What Did God Do That Was So Amazing and Unimaginable?

The previous post left us with this thought:

God could have destroyed all this and started again,

Or perhaps he could have just walked away.

But he didn’t. Instead, He did something truly amazing and utterly unimaginable.

So, what did God do that is truly amazing and utterly unimaginable?

The short answer is Jesus Christ: his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and more. 

Let’s focus on one of these—the incarnation.

What is the incarnation?

“Incarnation” comes from the Latin incarnatus, which means “to make flesh.” In descriptive terms, it refers to God becoming fully human without diminishing his deity. 

Many would challenge this bold proclamation, yet the life of Jesus Christ and the text of holy Scripture attest to its truth. Let’s look at some of the evidence.

John 1:1-18

The man who penned John’s gospel knew Jesus Christ well. He was probably over 80 when he composed the gospel account that bears his name. In it, he tells us things he had seen Jesus do and heard Jesus say. 

Echoing the first words of Genesis, John writes this of Jesus Christ (John 1:1-2):

In the beginning was the Word, and 

                                    the Word was with God, and 

                                    the Word was God. 

He was with God in the beginning.

A few sentences later, we read (1:14):

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Eugene Peterson, in The Message, renders this verse as: 

The Word became flesh and blood,

And moved into the neighborhood.

God entered time and space as a human being—and his name is Jesus.

Luke 1:30-35

The physician, Luke, gives us an additional perspective with the testimony of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:30-35):

…the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Much more evidence confirms this incredible and unimaginable truth. Here are just three more:

Genesis 3:15

Within God’s pronouncement of judgment directed at the “serpent,” God includes a wonderful promise for humanity, often called the protoevangelium, a combination of two Greek words, protos meaning "first" and evangelion meaning “good news” or “gospel.”  

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, 

and between your offspring [seed] and hers; 

he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” 

Commenting on this text, Bruce Waltke (Genesis, 94) writes:

God announces a battle of champions, and there will be a seed that conquers Satan. Because natural Adam has failed, ultimately the woman’s offspring must be a heavenly Adam and his community (see Dan. 7:13-14; Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:45-59; Heb. 2:14; Rev. 12).

Isaiah 9:6

The prophet declares: 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Philippians 2:5-8

The apostle Paul writes what many scholars consider an early Christian hymn: 

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing, 

taking the very nature of a servant, 

being made in human likeness. 

And being found in appearance as a man, 

he humbled himself and became obedient to death

— even death on a cross!

I recall a Bible teacher concluding from this text that “absolute deity was poured into holy humanity, and not a drop was lost!”

All these statements from the Bible (and many more) speak of the incarnation—God becoming a human, whose name is Jesus. 

The uniqueness of Jesus

If we examine Jesus’ history carefully and honestly, we discover many things that we humans share and do not share with Jesus Christ. Jesus was born and grew, ate and drank, worked and slept, and demonstrated his humanness in so many ways. Jesus was unquestionably human. 

However, there is much that is unique about Jesus that demonstrates his undeniable deity. The conception of Jesus is one of those things we do not share—his conception within the womb of Mary is unique, as was his death and resurrection.

You might argue that all humans die, and there are incidents of humans being resurrected, such as

• Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:41-56) and
• Lazarus (John 11:38-44).

It should be noted that those resurrected were raised to continue living their previous (mortal) life. In contrast, Jesus was resurrected in newness of life—in a recognizable body yet with qualities that we do not possess (e.g., John 20:19-21:14).

Although Jesus shares our humanity, vital elements of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus are unique. In every respect, he was without sin, and he pleases the Father in all that he is and does. 

Returning to the incarnation, we necessarily encounter the uniqueness of the conception of Jesus. His conception was utterly different from any other conception. Although Jesus had a biological mother, he had no biological father. As such, he was not pro-created by a descendant of Adam and was never “in Adam.” He was a new type of human being—the prototype of a new humanity.

Summing up

We began with the question, what did God do that is truly amazing and utterly unimaginable?

The answer is, in general terms, the Father sent his Son, who is eternally coexistent and coequal, to be a human.  In short, God sent Jesus.

What does this mean? And what is God’s purpose?

These are questions for our next post.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and questions.

FORWARD TO the next post in this series

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