For many of us, the only time we deeply consider Christ’s Incarnation—the Son of God becoming human—is during Christmas. As children, we spent weeks learning passages like Luke 2 to honor this event, with our teachers hoping we might, as messengers, rival the angels who first proclaimed this good news over 2,000 years ago. Despite all this preparation, the reality of God taking on flesh and blood—and all that it means for us—rarely held our full attention. Ironically, lesser gifts, destined for garbage heaps, often crowded out the timeless treasure of “God-made-flesh.” I’d love to say that as we grow older, we’re no longer easily distracted, but the pressures of life push the Incarnation’s meaning aside just the same.

Grasping the Incarnation’s full weight goes beyond acknowledging eternal good news: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). That’s just the beginning. The Incarnation offers just as much for today—for the here and now—as it does for eternity, speaking to our bodies as much as to our souls.

Jesus is not only a Savior who makes us fit for heaven with glorified bodies and souls; he also gives perfect meaning to our lives here, as souls and bodies needing and receiving redemption right now. After all, he became fully human, with flesh and blood just like us, though without sin. What greater dignity could he give to our humanity than this? When we reflect on the Incarnation in our daily lives—not just at Christmas or for eternity—we discover two vital truths relevant to every aspect of our humanity, including gender and sexuality.

Jesus understands our bodily struggles

Jesus, as the God-man, experienced, understands, and continues to comfort humanity in all its bodily struggles. By becoming one of us and facing every hardship and temptation, he provides daily hope to everyone in need. How? Jesus came as our substitute, bearing all our infirmities, carrying our burdens, and conquering our temptations, both in soul and body. He exchanged his life for ours. All his victories become our own, and all our pain, sin, and death became his on the cross. This comfort is for us in every struggle.

The writer to the Hebrews says: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

These struggles include not only our battles with sin, death, and the devil but also ongoing bodily conflicts like gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction—whether rooted in our sinful nature, as a result of a corrupted creation, or arising from other internal or external forces (Romans 5:12, Romans 8:18-21, Ephesians 6:10-12).

When you see Jesus lying in a manger as a baby, exhausted in the wilderness resisting the devil, or nailed to a cross pouring out his lifeblood, it is all for you—so that God might be with you, in your place, as a real human being, saying, “I understand, and I am here beside you in all your struggles.  I am here for you, no matter what.”

In the Incarnation, we find more than salvation for eternity. Because Christ took on our humanity and all its sufferings, we now have comfort for every struggle, body and soul. To each of us, the God who became flesh, says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Through his humanity, Jesus will never snuff out a smoldering wick, nor will he break any bruised reed (Matthew 12:20). Our struggles are not foreign to him; they do not alienate us from him. The opposite is true. He came near to empathize with us in everything.

Jesus defines true humanity

In his redeeming grace and victory over sin and death, Jesus also defines what it truly means to be human. Through his life of humility and exaltation, he exemplifies the ideal of humanity in every aspect—even in matters of gender and sexuality. In his role as the Christ who came to be with us, he turns us back to the ideals of selflessness, love for God and others.

To someone facing daily questions about holiness, wondering what God would have them do in their unique situation, and possibly hearing conflicting counsel from different spiritual leaders – Jesus cuts through the questions and simply says, “Come, follow me.” Oftentimes he gave direct teaching, denouncing greed and hypocrisy and idolatry. Other times he gave us indirect stories and images of what it looks like to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. It isn’t hard to sympathize with the disciples when Jesus wouldn’t speak as plainly as they wished. But they stayed by his side because, as Peter would go on to say after a particularly cryptic lesson from Jesus, “To whom else would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” They understood where true humanity could be found, and they clung to him.

By his victory over sin, death, and the devil, he also reveals to our broken world—especially to those who cling to him in faith—the ideal for humanity as gendered people and sexual beings. Through the Incarnation, we see that our original creation has been redeemed and sanctified. In Christ’s becoming one with us, we are once again called to chastity within marriage or, in singleness, to celibacy as men and women.

This is the wonder of the Incarnation. On one hand, Jesus shares in our suffering. Untainted by sin, he brings about our salvation in the fullest sense, both now and forever, securing the joy of sharing in his glory in increasing measure. On the other hand, Jesus calls his redeemed people to learn from him and follow his lead in living out the ideal he has already lived out for us. To all who are transformed by his grace, the Lord commands: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

God grant us a deeper appreciation of Christ’s Incarnation – an appreciation that not only celebrates eternal salvation in the life to come, but finds comfort in Jesus for all our hurt and failings of the body and soul right now. God grant us divine strength in Jesus to bring it all to him for relief and guidance, for all the days we walk the same troubled paths that he walked.