Why did God come to earth in the form of a baby?

This great question has been asked by many people, who put it this way, “Hey, if God can do anything, why didn’t he just appear as Jesus, the adult, instead of being born?”

Part of the answer to this question is Biblical. Jesus’ birth and the way He was conceived had to fulfill the Old Testament prophesies. The biggest part of those prophesies was the Virgin Birth, which clearly shows His divinity. He comes to the earth from outside, pure and clean, and He is in no way a product of this world.

More important though is that by coming as a baby, we can see the sign of his humanity. He is one of us in every way. He arrives from heaven with perfection and godliness of which no man or woman is capable - yet he takes the full human journey, which even God in heaven had not taken. How could we follow his footsteps as a man if we hadn't seen him crawl as a baby? How could we believe he had undergone all the temptation we have faced if he had bypassed the most difficult years in which we struggle to earn our adulthood?

It’s tough being a kid, right? But, Jesus experienced it. To make the full sacrifice on our behalf, Jesus had to make the full commitment of being born and growing up, facing all of the struggles and temptations that you and I struggle with. It wouldn’t have meant very much to us if he had sprung from heaven fully formed, bathed in heavenly glory, but never lived through the things we have to.

Thankfully, we see him first as a child in a manger. Then, we see him at the Temple as a boy on the verge of maturity, already about his Father's business. We see Mary and Joseph wondering at him, trying to understand, as he grew "in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people" (Luke 2:52). Finally, we see Him as a young man, quietly beginning a ministry that will change all of human history. We see him in the desert, wrestling with temptation and the matter of his destiny, and we know he is fully human. We see his love for children, and we can believe it because he, too, has been a child. And then, when He is crucified, we know He feels the pain that any man would feel. We are bought with a price that could never have been paid without the full burden of humanity having been accepted.

If He had been God only, His sacrifice would have been cheap and unconvincing. If He had been man only, His sacrifice would have had no power; He would have been a martyr like ten thousand others. But He was man and He was God, and therefore He was all in all. He came as a child to confront and conquer every challenge and every temptation common to humanity. We trust Him with our lives because He was God. We love Him with our hearts because we know that once He was a tiny baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.