Today, 3rd day of Christmas, we celebrate the big feast day of the Holy Family of Nazareth: Jesus, Mary & Joseph.
Q. This is God we are talking about. He didn't need to be man to save us from damnation.
A. First, God had to become man because essentially sin is first of all a creature's turning away from God. To restore the previous status quo, that creature has to - using its freedom - turn back to God. Basically, the offender is the one who repents; the offended is the one who forgives.
In the case of sin, mankind is the offender; God is the offended. Mankind has to repent and turn back to God, and God then forgives. God cannot do the repenting and turning back. Man has to do it. If I murder your wife, I pay the penalty not my grandmother. I am the offender, not my grandmother. So man has to be the protagonist in repentance.
On the other hand, an offence is of greater gravity depending on who is offended. If I slap your small sis, that's bad enough. If I slap you, that's a bit more serious. If I slap your mother, that's on another level all together. So offences against God are infinitely grievous because God is infinite.
But man - a finite creature - cannot make infinite repentance for the offence he has caused the Infinite Being. Only an infinite being can make infinite repentance... And there is only one infinite being...
Man needed to make INFINITE REPENTANCE. Only the God-Man could do this. As God he could fulfil the 'infinite" part; as man could fulfil the "repentance" part.
Happy Feastday of the Holy Family!
27thDecember 2015