A Christian Guidebook: Who Is Jesus? (4)

“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” John 17.4

The honor of God
In Cur Deus Homo, his great dialog on the reason for the Incarnation of the Son of God, Anselm of Canterbury, explained to his student, Boso, that God had to become a man because He desired the salvation of men so much. And, since there was nothing men could do to save themselves, God would have to restore them to His original purposes in the same way they had initially fallen from them. As a man had been the occasion of humankind’s fall from grace, so only a Man, and only One capable of perfect obedience, and thus also God, would be able to accomplish the salvation God desires for us.

Jesus Christ became the God/Man to take away the pains of death and restore people to a path of obedience and abundance before God, by bringing them salvation through His own active and passive obedience. Thus He set God’s eternal plan on a fast-track toward glorious fulfillment.

Another reason for the Incarnation, Anselm explained, was to restore to God the honor that sin had taken from Him. Anselm explained, “to sin is nothing else than not to render to God his due.” To which Boso asked, “What is the debt which we owe to God?” And the Archbishop replied, “Every wish of a rational creature should be subject to the will of God…For it is such a will only, when it can be exercised, that does works pleasing to God…He who does not render this honor which is due to God, robs God of His own and dishonors Him; this is sin. Moreover, so long as he does not restore what he has taken away, he remains in fault; and it will not suffice merely to restore what has been taken away, but, considering the contempt offered, he ought restore more than he took away.”

Jesus, the Son of God became a Man to restore both the blessedness of human beings and the honor of God.

The demand of justice
God cannot restore His own honor merely by compassion, Anselm explained. He cannot simply wave off our sins and forget them. This would be to dishonor Himself by ignoring His justice. As Anselm explained, “It is not fitting for God to pass over anything in His Kingdom undischarged.”

Further, simply to forgive sins without appropriate payment for them would be to remove any difference between those who are guilty and those who are not, “and this is unbecoming to God,” Anselm insisted. Moreover, to do this would be to equate injustice with justice, and even to equate injustice with God Himself, because He forgives injustice without proper judgment.

“God maintains nothing with more justice than His own dignity,” Anselm wrote. “Therefore the honor taken away must be repaid, or punishment must follow; otherwise, God will not be just to Himself, or He will be weak with respect to [the just and the unjust alike].” God’s justice must be satisfied if His honor is to be vindicated and restored, and for God to allow His honor to be neither vindicated nor restored would be to make injustice equal to God.

When Jesus prayed that He had accomplished the work for which God had sent Him, and had glorified Him on earth (Jn. 17.4), this is what He had in mind. Jesus restored the honor of God by His work of obedience, and, by so doing, He has made it possible for us to honor Him henceforth in every aspect of our lives. But the greater glory of God, which Jesus had already fulfilled in His heart and mind, was accomplished on the cross of Calvary, and then, out of the tomb on the first Easter morning.

To glorify God in all things
“Man’s chief end,” the catechism declares, “is to glorify God.” We could not glorify or hono, God, but would instead only continue to dishonor Him, apart from the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dead in our trespasses and sins and inclined in our hearts only to disobedience, we need a power beyond this world to rescue us from our transgressions and to set us on a path of knowing and glorifying God.

We were created to know, love, and glorify God; and this is the life in which we know our greatest joy and fulfillment. But more important than this, the life of redemption is that life which alone can give to God the honor and glory and praise which are His due, and which we are enabled to offer by the grace of Jesus Christ our Savior and King.

Why did God become a Man? Because we all have incurred a debt we cannot pay, the debt of honoring God according to His due. He made us. He gave us life. He fills our lives with good things. And His goal in this is that, through thanksgiving and praise, we might honor and glorify Him and, in so doing, know the joy of His pleasure and fullness of life. Jesus came to restore us to such a life, that we might honor and glorify God and thus know abundant life in Him, precisely as He intended.

Search the Scriptures
1. According to Paul in Romans 3.10-20, what are the effects of our being fallen in sin?

2. How did God restore us from this fallen condition (Rom. 3.21-26)?

3. For those who are thus restored, how should they seek to honor God (vv. 27-31)?

Next steps—Demonstration: Jesus honored God, thus making it possible for us, through His obedience, to honor God as well. How will you honor God today?

Additional Resources
For a free copy of Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo, click this link.

If you have found this study helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.