The Pre-Incarnate Christ and His Body's Eternal Change
by Barbara Latta
This is a chapter from my book, Redemption, the Heartbeat of Christmas, What the Birth of Christ Means to the World. This book is not only about Christmas, it is about why Jesus appeared as He did. Jesus was born so He could die and rise from the dead. He was born so we could have Easter.
The Word of God became flesh for us, but that change also affected Him.
Age changes us. Because of our Eden ancestors our bodies degenerate. We do all we can to physically young. Nips and tucks, creams and lotions, hair dyes and make-up provide temporary fixes.
But we can also change for the better mentally and emotionally when we learn from our youthful experiences. We can grow in wisdom.
Every day after we are born our bodies start to deteriorate. We don’t see the effects of this change right away because babies and children’s bodies don’t reflect wrinkles and sags.
The result of sin is in our
DNA. Thankfully these aging physical changes are not eternal. One day we will
receive an immortal, age-immune body but for now we must live with the fallen
flesh we inherited.
What about the physical body of Jesus? He exchanged His
heavenly form for a limited physical body, yet His had no fallen nature. His
substance altered when He left the presence of the Father to live on earth.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth (John 1:14).
Jesus existed in eternity past as the Word of God (John
1:1). He was there at the creation of the world. In the Old Testament, He
showed up as the Angel of the Lord. He visited Abraham and Sarah, Hagar talked
with Him in the desert, He wrestled with Jacob, and He stood before Joshua with
a drawn sword.
He was forever with God and is God, yet He was willing to lay aside the benefits of deity to become a human.
