The Incarnation, Part 2: The Moment When Jesus Became UNITED to Us

The Incarnation, Part 2: When Jesus Became United to Us

The Greatest Mystery of All: When Infinity Became Infancy!

An Eight-Part Series Exploring Jesus’ Lifesaving Incarnation

——————————————————————————————————–

Part Two

The Moment When Jesus

Became UNITED to Us

David Bryant

Introduction      Part 1

 ≈≈ ≈≈ ≈≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈≈≈≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈

In the late 20th century, AT&T created an ad campaign based on the tagline “Reach out and touch someone.” The lyrics by the popular singer and actress Diana Ross begin with these words:

“Reach out and touch somebody’s hand.
Make this world a better place if you can.”

In a sense, that beautifully describes another dimension of the lifesaving incarnation of God’s Son.

Of course, as we read in Scripture, God had touched innumerable lives from the beginning before that mysterious miracle took place.

But then, he went a step further: He reached out and “touched” us by his invasion through the Incarnation

Only as God the Son became human flesh so that he could literally touch someone as a human being—as one of us—would he ultimately be able to redeem this world and transform it into the flourishing domain he always meant it to be (before sin and evil forces entered in).

That brings us to PART TWO of our eight-part series about this profound wonder of Christmas.

PART ONE dealt with the first dimension: “How, in Jesus Christ, the entirety of the Deity deliberately took on frailty for us,” which you can read HERE.

Now, let’s tackle the second dimension of the MIRACLE of miracles:

“To do what Christ has done for us, he first had to be UNITED to us.”

To get a better appreciation of this dimension, consider this question:

Is a “Jesus-less” gospel even possible?

Thomas Jefferson famously went through the four gospels and literally cut out every reference to anything supernatural, creating a combined gospel story filled with helpful teaching on practical living by a popular first-century rabbi. This was our third president’s way of creating a world defined only by what you can see and touch.

But let’s take it a step further.

Try to imagine the gospels without any Jesus in the story. Of course, there would be no miracles. Also, there would be no words of rabbinic wisdom. There would not one syllable of “good news” (gospel) either. No hope. No promise. No healing. No comfort. No forgiveness. No deliverance. No triumphant new beginnings. No prospects of victory over death and life evermore in fellowship with the God of grace and glory.

The fact is that the good news of salvation the Church is sharing all over the world is credible and forceful because it is rooted in a PERSON—unlike any other who has ever walked this earth and yet very much like us in so many ways.

As God-in-the-flesh, Jesus invites us to do what Jefferson desired to gain by his attempt to make the Jesus of the gospels seem more human and more relatable.

Through the revelatory ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus makes it possible for those who trust in him to build a relationship with him that’s almost like seeing and touching him. We vow our allegiance to someone who has experienced various limitations, exasperations, and inspirations that we all encounter daily.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:6 that our hearts are filled with knowledge of the God of incredible glory, but it takes place “in the face of Jesus Christ”—carried out as if he were standing in front of us. That may not be literally so—not until the day our Savior King returns in victory. But it is nonetheless a fact that God draws his people into a level of passion for his Son that is made possible because we know that regarding his humanity, he is just like us. He has our face!

But there’s more to why God the Son had to take on our flesh.

Everything God had ever decreed for the salvation of his fallen creation required that the Lord Jesus Christ should come among us, as one of us, to be seen by forever to be with us—all of this for us.

In other words, Christmas celebrates the solemn reality that the living God had to become UNITED to us, taking on our flesh permanently, expressly to save us.

Look at how the apostle John reflected on this dimension of the Incarnation many decades after Jesus ascended to rule on the Throne of Heaven—in a resurrected human body, I remind you. Here’s the prologue of his first letter (and note the words I’ve emphasized):

Here is what we announce to everyone about the Word of life . . . We have heard him. We have seen him with our eyes. We have looked at him. Our hands have touched him. That life has appeared. We have seen him.

We are witnesses about him . . . He has appeared to us. We announce to you what we have seen and heard.

We do it so you can share life together with us. And we share life with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3, NIRV, emphasis added).

John is clear that for those who did not have the privilege of walking with Jesus, listening to Jesus, eating with Jesus, sailing with Jesus, or even hugging Jesus, just knowing the fact that the “Word of Life” (one way to describe Jesus’ deity) is now and forever united to us as one of us should be enough to bring us into intimacy with Jesus.

This unrepeatable gift holds the key to our sharing a personal, deepening fellowship with God’s Son that is as real and “down to earth” for us as it was for those who had the privilege of spending three years with him 24/7.

To say it another way: This stunning, divine intervention landed, of all places, in a very physical womb formed deep in the body of a teenage Jewish virgin.

Taking it a step further, we could say that the second person of the Trinity chose to reduce himself to a supernaturally fertilized egg, attached to the wall of a uterus.

That’s what the true implications are of this familiar passage Christians worldwide read every Christmas:

Do not be afraid, Mary . . . You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must call him Jesus. . . . That kingdom will never end. . . . The Holy Spirit will come to you. The power of the Most High God will cover you. So the holy one that is born will be called the Son of God. . . . Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1, NIRV).

It doesn’t get more tangible than that! A virgin about to “become pregnant” means God’s Son was about to “empty himself” (Philippians 2:5) into a human body to become inseparably, eternally fused to us as one of our race, to save us and then reign over us forever.

