The Evangelical Purpose of Christ's Incarnation

"Not that this [human] dignity stems from the incarnation. It is right at the beginning that 'God created man in his own image...' (Genesis 1:27). The very possibility of the incarnation of the Son of God itself rests on our possession of the image. It is because man fundamentally reflects the personal character of God that God himself can take on flesh and blood. We can make sense of incarnation only in the light of what we know already about the constitution of man as the highest of all the creatures of God, whom God has made for fellowship with himself. The high dignity which this confers upon human existence is radically underscored by the union of divine and human natures in Jesus Christ... in our human state apart from sin - that human experience into which Jesus entered - we are the glory of the entire creation. We are made like him... we are made for him, for fellowship with him to all eternity. The real marvel of the incarnation is not that God should become man, but that he should do so for us men and for our salvation."

From pages 26-27 of Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Complete in Christ: Rediscovering Jesus and Ourselves, Paternoster 1997 [Marshal Pickering, 1989]. Emphasis and gender-specific language in original.