Don Stewart :: Can God Become a Human Being?

Though it is not possible for humans to become God what about the possibility of God becoming a human being? Some three thousand years ago there lived a man named Job who was going through much suffering. Job did not think that God understood his pain. Job then cried out for a mediator between God and humanity.

Nor he [God] is not a man, as I am, that I may answer him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on both of us (Job 9:32,33).

Job's desire was for God to become a man so that He could personally experience the suffering and limitation that mankind endures. This desire expressed by Job was fulfilled. The New Testament records that two thousand years ago the eternal God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. When Jesus became a man He did not quit being God and God did not change. The Gospel according to John testifies:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . 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 1:1,14).

He Became Human On Our Behalf

Jesus suffered the limitation and humiliation of becoming a man on our behalf.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-7).

Jesus' coming to earth was for the purpose of revealing God to man and to be that mediator that Job desired. The Apostle Paul records.

For there is one God and One Mediator between God and humanity, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).

He Became A Human To Save Humankind

God did indeed answer Job's cry. For a short period of time God the Son limited Himself to a body in order to save all of humankind. Because He became like one of us, He is able to personally identify with the suffering and pain that we ourselves experience.

For in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:18).

The Bible teaches that God made the supreme sacrifice on our behalf. The Creator became like one of His creation for the purpose of making right the relationship that humankind had broken.

Summary

Human beings cannot become God but God can become a human being. Not only can God become a human being, he did so in the person of Jesus Christ. The New Testament informs us that Jesus left heaven's glory to come to earth. He did so to die for the sins of the world in order to save humanity from their sins. He made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of humanity in order to restore the broken relationship between the Creator and the created.