#488 Home for Christmas Series# 2, The Humanity of God

Home for Christmas Series# 2, The Humanity of God
By: Zach Sloane

Recap:

The lie of separation: the idea that God is somewhere up/over there and we are separated, distant and far apart is a Greek philosophical idea and not biblical truth.

The incarnation is a sign that God is with us, has united himself to humanity and to his creation, and that the One by whom and for whom all things were made, in whom all things consist, is not far from us and never has been.

At Christmas we celebrate the special way that the eternal Word of God became human, condescend to our level, met us where we are at, and made his home with us.

John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Intro:

Have you ever had an occasion where something changed in your home and you had to make some adjustments? You get a new dog? Host a Christmas gathering? Get married, have a child, a child moves out?

When Jesus Christ made his home and dwelling with us, that changed so much for us as a human race. There are adjustments, changes to the way we think, approach life, God, and even our everyday lives and environment that we must adjust to in our world.

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Think of a road sign. Signs say something, they point to something and often indicate the presence of a new reality that you must adjust too. A stop sign. It clearly tells you to stop, but also that there is something ahead that will require your adjustment to (an intersection or throughway).

The Incarnation of Jesus Christ is a sign that says separation between God and humanity is a lie, and it awakens us to new realities that we must adjust to.

We don’t adjust, perform to get God to come, but because he has! The adjustment he is looking for is repentance.

Repent =– properly, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind”; to repent (literally, “think differently afterwards”).

Matthew 4:17
“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ( I am here ! )

An attempt at an acrostic poem to help highlight some areas of life that the Incarnation is as sign pointing to the need to change our thinking about:

H – Humanity,

U – He Understands us,

M- Meets us where we are,

A – Assumes us

N – And makes all things New.

Humanity

Jesus didn’t just come in the appearance as a man, he didn’t just come to fill the empty vessel that was a human body and fill it with a divine spark of spirit. Rather, He became a human in the fullest extent of the word, and in the resurrection from the dead, he remained human.

Jesus, the first born over a new creation, became the head-human being, like Adam was, and did for all of us something even greater than what Adam did.

Romans 5:18-19
18 Therefore, as through one man’s offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Forever God has become a human, and as the representative head of all humanity, we sit with Him on his throne and share in his very relationship and standing with the Father. What Jesus has done as a type of Adam he has done for everyone, in the same way that what Adam did affected everyone. We just have to see it, agree with it, believe it, and we will begin to experience the reality of it. If we fail to believe it, it doesn’t make it untrue, but it stops us from experiencing it. Therefore, we see ourselves and others differently.

“On the basis of the eternal will of God we have to think of EVERY HUMAN BEING, even the oddest, most villainous or miserable, as one to whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumption. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in the knowledge. If he does no know it yet or no longer knows it, our business is to transmit this knowledge to him.” ― Karl Barth, The Humanity of God

2 Corinthians 5:16
“Therefore, form no on we view no man according to the flesh…”

He Understands us.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you just felt like you were misunderstood, unappreciated? Like they were completely incapable of helping you out because they just don’t get it, they don’t get you, they have never been in your shoes? We are never without help. Don’t embrace a helpless thought process!

Hebrews 2:18
“For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Hebrews 4:15
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

He gets us. He gets what you are going through.

Meets us where we are

Ephesians 4:9-10
“(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)”

Even in our most awful moments, or worst times, he is there with us. The incarnation shows us he is not just there for us in a certain supportive sense, but he literally became one of us and jumped into the trenches of life with us.

Psalms 139:7-12

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

Assumes all of us

Assumed: “to take on or to adopt, to take to or upon oneself”

Gregory Nazianzen
“The unassumed is the unredeemed.”

Jesus Christ is our redemption. We have no life or power or salvation outside of and apart from him. We are saved not because of any good work we have done, nor because of even our perfect faith. We are saved because Jesus assumed us, he took us on, he brought us into himself, absorbed humanity into his own being, becoming us, bearing us, carrying us, and bringing all of us into union with him.

In the incarnation Jesus took upon himself the ability of humanity itself to yield to God or to sin, to say yes to the will of God or of the devil, the ability to believe a lie or not. Because of this, the life of Jesus and not just his death matters.

Galatians 4:4-5
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Jesus came as a man, just like us, was born under the law, born of flesh and blood just like we were. He had a capacity to sin just like us but he didn’t. He took our human dispositions and in every way, one decision after another, one moment of faith and trust in the father after the next, he took our humanity and brought us back into alignment with the will of the Father.

When he rose from the dead he brought life and power to all of our faculties that he assumed, breathing new life and power into every aspect of who we are, spirit, soul, and body.

He makes all things NEW

Our expectation is renewal and restoration, not destruction and escape.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Summary:

Because of the sign of the incarnation, we need to see humanity for what it now is in Christ Jesus, understood and accepted by Him. We need to see that he is not far from us, near to us and all illusions of distance are lies. We need to see that he has assumed us, taken us into Himself in his incarnation, and as such, we have been made new in him.

Because He became one of us, made his home in, as us, and as one of us:

He has believed for you, fulfilled your human response to God, even made your personal decision for you, so he acknowledges you before God as one who has already responded to God in him, who has already believed in God through him, and whose personal decision is already implicated in Christ’s self-offering to the Father, in all of which he has been fully and completely accepted by him. Therefore, renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus your Lord and Savior. (The Mediation of Christ, 94). — T. F. Torrance

Amen!

Home for Christmas Series# 2, The Humanity of God, Sermon notes to print, PDF