(20) God Is with Us (BC 18)

The ancient church struggled to believe that God could truly become man. A heresy called Gnosticism taught that matter is evil; surely God could not become a physical being. Some people suggested that the incarnation was only an illusion. Jesus only appeared to be human but was, in fact, pure Spirit. Today, the more common view is just the opposite. Jesus is often presented as merely a very good man. Both of these views miss the beauty of the incarnation. The great mystery of godliness is that "God was manifested in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16).
The point of this lesson is to help us understand and value the incarnation of the Son of God.