Hebrews 2:14,15–The Incarnation of Christ Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We are not to set aside a special day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We have no warrant from the Word of God to do this. But we certainly do not set aside the event of the Incarnation itself. It was essential for our salvation. The saints of the Old Testament looked forward to this event and we look back to it, and to all that followed upon it. What does this text teach us about Christ’s incarnation? In the first place, it teaches us the reality of the Incarnation. It was that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took part of our flesh and blood. Not a nature similar to ours, but the very same. He did not bring His humanity from heaven, as some have taught; it was made of Mary’s substance. Angels fell, but they were let go; mankind fell, but God held on to His elect. The covenant of works failed in Adam. The covenant of grace was revealed to Abraham, the father of the faithful, the model of justification by faith. So Christ “took on him the seed of Abraham” (v.16). Scripture shows us that Jesus grew in His human nature, intellectually, physically, spiritually and socially (Luke 2:52). We learn of His varied emotional experience, His rejoicing, groaning and weeping (Luke 10:21; John 11:33, 35). We see His hunger, thirst and tiredness (Matt.4:2; John 19:28; 4:6). All these things show us that Christ was sent “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom.8:3), meaning that our Saviour took part of our humanity as weakened by the fall, though He Himself was exempt from original sin through His unique conception. We learn that Christ was even tempted. “He himself hath suffered being tempted (v.18). But, “God cannot be tempted with evil” (Jam.1:13). Christ was not tempted in His divine nature but in His full, real, sinless human nature. God indeed became man in Christ. Jesus is one with His people. Secondly, it teaches us the reason for the Incarnation. It was to destroy the devil. Christ could have destroyed the devil absolutely in an instant by His divine omnipotence, but He did not. The devil still exists and will exist through all eternity! What Christ did was to destroy the devil’s power over the church. Satan has the power of death. What gives death its awful power? “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1Cor.15:56). The devil is the jailer of the prison house of God’s justice; but Christ by His obedience in righteous life and sacrificial death has satisfied the requirements of divine justice and so drawn the sting of death for His people. He has disarmed the devil. Finally it teaches us the result of the Incarnation. It was deliverance for every believer. Do you know anything of the fear of death? Surely we all do. We fear what is beyond the grave. But God’s elect know this fear in an intense way, when they are awakened spiritually and conviction of sin comes upon them. They realise the awful bondage they are in: they know the consequence of sin but cannot deliver themselves from the practice of it and indeed the love of it. They fear having to give an account to a holy God. We all need to hear and heed these words of Jesus: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Oh, trust in Him and His cross, by which He conquered the devil and purchased a blessed freedom for the helpless sinner. Truly, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”