Did God decide to save before he decided to create? Though this question is often considered abstract, its answer informs both the purpose and nature of the incarnation.
In The Justification of the Sinless, Brendan Case argues that God the Son would have become incarnate even if humanity had never sinned. The incarnation benefits creation in many ways besides redemption. Indeed, it is the ultimate reason for the creation of the cosmos itself.
Case develops his argument primarily by drawing upon the work of Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1168-1253). Though neglected today, this brilliant medieval theologian drove the 13th-century debates over the incarnation. Building on Grosseteste, Case provides a compelling set of exegetical and theological arguments for the supralapsarian thesis. If the incarnation is logically prior to the fall, then God always planned to endow creation with a glory beyond estimation.
