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Incarnation
God in the Flesh
Sent on a Mission
There is a popular song on the radio for the last few years that Joan Osborne asks, “What if God was one of us?”
(play
clip--mp3)
It’s telling that the song gets so much air-time.
It tells me that people are asking the right questions! It's up to believers to
offer good answers.
What if God was one of us? What an intriguing concept! What would that look like? And what would that mean for us?
The amazing fact of Christmas is that God was one of us. Christmas is the very celebration of that moment when God became flesh—incarnation—God became one of us.
What if God was one of us? Would He not shine forth the glory of God? And wouldn’t do it in a way through which
we could actually understand God in fresh and powerful ways? Wouldn’t He be the walking
epitome of grace and truth? Wouldn’t what He did and said be recorded for all generations to benefit? And, the big question: What would have been His mission, his purpose for becoming one of us?
It is a pity that we only think of the incarnation at Christmas time, for it is
one of the most profound aspects of the Christian message. God became flesh—"incarnation." Divinity became humanity.
God had a body!
What does that mean? How does that change the world? What does it say to our lives?
1. God the Father Sent God the Son into the World
Why is the birth of a boy named Jesus in a little town called Bethlehem such a big deal? Why would angels sing praises to God’s highest glory, and of peace on earth and of
God’s favor resting upon humanity?
Because this is no ordinary birth—Mary has given birth to God! The Father is not Joseph, but God
himself has impregnated her, so that God could be born through her! And according to
Luke 2:10-12, the angel tells those frightened shepherds,
“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
The good news of great joy is that the Savior has been born—to them and
for them! He is “Christ the Lord,” the special title given to God become man, the long awaited Messiah (that is what “Christ” means). The Anointed One that will fulfill all the yearnings we have for God to connect with humanity.
In the Gospel According to John, in beautiful, poetic language, Jesus Christ is called “The Word"--the
very message from God, the perfect utterance from God as to who He is and what He is trying to accomplish. God’s Word—Jesus Christ.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
John says, “Oh wow! We, the apostles, have actually seen Him—His glory, the glory of the unique one, the “One and
Only,” the ONLY One who has come from the Father! There have been a lot of great religious leaders, there have been a lot of pretenders, but we have seen the One and Only One—the One who is actually, unequivocally, absolutely full of grace and truth!”
The “Word,” that is, Jesus Christ, was “with God” and “was God” from the very “beginning” of all time (this is an echo to the first verse in Genesis—saying that the “Word” has been always been—the “Word” is eternal, there never was a time when Jesus did not exist). Now, that eternal Word (look at verse 14!) “became flesh and made his dwelling among
us.”
Jesus
is God--always HAS been God. And there came a time when He was sent on a
mission. He left heaven and dwelt among us.
Jesus says, “The works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
(John 5:36)
The Father SENT Jesus!
Good news, Joan Osborne,
God indeed became "one of us!" God, who has always been Spirit, took on a body. The Son of God, who created the Universe, was born as a baby, lying in a manger. He grew to be a man, the greatest man who ever walked the earth, for he was not only a human being, he was God in the flesh!
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9) He was certainly fully human, but at the very same time, he was fully divine! Look at how he is described in the first chapter of Colossians!
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)
God had a body! And as such, he was the visible image of the invisible God! The One who created everything, the One who holds all things together was held in the hands of mother Mary. He was sent by His Father for a mission. He had a purpose!
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." (Colossians 1:19-23)
What if God was one of us? He was!
Now, here’s a question for you: Did you realize that Jesus has two bodies?
What? Two bodies? You’ve been waiting for this moment—the time when Bob finally
became a heretic. Wait a minute—bear with me as I point you to the verse I
skipped there in Colossians 1 (verse 18)—“And he is the head of the body, the
church.”
Or, as the same writer puts it in his first letter to the Corinthians, “Now
you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Cor.
12:27)
Jesus was God incarnate, God in bodily form.
And here is a very mysterious and profound fact as to what that means for us
today. Don’t miss this.
2. God the Son sends us into the world!
When Jesus left the planet in bodily form, the last thing he did was really profound.
It's recorded in John 20, verses 21 and 22.
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21-22)
Jesus gives his followers the Holy Spirit, and through the power of being indwelt by the divine, they are given a mandate.
Did you notice the parallel between the mission of Jesus and the mission of the
Church? Jesus says to them, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
In other words, Jesus, as God incarnate, was sent by the Father to do some incredible things. When those things were accomplished, he returned to heaven in that body. But he then created, in a sense, another body! He made his followers his body.
We, as the Church, are now called the “body of Christ.” We are therefore sent by Jesus to be God Incarnate in this world! We are not divine like Jesus was divine, but we are indwelt with divinity! We have the Holy Spirit!
Now, I want to encourage you to meditate on this for a few minutes. Let this
sink in.
I invite you to do a little mind
experiment.
Grab a pen and paper, and make two columns.
In the first column, write down
all the things that you can think of that Jesus was sent by God to do.
In the second corresponding column, write down for each item in Column One how we, as Christ’s body, are called to do something comparable to what Jesus did in his bodily form.
In what ways are we, the church of Jesus Christ
(his "body") supposed to mirror what Jesus Christ actually did when he was on
the earth in body?
Write me with your conclusions!
vanguardchurch@neo.rr.com
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