The CatechismGlobal Methodist Church
Question 10 of 77 · Ecumenical Affirmations

Why did the Son of God become human?

For us and for our salvation.

Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 10

Session 2Is Jesus God?Opens at 9:26, where question 10 begins.
Commentary

The Son of God came down from heaven for us and for our salvation. The creed says it in those words: "For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven." Article II of the Articles of Religion teaches that the Son "took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin" in order "to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice" for sin. Article VIII of the Confession of Faith teaches that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," and ¶102 of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline points to the incarnation as the place where God's love toward fallen creation is made manifest.

The Son came for us: for the world, and for every person in it. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17). Everyone has sinned; Paul says so plainly: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," and sinners "are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24), so that God "might be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). ¶102 calls this justifying grace, received by faith.

The Son came for our salvation, and there is no other way to it. Jesus said, "I am the road and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me" (John 14:6), and Peter told the Jerusalem council, "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). When the Philippian jailer asked what he must do to be saved, he heard, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31), and Romans 10:9 speaks of that trust together with confession of Jesus as Lord. Paul writes to Titus: "having been justified by that one's grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7).

The one who came down is still at work. Hebrews says "he is able to save completely those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them" (Hebrews 7:25), and Article II of the Confession of Faith calls him "eternal Savior and Mediator, who intercedes for us." A Methodist can approach God at any hour because the Son who came down for us still intercedes for us.