Flesh and Blood (Libel)

Words carry power and beauty. Their meanings can have layers that create richness and depth. That is also the curse of words; sophists can exploit those subtle shades to veil the truth, like the serpent in the Garden.

Sophistry: subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation

I saw this subtle sophistry recently when a person on social media tried to defend her antisemitism. When someone pointed out to this Christian “influencer” that as a follower of Jesus she worships a Jew, she shot back.

“I worship God and Jesus was God in the flesh. The jews [sic] you simp for killed him.”

At first glance, it looks true. But words can look true while being false.

A Cacophany of Theophanies

The power of the incarnation of Jesus which we celebrate each Christmas is not just that Jesus was God in the flesh. That wasn’t new. In the Old Testament, God took on flesh several times to interact with humans. We call these Theophanies.

Theophany: a visible manifestation of a deity

Some Theophanies are the man wrestling with Jacob, one of the visitors to Abraham and Sarah telling them they would have a son, and the Lord of Hosts that visits Joshua before a battle. These were moments when God was in flesh with His people. But we don’t remember those moments with a holiday season. We should note that God did not always visit His people in human form. He spoke to them through visions, audible voices, and a burning bush. He was present with His people through the pillars of cloud or fire and the glory that filled the temple.

Incarnation Presentation

What made the Incarnation of Jesus Christ amazing was not being God in the flesh. It was coming to earth as a human. He didn’t just veil his glory to bring a message. He was placed in the womb of a young woman named Mary, was born as a baby like all humans, and grew into a Man. Going through all stages of life, but without sinning.

When the second person of the eternal Trinity became a man, He was born into a family. A family that had a hometown and a history. Into a people group with a set of traditions and ways of life. He was part of a nation. The Gospels stress that people knew Him as a member of a family from a particular place. “And they said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?’” [John 6:42, KJV]

He could have popped down to earth, took on flesh, died on the cross and took our sins away, but that would have been incomplete redemption. A sinless man had to shed his blood and die. Not just an enfleshed divinity acting like some redemptive shapeshifter.

Holy Nation Under God

God sat with Abraham at his tent to tell him he would have a son. From Abraham’s son would come a great nation. God spoke to Moses to give him the task of leading that nation from bondage out of Egypt. He affirmed to Joshua that the battle and victory was his when they took the land He had promised that people.

And this people would become the people from which His Son would be born. The Son of God would become the Son of Man.

Jesus is God in the flesh, because He was born as a Jew. Jewishness is an essential part of His incarnation. His people were the children of Israel so that through His blood sacrifice on the cross as a sinless  man, we could become the children of God. God doesn’t just give us a new life when we are redeemed, we are born again into the family of God. We become part of a holy nation (the church). Our redemption is a reconciliation with Him — and with each other.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26, KJV

The Word became flesh.

And in that Word there is no lie.

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Addendum: 12/9/2025

A day after I posted this blog post, I watched the “God the Son” video lesson for my Bible study on the Trinity* which covered many things I’ve written above. Coincidence? Unlikely!

In the video, the teacher mentioned something I think is profound enough to include and encapsulates why Jesus’s incarnation as a human is key to God’s whole plan of redemption. I will attempt to summarize. To wit, God could have come down and died on the cross in a moment and paid the punishment for our sins that way, but He could not have imparted upon us the righteous life that He lived as a holy man. It would be like getting out of spiritual jail, but not being adopted into God’s family. [He’s Where the Joy Is, by Tara-Leigh Cobble, published by Lifeway.]

This is part of God’s whole plan of redemption which includes not just atonement, but reconciliation.