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The Greatest Mystery of All: When Infinity Became Infancy!
An Eight-Part Series Exploring Jesus’ Lifesaving Incarnation
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Part Four
As One of Us, Jesus Proves
God’s TOTAL COMMITMENT to Us
David Bryant
Introduction Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
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Early one morning, when I was five years old, I came within five minutes of dying!
What made the difference were two firemen willing to risk their lives by rushing into a house engulfed in carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty furnace.
That represented total commitment. They had to enter our home; there was no way to rescue me “remotely” from the outside. Of course, I remain grateful for their heroism. However, it lasted only a few minutes. After that morning, I never saw them again.
However, when God’s Son came to our rescue, he permanently took on flesh to enter and operate within the deadly sphere of our fallen humanity.
What he did was more like a firefighter rushing into a burning office building filled with cowering workers and staying in the thick of the flames and smoke until everyone gets to safety, no matter how long it takes.
In this sense, what Jesus did for us by the Incarnation is reflected best by remembering the first responders during the September 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City. When a host of them rushed up Tower Two to lead out those trembling in fear, they did so, knowing full well they might lose their lives in the effort—which hundreds did as the tower collapsed.
The Incarnation is like that. Christmas is about that kind of TOTAL commitment chosen by the God who made us—and who loves us enough to do whatever was necessary, at any cost, to come to our rescue.
Here’s irrefutable evidence
The Incarnation proves beyond any reasonable doubt that our God is personally and eternally invested in a victorious future outcome for the human race.
He did so for this reason only: to rescue us and secure for us our unceasing welfare as we overflow with God’s blessings for us forever. Today, he is actively reigning on our behalf.
Jesus, our “First Responder,” took action because he is committed to all that’s best for us—and he remains forever a true “friend of sinners.”
Just see how much God wants us!
By coming among us as one of us, Jesus became the sole advocate for our helpless cause—taking up our defense and prevailing once and for all. He’s the only lawyer we need before the bar of God’s righteousness and justice. And because of his redeeming work, he will prevail for the “not guilty” verdict for all who belong to him.
Despite how reprobate we humans have become, no matter to what extent we’ve manifested our rebellion against God, we can be sure of this: For those who repent and put their trust in him, God’s Son has become one of us to stand up for us—essentially because he truly longs to redeem us. He yearns to reconcile us to God. He’s driven to re-create us into his image. His passion is to restore us to fellowship with the triune God.
In other words, Jesus coming among us is proof that God really WANTS us.
Our God does not desire to proceed into the coming ages without us. Nor does he want to remain against us because of our sin. Rather, he wants to involve himself with us and for us so that he can have us with him and for his glory forever.
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” This unprecedented, good news resounds with exceeding great joy because it proclaims God’s total commitment to our salvation! The invasion of Jesus’ incarnation reveals God’s deepest intentions out of his unwavering love toward us.
On the other hand, God does not need us.
We must never assume that God became one of us out of some unmet need he had that only his redeemed children could provide him.
No, the fully sufficient Triune ruler of angels is complete within that eternal “circle of love”—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We read of our Redeemer in John 1:
Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make. Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it (John 1:1-2, TLB).
None of us can ever contribute one mite to the eternal blessedness of the Godhead. The Son is, was, and always will be infinitely perfect, utterly complete, and thoroughly fulfilled in his own nature and fellowship with the Father and the Spirit.
His coming down from glory into Mary’s womb was for our sake. His entering into union with us as one of us was totally to rescue us and reconstitute us with the glory of Heaven—because of our need to become all God meant us to be for his unending praise.
Despite its joys, Christmas is serious business.
At the same time, the invasion of the Incarnation convincingly demonstrates that God does not take lightly our sin and rebellion, our scorning of his glory, or our depravity before his majesty.
‘Tis the season to be jolly? Rather, first ‘tis the season to be sobered.
Christ’s eternal identification with the human race tells us there’s something profoundly intransigent about the nature of evil. It demonstrates God’s utter outrage with sin and his resolute passion for dealing with it—even if it requires the incomprehensible sacrifice of his Son at the hands of those very sinners.
For our Lord Jesus Christ to humble himself to become a man and die for us substantiates that there was, in fact, no other way to reverse humankind’s spiritual disaster apart from his incarnation that eventually led to his crucifixion.
However, we discover how Jesus embodies the Father’s unshakeable resolution to forever abolish all defiance, darkness, demons, and finally death. Jesus, one of us among us, has become for us God’s everlasting “NO!” to the reign and repercussions of sin and Satan.
As one of us, Jesus’ suffering for us is proof of God’s everlasting commitment to deliver us at any cost.
By God’s grace, Jesus fully experienced our destined demise in his unfathomable death, doing so in every person’s place.
Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family . . . 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 . . . he had to enter into every detail of human life.
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 (Hebrews 2, MSG).
Total commitment: A trinitarian transaction
Furthermore, our assurance rests in knowing not only that the Father sent his Son but also that the Son himself willingly took a personal, proactive initiative by coming for us. Hebrews 10 reminds us of this:
So when Christ came into the world, he said, “You didn’t want sacrifices and offerings. Instead, you prepared a body for me” . . . Then I said, ‘Here I am. It is written about me in the book. I have come to do what you want, my God.’” . . . We have been made holy because Jesus Christ offered his body once and for all time (vs. 5, 7, 10, NIRV).
About his own dedication to our salvation, Jesus adds:
The reason my Father loves me is that I give up my life. But I will take it back again. No one takes it from me. I give it up myself. I have the authority to give it up. And I have the authority to take it back again (John 10:17-18, NIRV).
Christmas and Golgotha
Above all other assurances of God’s commitment to us, surely Christ’s cross remains the prime evidence that God intends nothing but the best for us.
The intimate impoverishment of his stable cradle was necessary for him to reach the infinite impoverishment of his cross. His hands—once tiny, soft, and tender—were created to be pierced for us.
From the womb forward, Jesus submitted himself to our destitute condition to save us from it by sacrificing his physical being at the “Place of the Skull.”
He himself carried our sins in his body on the cross. . . . He did it so that we would die as far as sins are concerned . . . His wounds have healed you. You were like sheep wandering away. But now you have returned to the Shepherd. He is the one who watches over your souls (1 Peter 2:23-25, NIRV).
Our Savior’s sacrificial wounds will remain forever a visible witness to us of how thoroughly wedded he is to us and for us. As John observed in Heaven’s everlasting domains, recorded in Revelation 5:6-7:
Then, standing in the very center of the throne and of the four living creatures and of the elders, I saw a Lamb that seemed to have been slaughtered (Phillips).
What would God NOT do for us?
Considering the extent of God’s commitment to us revealed in Christ’s incarnation, we might do well to ask: What would God not do for us today, tomorrow, or a million years from now?
The Father’s ultimate dedication to our eternal welfare is seen in this: He so loved the world he gave his only dear Son for us. If, in fact, he did not withhold his very best from us at Christmas, is there any good thing the Father would keep from us in the coming new year—or for all of eternity?
That’s the firm persuasion of Paul as he declares this in Romans 8:
With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? . . . The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! (Romans 8, MSG, emphasis added).
Shouldn’t his TOTAL COMMITMENT to us cause us to give him our TOTAL COMMITMENT in return? Isn’t that the heart of the relationship we share with God’s Son?
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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!