The Incarnation: God's Saving Work in His Humanity

The fall of man, as described in the book of Genesis, was a monumental event in human history that drastically altered the course of humanity's existence. It was the moment when humanity's disobedience towards God resulted in a separation from their Creator, commonly known as "original sin." This separation is the fundamental reason why all humanity is subject to sin and death, unable to perfectly obey God and restore their relationship with Him on their own. Because of Adam's sin, and Adam as the original representative of the human race, human beings, as an entire race, are imputed with that guilt.

However, God in His infinite wisdom and grace did not leave humanity in this state of separation. He already had a plan to redeem humanity from their sins and restore the broken relationship with Him. This plan was fulfilled through the incarnation, one of the central tenets of Christianity and the fulfillment of God's promise to send a human being rescue us from sin and death.

Throughout the Old Testament, there were many figures known as "types" of the Messiah, who were human beings that revealed aspects of God's ultimate plan to send His perfect Son, Jesus. However, these figures were not the Messiah themselves, and always fell short of God's perfect standard of righteousness. The Messiah, or savior, had to be sinless and perfectly fulfill God's requirements of the law in order for the judgment and wrath that God would pour out on Him to be sufficient. While many of these figures, such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, or David, demonstrated qualities of the coming Messiah, none of them were able to fully bear the weight of the monumental task of being the Messiah.

For a time, God established a system of priests and animal sacrifices as a way for the Israelites to communicate with Him and atone for their sins. This system was established as a temporary measure to point the Israelites towards a greater, more perfect mediator.

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament explains this, stating "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect" (Hebrews 10:1) and "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). These sacrifices, while they were ordained by God, could not truly atone for the sins of the people and could not fully satisfy God's wrath.