God's Passion
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1-3, 14
The Apostle John’s description of the incarnation is one of the greatest pieces of theology ever penned. The eternal Son of God, at a point in time, left the halls of heaven where He had reigned in glory and became a human being.
Without compromising His deity, He took on full humanity. This alone is an amazing reality worth pondering.
However, to truly appreciate the incarnation, we must ask the question “Why?” Why did God send His Son to earth? Why go to all the trouble? Why didn’t He simply shrug off humanity’s ill-fated lurch for independence and start over? Moreover, why would He let His Son not only come to us but also suffer horrible humiliation and die a terrible death?
If you’re a bit theologically educated, you know that God was faced with the dilemma of choosing between love and justice. Since He is perfect in both, He needed a way to satisfy the latter as well as hold on to the former.
He needed to find a way for humankind’s sin to be paid for. The only payment that would be valid would be “atonement” whereby someone without sin dies in the place of those who have sin. This required the Word to become flesh and dwell among us and ultimately die for us.
That makes sense as an equation for why Jesus had to come and die. But the incarnation is more than an equation. It’s an emotion. God wanted us back. He wanted it the way it used to be way back in the beginning.
God is not some cosmic CEO who is determined that the universe runs efficiently. He’s not some heavenly accountant who is intent on things adding up and working out.
He is a being full of passion for His creation. He has memories of and longing for how everything had begun so perfectly. God longed for it to be back the way He had intended it to be and was willing to sacrifice His Son to make that possible.
The fact that Jesus came to us, lived among us, and died for us, is proof of our sin and need for a savior. However, it goes deeper. God longed for YOU to be part of the glorious restoration. He pursued YOU.
The fact that Jesus came to us, lived among us, and died for us, is proof of our sin and need for a savior. However, it goes deeper. God longed for YOU to be part of the glorious restoration. He pursued YOU.
And when you move to that point, the emotion of the incarnation, the longing for everything and everyone to become new, will not only be God’s. It will be yours.
PRAYER
Lord, all too often I have considered Your incarnation in theological terms as a problem to be solved. I see now that it was also intensely emotional as You saw me as a person to be pursued. May this fresh awareness trigger my worship as well as my witness.
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