Question: Why was Jesus born as a baby who had to grow up? Why didn’t he just come as an adult?
Bill Warren answers: Let’s start thinking about this question by putting it into the context of historical revelation, a key foundation for Christian faith. What is meant by historical revelation is that God has actually revealed Himself in history in various ways, so we don’t have to guess as to who God is or how He acts or what attitude He has toward His creation, for we can base our views on how God Himself has shown Himself to be. Our faith is not mere speculation, but rather has the historical underpinnings of actual events and people. That is part of what separates our faith from mere personal opinion or even philosophy—we believe that God has revealed Himself in human history.
Building on the idea of historical revelation, the coming of Jesus is the pinnacle of that revelation, the highest expression ever since Jesus was God Himself who came to show us who He is in words and actions (including His redeeming work on the cross). As we often say, “if you want to see God, look at Jesus!” Historical revelation is about God revealing Himself in a way that we could understand, and supremely we see this in the person of our Lord Christ Jesus.
So moving to our main question, if we are going to understand who God is, He is going to have to communicate to us on our level in a way that is comprehensible to us. That is the strength of what God has done by having Jesus born as a human being. Jesus knows exactly what it’s like to be human at all stages of human life from infancy to adulthood and from birth through death, and so no matter what stage of life we may be at, we have the assurance that Jesus knows what that stage of life is like. We are able to understand what the historical Jesus is communicating because He came down to our level.
But was Jesus truly human, or just God pretending to be human? Christian belief says that Jesus was 100 percent human and 100 percent divine, and that to deny either is heresy (a denial of revealed truth in part). With the birth of Jesus, God came into this world as a human being, born in the historical town of Bethlehem, 100 percent human and yet also 100 percent divine, the Word who became flesh (John 1:14). Jesus was born as a baby because He was 100 percent human, not just God pretending to be a human. If He had come as an adult only, we almost certainly would have thought of Him as God pretending to be a human, but not really being human. The humanity of Jesus is affirmed by His birth and His entire life. His divinity is also affirmed, of course, with the resurrection being the crowning affirmation of that.
On the human side, the incarnation lets us know that God understands what it is like to walk in our shoes, for He was truly human during His earthly life span (Hebrew 2:14-18), yet He did not sin. If Jesus had come only as an adult, He would never have known the challenges of growing up as a human. The wonder is that God became incarnate among us at all, yet He was willing to become human so that we could understand who He is due to His great love for us (John 1:18). And our response is that we should be thankful and live our lives such that they might reflect that thankfulness as we seek to be like Jesus.