But we’re only getting started in exciting discoveries of what the incarnation brings us. Here’s one more. Consider this well-known ancient observation:

“Christ became what we are
so that we could become what he is.”

That oft-quoted insight, written in the fourth century by Church father Athanasius of Alexandria, is found in his best-known treatise, The Incarnation of the Word. There, Athanasius expands on that miracle this way:

Christ took a human body, born of a pure virgin in whose womb he made human flesh his own, in which to reveal himself, conquer death, and restore life . . .

He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our weakness, and lowered himself to our corruption.

He could not bear to let death have mastery, to allow these creatures to perish, and his Father’s handiwork come to nothing, and so he took on a body, no different from ours . . .

Since only death could stop the plague, the Word took a mortal body, so that all who become united with him might receive his immortality.

Paul tells us in Romans 8:28-29 that God is at work in everything going on in our lives, determined to bring about the greatest possible good for us—our being conformed to the image of Christ, so he might be the primary brother of many brothers and sisters who are just like him.

However, this glorious destiny awaiting every Jesus follower requires the prior step of our Savior taking up residence in a woman’s womb to be united to us in our humanity, and to become, therefore, the head of a redeemed family that reflects all of the marvelous characteristics we can see in “God in the flesh.”

That leads us to a thought that almost takes my breath away:

Humanity’s fate once rested
with the fate of a fetus in utero.

In other words, there was a time when the future reclamation of the universe resided in a helpless baby—not unlike every newborn baby you can view in the nursery at your local neonatal unit. But that vulnerability guaranteed that God’s Son had become fully united to us, as one of us.

This was no phantom, illusion, or mythical hero. As Isaiah foresaw six hundred years earlier, it would be a real, live, vulnerable baby marked with mortal flesh who would come into the world, bringing extraordinary repercussions for God’s Kingdom purposes as a result.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows—light! sunbursts of light! . . . For a child has been born—for us! The gift of a son—for us! He’ll take over the running of the world (Isaiah 9:2-6, MSG).

Our eternal hope entered the world by the travail of his mother, was wrapped in rags, laid in a dirty feeding trough, and exposed to germs and diseases in a barn. He was dependent upon parents in poverty and was soon to be hunted down by a ruler who wanted him dead.

Yes, clearly, he was exposed to earth’s brokenness from his first cry. Our salvation hung by a thread, as it were. Only the grace of God could preserve this “man of sorrows,” born among the “poorest of the poor,” until some thirty-three years later, his “hour” to complete his redemptive mission had come (see John 17).

Christmas: A festivity about infancy

While still a defenseless infant nestled on his mother’s breast, this average-looking infant ignited incredible festivities. Praise to God came from those who grasped how Jesus’ advent—his taking on sinful flesh and being born among us—would make everlasting salvation possible for us and all creation.

The angels began the celebrations by announcing to astonished shepherds that “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” had just been born nearby. But having delivered their message, the heavenly hosts could not contain themselves but continued proclaiming a benediction sealed by this newborn child for the ages—to paraphrase them:

Let God’s glory now fill the highest reaches of the heavens while the reconciling peace of God descends upon the human race.

But in addition, consider these two worshippers who saw Jesus about eight days after his birth.

Simeon was an older gentleman so devoted to God that the Lord had taken him into his counsel, reassuring him that before he died, he would witness the coming of the Messiah. One day, when Simeon arrived to worship in the temple, he spied the little one in Mary’s arms and instantly knew this was the Promised One. We read this in Luke 2:

Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God. He said . . .

“My eyes have seen your salvation. You have prepared it in the sight of all nations. It is a light to be given to the Gentiles. It will bring glory to your people Israel . . .

This child is going to cause many people in Israel to fall and to rise“ (Luke 2, NIRV).

That day, there was also a widow named Anna who was full of extraordinary devotion to God and had never left the temple for decades. She worshiped Jehovah day and night with fasting and prayers. Luke tells us that when she saw the tiny infant Jesus, she also knew this was the Redeemer foretold long ago, the Messiah, now among us in the flesh. And we read:

[Anna] gave thanks to God. And she spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the time when Jerusalem would be set free (Luke 2:38, NIRV).

Of course, let’s recall that all this postpartum jubilee was preceded by the revelry lifted up by Mary shortly after the Holy Spirit had come upon her, overshadowed her, and impregnated her supernaturally. It is recorded in Luke 1 and reads in part:

I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten—
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. (Luke 1:46-50, The Message, emphasis added).

In this joyous yuletide, as we reflect on what we have just explored here, how can we do otherwise than join the festivities that have been taking place for over two thousand years. We must also sing the praises of the one from among us of whom the book of Hebrews writes in chapter 2:

Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death.

By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death . . .

Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed (The Message, v. 14-18, emphasis added).

Let’s join with Mary, Simeon, Anna, and the choirs of heaven—as well as with Charles Wesley, who wrote the 18th-century carol “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” Pause right now and, speaking the words out loud, worship the God who has become UNITED to us, as one of us, forever!

Christ by highest heav’n adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth…
“Glory to the newborn King!”

————————————————————————————————————————

About the Author

Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!

0 Comments

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Similar Posts

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?