The Pre-Incarnate Christ and His Body's Eternal Change

 

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.

Christ the Passover Lamb

God instituted the Passover in the book of Exodus as a reminder of the deliverance of the Hebrews and as a symbol of the future sacrifice of Jesus. For centuries the Jews were to choose an unblemished lamb on the tenth of the month (Exodus 12). They were to take the lamb home, nourish, cherish, and feed the animal until the fourteenth of that month.

Why wait four days? By this time the family could be attached to the fluffy creature.

Maybe God used this to show us the pain His heart would feel to give His Lamb to earth. He chose His spotless Lamb and sent Him to live with a family. He became their cherished Son, the friend of sinners, the healer of the sick, the teacher in the synagogue. 

God let Him play with the children, fish with the fishermen, eat with the disciples, and feed the multitudes. God had to show us this was personal. The worst pain the Father would ever feel was coming.

God had to allow His Son to die.

He didn’t drive the nails into the wood, but He had to turn His back while Roman soldiers brutalized His Son. God withheld His judgment against those who betrayed Jesus and those who pulverized His Son’s body.

The sinless one was punished instead of those who did the wrong. The Passover Lamb died. The darkness of sin separated the fellowship of the Trinity for the first time ever (Matthew 27:46).

The Pre-Incarnate Christ and His Body's Eternal Change

The Son of God submitted Himself to exist in a different form for the rest of eternity. Have you ever thought about that? 

After the resurrection, He returned to heaven in a glorified body, but He is now different than He was before conception in Mary’s womb.

When Jesus subjected Himself to come to earth as a baby, He lived in a human body—a form He never had before. He was raised into a glorified body like we will have in heaven. So why did His body keep the scars of crucifixion, and why will He have them forever?

• The scars will show us the expensive cost of sin.
• The scars will remind us of how much He suffered.
• The scars will reflect His love throughout all eternity.
• The scars will reveal that Satan is defeated.
• The scars will prove He died and rose from the dead.

Something so precious had to die so something so ugly could live. Because without Jesus, we are sinful, decaying flesh. Only God could think that was worth dying for.

Jesus’ form changed forever when He was born as a baby.

Redemption shows us how much we are loved. When we realize how much we are loved we can express this love to others too. The scars Jesus bears forever do not diminish His immortal glory. 

John the apostle fell to his knees when the radiance of the risen Christ surrounded him on the island of Patmos. The scars depict the victory Jesus won.

We celebrate because Christ was born. He was born so He could pay the wages of sin and redeem us (Romans 6:23).

Death couldn’t hold Him.

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. (Revelation 1:18)

Redemption was planned in eternity past so we could have redemption now. 

The King of kings was born to offer Himself as a human sacrifice to show us how valuable we are to Him. He was willing to change His form forever—all because of us. (click to share on X)

 A copy of Redemption, the Heartbeat of Christmas is available on Amazon. 

Join the conversation and share your thoughts about what redemption means to you.