God. Becoming man. The infinite, eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient, almighty God, without shedding His divine nature, taking upon Himself—in addition to His divine nature—a human nature—truly becoming one of us. In the incarnation of the Son of God, it can properly be said that the immutable, unchangeable God became what He wasn’t, while never ceasing to be what He was.
The incomprehensibility of that thought alone is sufficient to bow our hearts and intellects before divine wisdom in worship. This kind of mind-bending wisdom is so lofty—so far beyond our natural understanding—that we wouldn’t believe it if Scripture didn’t teach it so plainly.
You see, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come into being at the incarnation; He existed for all eternity as God Himself—the Second Person of the Holy Trinity—God the Son. And so as God, He shares all the attributes of God: infinity, eternality, omniscience, immutability; everything that properly belongs to the nature of God the Father belongs to the nature of God the Son, for they share the very same nature, the same essence, the same being. And yet, God the Son became man! Again, becoming what He wasn’t while never ceasing to be what He was.
And all of this was for us. The incarnation was designed to bridge the infinite chasm between God and man that existed by nature—insofar as God is by nature infinitely higher than man—but also which was doubly compounded by our sin. Man had sinned against God, and so man must make atonement for sin. But we are absolutely powerless to do so! Only God can atone for sin! And yet only man’s sacrifice would be accepted on behalf of man. And so in the infinite, marvelous wisdom of God, God became man!
Michael Riccardi
SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Luke 1:1-20. Do you ever stop to marvel at the glory of God in the incarnation? What stops from doing so? How can you make time today to spend at least 5 minutes to marvel on his glory?
