we see the fundamental difference between Christianity and Islam. Islam posits a transcendent God, high and lifted up, far removed from us. Christianity says that God so loved the world that he not only cared for the world, he entered the world in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the purpose of the Incarnation is for God to know,
It’s for us to know God.
Visitor Comments:
May 25, 2009, 4:43 PM Common ground says: | |
 | Can a believer in Christ expect the Lord to answer prayers that involve God opening a door or leading the Christian to a job that both glorifies God and satisfies the believer? And is it wrong to pray for the hand of God to lead the believer to a job that the believer desires? Todd |
May 30, 2009, 11:37 AM Ray Pritchard says: | |
 | Excellent question. Sometimes we tend to think that God’s will is so exalted that it must always be the opposite of what we desire. I think the biblical view goes something like this. If our hearts are truly open before the Lord, we should expect that many of our desires were actually put there by God. It’s usually a good idea to ask, “What are the passions of my life?” because those passions ultimately come from the Lord. A man may have a passion to write and end up using it in ways that dishonor the Lord, but that doesn’t mean the desire to write is itself dishonorable. So when you pray, ask the Lord to help you to do his will, and then expect to find joy in doing his will. When we are satisfied with what God has provided, then he is glorified and we are delighted. That’s the ultimate win-win situation. |
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