Acts 2:22
Why is it significant that one of the names of God is “man”? We have spent half of the year looking at God’s character, His power, His might, His love, His Lordship,… the list is long. “Man” seems so out of character for God. “Man” is beneath God, because He is above all, knows all, sees all, is everywhere, created everything and God is our King. But it is true, God became “man” in Jesus.
God becoming “man” was completely His idea, part of His plan. He knew that the only way we could be in relationship with Him was for our sin debt to be paid, and He knew that the only way we could pay our debt would be with our lives, our own blood poured out as payment. He wanted relationship with us so deeply, He decided to make another way for our debt to be paid. He left His perfect home in heaven and came to earth so He could die in our place. His blameless perfection was the only substitute valuable enough and pure enough to take our place. There was no other option for us. Jesus lived on this earth just as you and I do, and He died a tortuous, humiliating death to cover the cost of our sin because He wanted to buy us back out of our death sentence. He chose to become man.
God becoming “man” is the best gift we have ever been given. God trading His life for mine/ours is the most meaningful, rich, costly, and selfless gift I can imagine. Never will there be another gift more valuable. It is valuable because He gave His own life for you and me, and didn’t have to do it. He could have let us live and die on our own. If He had chosen to leave us on our own, the first time we sinned, our relationship with Him would have been over. We couldn’t have been in His perfect presence again with sin separating us. Because He loves us and desires relationship with us so desperately, He gifted us a replacement for our payment of sin so we could be washed clean and still be able to commune with Him. I am amazed at His gift.
God becoming “man” is pure grace and generosity. We do not deserve His payment for our sin. No one is good enough to make the cut on our own. God’s love is different than our love. His is so enormous, so full, so rich and completely unconditional, He was willing to pay whatever it cost Him to buy us back. He knew He was the only perfect payment, the only possible replacement and He was willing to lavish us with exactly what we didn’t deserve.
The only reason for God to take on the name “man” was to save us and wash us clean so we could have relationship with Him. This name of God reminds me of His enormous love for us, His willingness to give up His only Son, His grace because I am so undeserving of His gift, and His perfect knowledge because He knew we would need to see His actual life on earth to be able to believe His plan. This name of God might be the most humble name He has. It stops me in my tracks to fall face down in His presence in gratitude to Him.