God Became Man
God becoming man means more than merely providing the prerequisite for the cross.
In the incarnation, the eternal Son united Himself to our humanity so completely that—from His conception to His death on the cross—Jesus didn’t exempt Himself from the effects of the curse from Genesis 3:16–19. Instead, He lovingly chose to suffer with us, in order to bring about cosmic reversal.
When God stepped into this dark world, He didn’t bring eternal darkness but light; not death but life. And not merely the best life we could imagine for ourselves, but eternal life—participation in the very life of the Triune God (2 Peter 1:4).
This made Athanasius say “God became man so that man might become God”—not that we become a “fourth person” of the Trinity, but rather that God came to where we are to raise us to where He is.
Let us meditate on this with joy and reverence.
