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| Linda, walking in Jerusalem |
Years ago I heard an analogy that still makes sense to me.
If you were an architect observing ants build an anthill and wanted to share your architectural knowledge with them, what would be a good way to do this? It would be to become an ant, live in the ant world, and communicate in ant language to them. You would take on "ant flesh."
By analogy, this is what God has done for us. God, in his Son, took on human flesh and lived among us.
I am still captivated by the brilliance and beauty of this divine strategy. What makes this story so stunning is what God the Son gave up to come to us. The One through whom all things were created took on our flesh-and-bone, ever-so-limited humanity.
The everlasting supremacy and majesty of the Son is seen in John 1:3, where we are told that through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. God the Son is the agent of creation! New Testament scholar writes that John 1:3 "describes Jesus as the agent of creation, and action that Genesis attributes to god alone. Thus, the Johannine narrator starts his story by claiming that Jesus does what the one God does, is eternal as the one God is eternal, and, as the Word, 'was God'." (Larry Hurtado and Chris Keith, Jesus Among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, Kindle Locations 1037-1039).
If you were an architect observing ants build an anthill and wanted to share your architectural knowledge with them, what would be a good way to do this? It would be to become an ant, live in the ant world, and communicate in ant language to them. You would take on "ant flesh."
By analogy, this is what God has done for us. God, in his Son, took on human flesh and lived among us.
I am still captivated by the brilliance and beauty of this divine strategy. What makes this story so stunning is what God the Son gave up to come to us. The One through whom all things were created took on our flesh-and-bone, ever-so-limited humanity.
The everlasting supremacy and majesty of the Son is seen in John 1:3, where we are told that through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. God the Son is the agent of creation! New Testament scholar writes that John 1:3 "describes Jesus as the agent of creation, and action that Genesis attributes to god alone. Thus, the Johannine narrator starts his story by claiming that Jesus does what the one God does, is eternal as the one God is eternal, and, as the Word, 'was God'." (Larry Hurtado and Chris Keith, Jesus Among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, Kindle Locations 1037-1039).
Paul understands this when he writes:
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
(Colossians 1:15-17)
During this Christmas season, orient your heart and mind towards Christ, who is God the Son come to earth in the form of a person. Think of his supremacy and majesty.
Think of his creational agency.
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