The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(A repeat from 2014. If I could have written only one of these messages, it would have been this one.)
"The Miracle"
Scripture records many miracles, acts of God's direct intervention that exist as marvels of wonder only He could perform. One transcends them all.
"Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh."
(I Timothy 3:16)
In his poem, "My Sweetest Comfort," Edward Caswall beautifully depicts the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God who became man, and the man who remains God.
It is my sweetest comfort, Lord,
And will forever be,
To muse upon the gracious truth
Of Thy humanity.
Oh joy! There sitteth in our flesh,
Upon a throne of light,
One of a human mother born,
In perfect Godhead bright!
Though earth's foundations be removed,
Down to their lowest deep;
Though all the trembling universe
Into destruction sweep;
Forever God, forever man,
My Jesus shall endure;
And fix'd on Him,
my hope remains eternally secure.
The poet's sublime offering beautifully illuminates the truth of a singular Being in whom Heaven and earth perfectly unite. The Lord Jesus Christ dwells in a nature unlike any other. One with the Father and Holy Spirit, He nevertheless bears a substance of being unlike the other Persons of the triune Godhead. He became human as "the son of man," while remaining Divine to the degree His Father addresses His Son in the most direct terms of Deity possible: "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever!" (John 5:27; Hebrews 1:8).
Our Savior forever exists as the God who became man, and the man who remains God. The holy synthesis of His Deity and His humanity perfectly united constitutes a miracle and a marvel. How can He even be? Long ago, a bewildered Solomon wondered how God could dwell in an earthly temple:
"The Heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee! How much less this house that I have builded!" (I Kings 8:27).
What would Solomon have said had he known that God's dwelling in a material temple of brick and mortar foreshadowed His inhabiting a human temple of spirit, soul, and body?
In Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, eternity and time meet. Heaven and earth unite. The infinite and the finite embrace. God and man dwell in perfect accord and harmony. Or, as the Psalmist beautifully depicted, "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10). Our Father reserves for our Savior a place He alone occupies both now and forever. He is the God who became man, and the man who remains God. Of no one else will this ever be true. Our Savior constitutes a miracle, the greatest of all miracles. The Wonder of wonders, our Lord dwells as the supreme accomplishment in the light of which all other mighty acts of God pale in comparison. Thus, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit direct our hearts to God the Son, in whom works the Divine "eternal purpose in Christ" (Ephesians 3:11). We must join our Father and the Spirit because in both Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus. Nor will there ever be.
"He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence."
(Colossians 1:18)
"This is My beloved Son. Hear Him."
(Mark 9:7)
Weekly Memory Verse
"We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord."
(II Corinthians 4:5)
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