People have offered sacrifices to various gods since the dawn of time. They would bring the appropriate animal into the temple and present it to their god according to the traditions of their people. The Old Testament Israelites built altars to offer burnt offerings to worship God or to obtain his favor and forgiveness. The Mayan people sacrificed humans to give their gods the vital liquid called blood. This practice was extremely common in ancient times, but it is rarely practiced in the world today. What major event would exempt us from making sacrifices to God in order to experience His supernatural grace and forgiveness? The event that ended our need to present sacrifices to God was redemption through the incarnation of His son Jesus. Jesus had to become incarnate, possessing both human and divine nature, in order to bring redemption to the human race. The incarnation of Jesus was the first step in God's plan to save humanity and restore our relationship with Him. This seems completely ridiculous to some, but it was necessary for Jesus to take on human nature. The Bible presents us with several passages of Scripture that reveal to us the true identity of Jesus as the second person of the Trinity. John 1:1-14 refers to Jesus, the son of God, as “the Word.” This explains that this “Word” was in the beginning, that it was God, that it became flesh and that it dwelt among us. Another passage found in Philippians 2:1-18 clearly states that Jesus shared the nature of God. Considered together, these two passages imply that the “Word,” which is Jesus, became human while retaining a divine nature. Jesus had to become a creature so that we could imitate him and follow his example. He is... middle of paper ... humans, we are not redeemed and still live a desperate life in sin. The Christian tradition as we know it today has been greatly influenced by the incarnation of Jesus and the redemption provided by his death and resurrection. If Jesus had not come down from heaven to earth and taken on human nature, our Bibles would be vastly different and we would still be offering sacrifices in the temples to atone for our sins. We could not meet God personally, because the veil would never have been torn. The idea that Jesus was both God and human in nature is impossible to completely understand, but it is vital to the validity of the message that Jesus preached during his time as a human being on earth. Without the incarnation and redemption, Christianity is not much different from other religions whose followers have little hope or assurance for the future..