LIVING IN THE REALITY
OF CHRIST’S INCARNATION
The
Christmas story is surrounded with miracles, not the least of which is God
becoming incarnate and dwelling among humans in the flesh. The incarnation of
Christ should never be neglected as a significant miracle, for its implications
reach beyond personal preference and into eternal matters. We should live in
the reality of Christ’s incarnation and his continued incarnation to this day.
I have three primary suggestions and a conclusion regarding the implications of
living in the reality of Christ’s incarnation.
Our Incarnate God Is Righteous
First, our
incarnate God, Christ Jesus, is righteous. Scripture tells us that Jesus serves
as our high priest, giving us great comfort since he was tempted as we are but
did not sin (Heb 4:15). Christ’s righteousness was necessary for him to be the
perfect sacrificial lamb. While our nature is evil, Christ’s nature is
righteous. This is why the virgin birth is so crucial. If Christ was not born of
a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit (rather than a man), he was conceived
in sin. His righteous nature, however, demanded that he be born of a virgin and
conceived by the Holy Spirit. Recently, a popular preacher proclaimed that it
is more important for people to believe in the resurrection than the virgin
birth. This is blatantly false; the two are equally important. If the virgin
birth did not occur, Christ’s sacrifice would have been in vain, for the price
was an unblemished sacrificial lamb, namely the Lamb of God. Our incarnate God
is righteous. There is no bipolarity; he is fully God and fully man, yet with a
righteous nature vastly disparate from our own.
Our Incarnate God Sympathizes with Us
As we live
in the reality of Christ’s incarnation, we should take comfort in the fact that
Jesus himself sympathizes with us (Heb 4:15). He was not only tempted as we are
and used to sympathize with us, but he continues to sympathize with us as well.
Christians do not often consider the continued incarnation of Christ. While he
is certainly in his glorified body, he is, nonetheless, fully human to this
day. Therefore, he continues to understand our present groanings. I once spoke
of this mystery with someone who seemed shocked that Jesus is still human.
“What do you think happened to him upon his ascension,” I asked? She responded,
“I just assumed he became a spirit.” Contrarily, Jesus remained God in human
flesh, and one day we will be able to behold the Lamb who was slain (Rev 5:6). We
do not serve a God who does not understand what we face; rather, we serve a God
who presently understands and sympathizes with us because he is human. The
incarnation ensures his relationship with us as humans. The incarnation implies
that Jesus is not far out there but right here with us as God who currently
sympathizes with us.
We Share in Our Incarnate God’s Sufferings
Because
Jesus continues to be incarnate and because he understands human suffering, we
should also share in his own sufferings, for indeed, that is our call as
Christians (1 Pet 4:13) and the very mark of who we are in Christ. Suffering is
usually shed in a negative light, but in this matter, the glory of Christ is
revealed through our sufferings; it is a noble and joyful experience then. Kallistos
Ware says it well:
We should not say
that Christ has suffered “instead of us,” but rather that he has suffered on our
behalf. The Son of God suffered “unto death,” not that we might be exempt from suffering,
but that our suffering might be like his. Christ offers us, not a way around suffering,
but a way through it; not substantiation, but saving companionship.”[1]
One might wonder how Christ still suffers. Scripture makes
clear the concept of Christ’s suffering through the church’s suffering. On the
Damascus Road, Jesus appeared to the Apostle Paul (Saul at the time) and said,
“I am Jesus whom you persecute” (Acts 9:5), i.e. it was not primarily
Christians whom Saul persecuted, but it was, in fact, Jesus Christ.
Additionally, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims, “Blessed
are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is
great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt
5:11-12). Suffering should be a part of our very existence as Christians, but
rest assured that it is not primarily us who are persecuted but Christ himself.
In our unpleasant trials, Jesus is there with us and is indeed the very one
being persecuted; therefore, we should take joy in our call and participation
in the sufferings of Christ. The incarnation of Jesus safeguards his
sympathy for us and his suffering with us.
Our Incarnate God Does Not Only Obey the Word, but He Is the Word
Jesus is
the perfect fulfillment of the law because he is the law (Rom 10:4); he is the
word made flesh (John 1); and he indeed is God himself. He is the perfect
example of righteousness because he is righteous. Christ then is the ultimate
model for life and for righteousness. We should not consider Jesus to be only
deity, for he is also human. If we need an example of righteous living as a
human being, we should look no further than Jesus Christ. The incarnation of
Jesus Christ reveals a matchless level of relationship and understanding. God
humbled himself and became a man through the womb of a virgin named Mary. He
was conceived by the Holy Spirit in righteousness rather than sin. He faced
every temptation we face; yet, he was blameless. He died as the atoning
sacrifice for the sin of his people and was then raised in bodily form and
ascended in the same manner. Jesus did not only obey the word; he is the word,
i.e. the entirety of Scripture points to him as the center of all existence.
We, therefore, should look to Jesus, God incarnate, as the author and perfecter
of our faith and as the model for righteousness with the realization that we
serve a living God who remains incarnate.
