The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“Divinity. Humanity”
Because the Lord Jesus Christ was “crucified through weakness,” born again believers “shall live with Him by the power of God” (II Corinthians 13:4).
First, how does a divine Being experience weakness? The Apostle Paul answers…
“Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16).
The Lord Jesus took upon Himself our humanity in order to identify with us, which ultimately led to His experience of a sacrificial death that would have been impossible had He not first fulfilled a sacrificial deference. Our Savior had to become a man in order to die for us. What would so great a “mystery of godliness” involve in the infinite being of One who had forever existed without limitation? We will never know. We can only realize He knew the sacrifice to the ultimate extreme, suffering the wrath of God against sin and the wrath of man against righteousness in an agony only possible because He became as one of us. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” declared the Apostle John, who could have also added, “and died among us” (John 1:14).
Because of so great a sacrifice of both being and dying, believers take upon ourselves the presence of divinity in the new birth, making possible our being “partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4). We do not become God, but we do bear His presence within our spirits. Thereby, we may live far beyond our human means. We must, if we are to requite the price that made possible the power to walk in faith and faithfulness. Yes, to the degree the Lord Jesus became human and “died in weakness,” Christians can and must avail ourselves to His divine presence whereby we live as “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).
Our Lord became weak, that we might become strong. Every act of our walk in faith and obedience is made possible by the feet - the human feet - of our Savior having been stilled by nails on the cross of Calvary. We do well to think often of “so great salvation,” made possible and actual by so great sacrifice (Hebrews 12:3). Our spirits teem with the power of God because the Lord Jesus experienced something that would seem to be impossible for a divine Being: “crucified through weakness.” Great indeed is the mystery, and in this day and in our hearts, great is the power whereby His divinity empowers our humanity.
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)
Weekly Memory Verse
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
(II Corinthians 4:7)
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