How does the Incarnation bring rest and give courage when "things just aren't the way they're supposed to be?"
How does the incarnation bring rest and give courage when “things just aren’t the way they’re supposed to be”?
We live in between the times. There is an epoch of human history behind us, marred by the curse, and with only the whispered promise of redemption. We live on the fulfillment side of that epoch. But there is an epoch left to come - the epoch of culmination when all things will be made fully right. Today we live in a world where redemption is already unfolding but the curse is still lingering. And that means while life can be objectively beautiful and we have been carried out of exile back to unimpeded access to the face of our God, relationships, work, our wants and dreams, and our world still just are not quite right.
Enter the hope of the incarnation.
In Hebrews 9 (our CBR this week) the Apostle says, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” In John 1, the Apostle John picks up this same image when he says “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us”.
In the Incarnation there is an eternity of distinction between God entering his creation and God assuming his creation. Merely entering is him interacting with his creation which leaves open the real possibility of condemnation and destruction. But in assumption God united his creation to himself - and more specifically the pinnacle and head of his whole creation, man.
Our God who is omnipotent (all powerful), and omnipresent (always there), and omniscient (all knowing), and impassible (unable to be forced to suffer) took to himself finitude and frailty for the sake of redeeming it. The moment God the Son assumed the form of a blastocyst in the womb of Mary he guaranteed the whole and complete redemption of the cosmos. Once God had set in motion to do it, it was as good as done. At the moment of his conception by the Holy Spirit the work was still to be accomplished but it was never in jeopardy. Today, a very great amount of the work is accomplished but it is not yet finished. But that does not put it in jeopardy.
Because God willed to unite his creation to himself you can be absolutely certain that a day is near to hand when all parts of that creation will for all times be all the way healed. As Charles Spurgeon put it - incarnation prophesies salvation. So when things feel just not quite right (or majorly not right) remember that in the incarnation God committed himself permanently to the project of redemption and he will see it through.
We live in between the times. There is an epoch of human history behind us, marred by the curse, and with only the whispered promise of redemption. We live on the fulfillment side of that epoch. But there is an epoch left to come - the epoch of culmination when all things will be made fully right. Today we live in a world where redemption is already unfolding but the curse is still lingering. And that means while life can be objectively beautiful and we have been carried out of exile back to unimpeded access to the face of our God, relationships, work, our wants and dreams, and our world still just are not quite right.
Enter the hope of the incarnation.
In Hebrews 9 (our CBR this week) the Apostle says, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” In John 1, the Apostle John picks up this same image when he says “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us”.
In the Incarnation there is an eternity of distinction between God entering his creation and God assuming his creation. Merely entering is him interacting with his creation which leaves open the real possibility of condemnation and destruction. But in assumption God united his creation to himself - and more specifically the pinnacle and head of his whole creation, man.
Our God who is omnipotent (all powerful), and omnipresent (always there), and omniscient (all knowing), and impassible (unable to be forced to suffer) took to himself finitude and frailty for the sake of redeeming it. The moment God the Son assumed the form of a blastocyst in the womb of Mary he guaranteed the whole and complete redemption of the cosmos. Once God had set in motion to do it, it was as good as done. At the moment of his conception by the Holy Spirit the work was still to be accomplished but it was never in jeopardy. Today, a very great amount of the work is accomplished but it is not yet finished. But that does not put it in jeopardy.
Because God willed to unite his creation to himself you can be absolutely certain that a day is near to hand when all parts of that creation will for all times be all the way healed. As Charles Spurgeon put it - incarnation prophesies salvation. So when things feel just not quite right (or majorly not right) remember that in the incarnation God committed himself permanently to the project of redemption and he will see it through.
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