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You may be thinking, “What in tarnation is incarnation?” Well, maybe you’d say it that way if you’re Yosemite Sam, but you might still be wondering what incarnation is. Literally, it means to be in the flesh, from the Latin in meaning “in” (duh) and carnis meaning “flesh.” We as human beings living on this earth are technically all incarnate, meaning that we are all in the flesh.

The main reason that incarnation is important is that Jesus, too, was incarnate when He came to earth around two thousand years ago. The fact that Jesus became totally human meant that He had the same human emotions and desires that we do - He got hungry, tired, thirsty, lonely, sad, happy, etc. He felt the same temptations to go against God that you and I feel. He was totally and fully 100% human.

But, Jesus still remained totally and fully 100% God too, even while He was present on this earth. How can that be? That is one of those things that is simply a mystery to our human brains, because it really doesn’t make sense logically speaking. Jesus had both a divine nature and a human nature at the same time. Many theologians have pondered on and argued over this for many years, but it’s simply one of those things we need to take on faith because God is God and we are not.

We see in John 1:1-18 that Jesus (referred to in that passage as the Word) was with God before the beginning of time, and the world was created through Jesus (v1-3). We see later on in verse 14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus became incarnate - a human in the flesh - and came to earth to dwell among us humans. But at the same time He came from the Father so He is still fully God.

Jesus had to be both fully incarnate as a human and yet still fully God in order to save us. Only God has the power to raise from the dead, and only a human would be an adequate sacrifice for our sin. I personally am extremely thankful to Jesus that He loves us enough that He was willing to leave the perfect world of heaven for a time and become incarnate to live with us on this smelly, dirty, sin-filled earth!