Why God Became Human
A meditation on the Incarnation.
Have you ever wondered why the Incarnation was necessary? Have you ever wondered why God had to become human to accomplish our salvation? In his masterful work Cur Deus Homo (Why the God-Man?), Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), one of the greatest theological minds of the Middle Ages, attempts to offer an explanation for this question. The work is framed as a dialogue between Anselm and his friend Boso.
I will offer some commentary on a few chapters from the Cur Deus Homo. These chapters form a major part of Anselm’s overall argument, describing humankind’s overwhelming situation of debt to God. I will close with a brief reflection on the significance of the Incarnation for us today.
A debt we cannot pay
Anselm begins his book by contemplating the problem of sin. In the medieval feudal world in which he lived, serfs would live and work on the land of their lord. Since they lived on the lord's land, they owed him their obedience. Making use of this image, Anselm proposes that “to sin is nothing other than to not give God what is owed to him.”1
But God is the ultimate lord. So, “what is the debt which we owe to God?”2 Anselm answers: “all the will of a rational creature ought to be subject to the will of God.”3 We owe to God, the lord of the universe, a debt of honour, “righteousness or uprightness of the will.”4 This is where Anselm begins. As lord, God is owed our righteous obedience. And sin is not giving to God what he is owed.
To be in debt to one's lord is a fearful thing. It is to be “in a state of guilt.”5 And merely repaying this debt is not enough. If we break a vase in a museum, for example, we should of course pay to have it repaired. But, in addition to this, we should also do something to restore the relationship, such as take the museum curator to dinner. Thus, “it is not sufficient merely to repay what has been taken away: rather, [a person] ought to pay back more than he took, in proportion to the insult which he has inflicted.”6 The situation is not encouraging. As Anselm’s dialogue partner Boso puts it, “I have nothing to say in contradiction, though you frighten me a little.”7
However, Boso wonders, couldn't God simply forgive a sin? Why must it be repaid? Forgiveness, after all, would seem to be an easy solution to the problem Anselm describes. And it even has biblical support: “when God teaches us to forgive those who sin against us, he seems to be ... contradictory—in teaching us to do something which it is not fitting for him to do himself.”8 However, Anselm replies, this solution is not satisfactory when it comes to God who is lord of the universe. In Chapter 12, he argues that allowing sin to go unpaid makes sin “unregulated,” which is “extremely unfitting” for a lord to allow.9 Justice and order require that debts be regulated.
In Chapter 19, Anselm discusses the implications of our sin and debt for salvation. He offers a thought experiment to demonstrate that “mankind cannot be saved without recompense for sin.”10 Imagine a man who has “a precious pearl—one which no dirt has ever touched.”11 Suppose, also, that the man allows some “malignant person” to get the pearl muddy. Would it be “wise” for the man to take it, “dirty and unwashed,” and “put it in his treasure-chest, which is where his dearest and most precious possessions are?”12
Surely not, answers Boso. And yet, Anselm argues, this is exactly the situation of humankind. Originally innocent in the Garden of Eden, we are now tainted by sin. Thus, we cannot enter heaven (God’s treasure-chest) without our sins cleansed (without our debts paid). It is therefore “an absolute certainty, that God cannot remit a sin unpunished, without recompense, that is, without the voluntary paying off of a debt, and that a sinner cannot, without this, attain to a state of blessedness.”13
Our situation thus seems dire. Is there any way we can repay our debts that could save us? No, Anselm concludes in Chapter 20, making clear that “a human being cannot, of himself, make this recompense.”14
Is there any hope?
The rhetoric of Anselm’s argument is extremely powerful. He presses the same question to Boso again and again: “Tell me, then: what payment will you give God in recompense for your sin?”15 Boso proceeds to offer the usual candidates: “penitence, a contrite and humbled heart, … the showing of pity through giving and forgiveness, and obedience.”16 But these, Anselm replies, are what human beings already owe God. Since God made us out of nothing, we are his bondservants and already owe him our whole being in total obedience. The tragic question before us is therefore this: “what are you giving God that you do not owe him?”17
It is worth pausing to reflect on this. What answer would you give? Seriously, what could you ever give to God that you did not already receive from him first? What hope is there for humanity in our desperate situation of debt and sin?
If you are starting to panic, so does Boso. Citing Scripture, he takes refuge in Jesus. (Always a good move.) If we have placed our faith in Jesus, then we are clothed in his righteousness, and he has paid our debts on the cross. Amen.
But Anselm reminds Boso that they have entered into this exercise to see what can be demonstrated about the Incarnation by pure reason. “So we have,” Boso admits. In classic Scholastic fashion, Book I of the Cur Deus Homo closes with Anselm unabated. “Let us proceed, then, by reason alone.”18
But where does that leave us? Is there any hope in this situation of debt and darkness?
Thankfully, there is. In fact, our hope lies in the very impossibility of our situation. In Book II, Anselm will go on to argue that our debt is so large that only God could pay it. And yet, it is our debt to pay: a human must make the payment. Thus, the fundamental problem confronting humanity is that our debt “no one can pay except God, and no one ought to pay except man.”19 In a striking conclusion, Anselm finally infers that the only way to solve the problem is that “a God-Man should pay it.20
So, according to Anselm, that is why God had to become human. There was no other way to accomplish our salvation.
As we approach Christmas this year, I am thankful that He did. The Incarnation is God's decisive answer to humanity's deepest problem. It is the Ultimate Christmas Gift, from the Ultimate Lord of the universe. And that, my friends, is tidings of great comfort and joy.
Merry Christmas, shirelings.
“And the Logos became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we gazed intently at his glory: a glory like that of One uniquely begotten from the Father, overflowing with a gracious Gift, and with truth.” John 1:14 (CJV)
1. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11, trans. Janet Fairweather, in Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works, ed. Brian Davies and G. R. Evans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998).
2. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11.
3. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11.
4. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11.
5. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11.
6. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11.
7. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.11.
8. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.12.
9. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.12.
10. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.19.
11. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.19.
12. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.19.
13. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.19.
14. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.20.
15. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.20.
16. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.20.
17. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.20.
18. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, I.20.
19. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, II.6.
20. Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, II.6.