The Artisan Post

If God were to show up in all the fullness of His glory, we would not be able to handle it.

God is too magnificent.
He dwells in unapproachable light.
No man can behold Him and live.

Think of Moses, who had to be hidden in the cleft of a rock.
Think of Isaiah, who cried out, “Woe is me!”
Think of the apostle John, who fell as though dead.

Men overwhelmed by even a glimpse of God.

God and man incompatible. But it wasn’t always like this.

We were created to be in relationship with God. There was a time when man walked with God, but everything changed when we chose to defy God.

And here we were as human beings, living separated from God.
Separated because of our rebellion and sin against Him. This is a problem.

Separation from God is not natural, it’s not neutral, and it’s not good. It is a miserable existence. It doesn’t take long to observe that in society.

Thanks be to God that He did something about it.

He came.

Not to condemn us in sin… but to save us from it.

He came, not in all the fullness of His unveiled glory and majesty — that would have consumed us!
No, He came in a way we could receive, being mindful of our humanity and smallness. He came still glorious and majestic (remember the glorious heavenly host declaring His arrival), but packaged in a way we could handle. Quite literally.

He came as a man. Born as a baby…. Immanuel, “God with us.”

Jesus Christ. Fully God, become fully man, clothing Himself with our humanity.

Arriving in relative insignificance, growing up almost unrecognizable.

But as He began to reveal His authority and power, and proclaim repentance and the Kingdom of God, He was hated more and more. He was considered a threat, a radical…. and put to death.

Not just any death, but death on a cross! And through it all remaining in control — giving His life (they didn’t take it) as a ransom for many — obedient to the Father.

God demonstrated His love for us in this:  “that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us”.

Why a man?

Many don’t believe God became a man. They limit Him to their own understanding. They put God in a little box and say, “like this and no more”.

But God’s way was a supernatural way…. to come Himself as a perfect substitute and redeem mankind from the result of that old rebellion, “the soul who sins shall die.”

In all matters of love, one must go himself. Imagine sending your best man to redeem your bride. No, you would go yourself. And so God came, humble and lowly as one of us, a suffering servant to redeem His people, His Bride, His church, from eternal death.

Jesus, so plain and ordinary, yet perfect and without sin. Coming with purpose to bear the full wrath of God against all our sin, as the only one who could, so that we might be reconciled back to God. He died in our place on the cross of Calvary, so we could go free. So few saw it then, and still so few recognize it today.

And as the old saying goes, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

We could not have beheld God in all of His glory and majesty and holiness.
Instead, Jesus, God’s Son, came…. as a man…. in humility, emptying Himself of everything heavenly to experience life on earth for a time:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be hung on to;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

The apostle Paul in Philippians 2:6-8

Everything changed.

The cross was not a random event. It is the pinnacle of history. It was the place where justice and mercy met for the sake of humanity, for the sake of all creation. God redeeming all things through Jesus Christ. And God, coming in the form of a man, was and is His plan.

The spiritual taking on flesh, so that we as flesh could take on the spiritual.

So that we could be bought back. Purchased, Cleansed, Redeemed, Reconciled, Made new.

That’s right. After the death of Jesus on the cross, came His resurrection, after His resurrection, came His ascension, after His ascension came the outpouring of His Holy Spirit…. yes, God the Spirit given to His people so that through faith and His indwelling us, we might receive eternal life in His Name.

A reconnection with the holy and majestic God!

The Holy Spirit equipping us in this dark world to proclaim new life in the Name of this one and only God-and-man, Jesus.

But you must believe it. And in a real sense…. you have to want it.

There are only two paths in life:

To live reconciled to God, or to remain separated from Him.

One leads to life. The other to death.

It takes eyes of faith to see Jesus and respond to why He as God came as a man. Many miss this to their peril. Do not miss this, this Easter.

We do not of ourselves see who Jesus is.
We must be cleansed…. awakened…. given eyes to see what He has done for us, forgiven and made new. Having our eyes and hearts opened when someone tells us about Him. Like right now.

This is God’s gift, the message of salvation and the ability to believe it through the power the Holy Spirit of Jesus in you.

And when that happens, it gives new meaning to life now and eternally.

This Easter, ask God to open your eyes and your heart to believe. To make the Easter message of the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus — true God, true man — real to you.

And guess what?

Because of faith in Jesus, we will someday be able to behold God in all His glory, majesty and holiness.

Join me won’t you?

Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash