The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“The Miracle (of All Miracles)”
The second epistle of John speaks of what the Apostle referred to as “the doctrine of Christ,” namely, that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (II John 1:7). This includes John’s corollary affirmation in his Gospel that the Lord Jesus is God made flesh - “The Word was God… the Word was made flesh” (John 1:1; 14).
Christ is the God who became man, and the man who remains God. His incarnation serves as the greatest of all miracles, a reality that seemingly cannot be, but which is. No less than the Apostle Paul proclaimed the wonder as profound “mystery” (I Timothy 3:16). Time and eternity, the finite and the Infinite, earth and Heaven, God and man united in one glorious Person long ago in the virgin womb of Mary. The Lord Jesus remains in His miraculous state of being forevermore as the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).
Believers find the enigma cherished and fascinating. Unbelievers view it as perplexing and disturbing. Satan doubtless hates both the humility and the power it displays, particularly because the Incarnation made available salvation to human hearts. Indeed, “without the shedding blood is no remission (forgiveness). Without the Lord Jesus becoming man, He could have shed no blood (Hebrews 9:22). Little wonder devils and skeptics deny the miracle, and little wonder we cannot truthfully and adequately proclaim Christ’s Gospel apart from declaring His nature, again, the God who became man, and the man who remains God. Yes, only the divine can save. However, His own righteousness and integrity decreed He could do so only by partaking upon Himself flesh and blood. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).
Long before the cross of the greatest sacrifice, a conception involving another sublime offering took place. “A virgin shall conceive” is itself a most glorious miracle occurring only once in human history. The One it conceived nevertheless transcends the virgin conception, particularly because it meant that the One who exists as the very essence of life would one day suffer death (Isaiah 7:14). “I am… the life” declared the Lord Jesus (John 14:6). He would nevertheless experience a death only possible because He became human. Your redemption and mine hinges completely on this, the greatest of all miracles, of “God… manifest in the flesh.”
In both Heaven and earth, there is no one like the Lord Jesus. The fact that He can even exist as the living synthesis of Deity and humanity must take our breath away upon even a cursory contemplation. It certainly will in Heaven as we forever worship in wonder of so glorious a mystery. Wise Solomon once wondered how the Lord could dwell in an earthly temple of stone and mortar (II Chronicles 6:18). What would he have said had He known that God would one day dwell in and as a human temple of flesh and blood? Great indeed is the mystery, and greater by infinite measure is the Man who, for our sake, will forever be human while forever remaining divine. In this most holy and elemental sense, there can be no one else like Him as the God who became man, and the man who remains God. No other miracle compares, no other mystery more fascinates, and no other reality provides our assured hope of eternal life in His presence.
“Before Abraham was, I AM… For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
(John 8:58; Luke 2:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
(I Timothy 3:16)
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