“Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but

a body You have

prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, „Behold I have come—in the
volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, oh God.‟” (Hebrews 10: 5-7)

I envision a farewell that must have taken place in heaven on the

first Christmas Eve. As mentioned in the opening verse, I imagine
the Son would have said good-bye to the Father and the Father to the
Son. The Scripture gives us a remarkable look at the heart of the
Savior before His birth.

He knew He was entering the world to be the final and ultimate sacrifice for sin. God
had divinely prepared His body specifically for that purpose. Jesus was going to die for
the sins of the world, and He knew it. Moreover, He was doing it willingly. That was
the whole point of the incarnation.

The important issue of Christmas is not so much that Jesus came, but why He came.
There was no salvation in His birth. Nor did the sinless way He lived have any
redemptive force of its own. His example, as flawless as it was, could not rescue men
from their sins. Even His teaching, the greatest truth ever revealed to man, could not
save us from our sins. There was a price to be paid for our sins. Someone had to die,
and only Jesus could do it.
Jesus came to earth, of course, to reveal God to mankind. He came to teach the truth.
He came to fulfill the Law. He came to offer His kingdom. He came to show us how to
live. He came to reveal God’s love. He came to bring peace. He came to heal the sick.
He came to minister to the needy.

But all those reasons are incidental to His ultimate purpose. He could have done them
all without being born a human. He could have simply appeared—like the angel of the
Lord often did in the Old Testament—and accomplished everything in the above list,
without becoming a man. But He had one more reason for coming: He came to die.

Jesus’ death, though devised and carried out by men with evil intentions, was in no
sense a tragedy. In fact, it represents the greatest victory over evil that anyone will ever
accomplish. As for why it was necessary, allow me to make just three simple points:

First, the Creator brought everything into existence for the express purpose of
engaging us in an intimate relationship for eternity. The magnanimous love He
has for us all, and the love He expects in return, has one requirement though. To
be reciprocated it requires an act of the will.

Second, human nature’s proclivity for imperfection separates us from the

presence of the Creator’s infinite holiness—by our choice. Since perfection and
imperfection will never peacefully coexist, we must either secure atonement for
our sinfulness or perpetually remain estranged from the Author of life.

Third, because extricating ourselves from the fallen nature and expunging our
own record is not possible, God did something for us that we could never
achieve on our own. He fashioned a body uncorrupted by sin to be sacrificed on
our behalf, in order to make amends for the imperfection of humanity.

Take another look at the manger this Christmas. Look beyond the tender scene, and see
what Jesus Himself knew even before He came—that He was born to die.

Roy Tanner

Essay uses content excerpted from John F. MacArthur, Jr., God With Us: The Miracle Of Christmas (1989)