And The Word Became Flesh

From Karl Barth, Credo (Wipf & Stock 2005):

But the object of divine action in the Incarnation is man. God’s free decision is and remains a gracious decision: God becomes man, the Word became Flesh. The Incarnation means no apparent and reserved, but a real and complete descent of God. God actually became what we are, in order to actually exist with us, actually to exist for us, in order, in this becoming and being human, not to do what we do – sin; and to do what we fail to do – God’s, His own, will; and so actually in our place, in our situation and position to be the new man. It is not in His eternal majesty – in which He is and remains hidden from us – but as this new man and therefore as the Word in the flesh, that God’s Son is God’s revelation to us and our reconciliation with God. Just for that reason faith cannot look past His humanity, the cradle of Bethlehem and the Cross of Golgotha in order to see Him in His divinity. Faith in the eternal Word of the Father is faith in Jesus of Nazareth or it is not the Christian faith.