The Book of Genesis begins with, “In the beginning God…” Before there was a where or a when, there was the Eternal God. He was both self-existent and self-sufficient. “He was before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). Not only is He self-sufficient, but all things are dependent on His sufficiency. He supplies life to all creation and contains the sufficiency to sustain life to every living creature. God made the universes by speaking them into existence, and they are held together by the Word of His power.
The Incarnation is the embodiment of the Word, where the flesh did not just contain the Word, but the Word was made into something that it had never been before. The Word was made human, lived among its fellow beings, became sinless flesh, and that flesh knew no sin. He became flesh that fully possessed the Spirit of God and possessed the same potency as in creation, but was confined to function within the framework of humanity. The life of this sinless flesh was the Spirit of God who was animated by the full measure of the Holy Spirit. Yet to fulfill all righteousness, He had to engage in what would be required of sinful flesh. Jesus was baptized in water symbolizing the requirement of death for the inherent sin within the members of fallen humanity. There was no need for the Holy Spirit to fill Him, for His Spirit is one with the Holy Spirit. He descended on Him gently like a dove to confirm His rights and to engage fully in the works of God in the earth realm. The life of His flesh was the Spirit of Almighty God.
The Word that became flesh then had to become what Christ had never been before. The Messiah, the Christ of God, became sin for us or sin on our behalf. He could only become sin as result of the Word becoming flesh. Then, sinless flesh was then capable of carrying the sins of the world. He came into the world for a worthy cause. Flesh that was eternally separated from God by sin and condemned to die an eternal death was given the opportunity to live. As death was a stranger to humanity before Adam sinned, eternal death is a misnomer to those who only think of life as they currently consider it to be. Eternal death is to be in an eternal state of dying, and the fear and the pangs of death become their habitation. Yet Jesus came to give us eternal life, a life that postures the individual that receives His life to be in a constant state of living and discovering the eternal adventures awaiting those who enter in. What a waste of time if all our hope was in this life only! If discovery and adventure can exist in this miniscule episode called time, how much more must be awaiting us when we explore with Jesus the mysterious and intriguing adventures of eternity? Christ came to give us much more than we can ask for, see, or currently understand. But He must be fully received and acknowledged if we are to live with Him and in Him as enjoying the full benefits of our salvation.