Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Fullness of Deity Dwells Babely

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God."
-- Luke 1:35

Really, the Advent season runs from Genesis 3 onward, and Christmas Day is when the miracle prophesied in Luke 1:35 is fulfilled. For those of us who believe personhood can be derived from Psalm 139:13-15 and Job 31:15, we believe the Incarnation did not begin at Jesus' birth but at his conception. And if this is so, when Colossians 2:9 says, "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily," we know that the fullness of deity dwelled in fertilized ovum.

Will the Empire State Building occupy a doghouse? Will a killer whale fit inside an ant?

And here we are told that omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, utter eternalness and holiness dwelled in a tiny person. This makes Santa coming down a chimney seem a logistical cakewalk.

"The head of all rule and authority" (Col. 2:10) had one of those jelly-necked wobbly baby heads. The government rested on his baby-fatted shoulders (Is. 9:6).

This miracle of addition is important. We must hold it tightly or lose the bigness of the Incarnation. God came as unborn child so that Christ would experience all of humanity. And he experienced all of humanity so that we might receive all of him for all of us.

If God came as a vulnerable, needful, weak baby, we have no need to fear for our own vulnerability, needfulness, and weakness. He emptied himself (Phil. 2:7) so that we would not see our own emptiness as a hopeless cause. "As you received him" -- desperate, helpless, desirous -- "so walk in him" (Col. 2:6). The miracle of the God-Baby proclaims the gospel's specialty: rescue of the helpless.

1 comment:

Dubbahdee said...

Jared, I am a layman providing pulpit supply for a local church in NH for the 8 weeks of Epiphany. I just wanted to let you know that last week I read from this post as part of my sermon. I found it a poetic and powerful meditation on the Incarnation. I also borrowed the John Calvin quote from your Miracle of the Incarnation post on Desiring God.
Thank you for your help with the sermon, and more important, for being part of my waking up to the
Gospel in the past few years. May your ministry in your church be blessed by the Holy Spirit and many more come awake to the the Grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Oh...and if you care to listen to yourself being quoted go to http://www.unbapch.net/www.gis.net/Sermons.html