[In] order for Jesus to suffer and die, he had to plan it way ahead of time because, as the logos [word] who existed before creation, he couldn’t die — immortal. He didn’t have any body. He could not die. And yet he wanted to die for you.
So he planned the whole thing by clothing himself with a body so that he could get hungry and get weary and get sore feet.
The incarnation is the preparation of nerve endings for the nails. That is what the incarnation is.
The incarnation is the preparation of a brow for thorns to press through.
He needed to have a broad back so that there was a place for the whip.
He needed to have feet so that there was a place for spikes.
He needed to have a side so that there was a place for the sword to go in.
He needed cheeks, fleshy cheeks, so that Judas would have a place to kiss and there would be a place for the spit to run down that the soldiers put on him.
He needed a brain and a spinal column with no vinegar and no gall so that the exquisiteness of the pain could be fully felt.
I just plead with you. When you are reading the Bible and you read texts like he loved you and gave himself for you (Galatians 2:20), you wouldn’t go too fast over it.
Linger, linger, linger. And plead with him that your eyes would be opened.
– John Piper, “Why Jesus Needed a Body”
MAGNIFY CHRIST 