Through all of the amazing things I am learning about God and the Bible in college; all of the amazing intricacies and mysteries about the nature of the trinity and the almighty power of God and his sovereignty over all things, one truth has been really significant to my walk with God: Jesus was here, on Earth, as a living breathing man.
Passion Worship puts it so beautifully in their song, “Worthy of Your Name” saying:
“Holiness in human hands…”
Jesus is “the image of the Father…”
“Until Heaven came to live with me…”
Jesus, to many of us in the church, can seem to be our savior alone, or at least we function that way. We can unintentionally limit Jesus to a person that came to die on the cross for our sins to accomplish the long-awaited redemption of God’s people. Yet here’s the thing, and I’m sure you know where I am going at this point, Jesus is so much more than that. Jesus came to be with humans. Jesus came here.
The Bible, as it always does, gives a better image than I probably could, and it shows us just how mysterious, how special, Jesus’ coming is. Colossians 1:15 says, “The Son is the visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”
All of this, the fancy word for it being “incarnation”, the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, has been exceedingly prevalent and important to me in what is proving to be an extended period of difficulty in my life.
Jesus living and dying and rising again proves, in every way you could imagine, that God loves us. Jesus, the all-powerful image of God himself, humbled himself. The one who made thunder and rain with hunger pains, the source of eternal joy weeping, the creator of water became thirsty on a cross to save us from sins that we chose to commit.
The reason this has stuck out to me is because it has brought Jesus into my life in a way I have never seen before. I saw Jesus leap out of the pages of the Bible and follow me outside the Church doors so that I was walking with Him and He with me. Jesus became a companion. The man that had nails driven through His hands accompanied me as the presence of love and peace. Someone to celebrate the good days with and someone to weep with me, the latter seeming to be more prevalent as of late.
The point is this: the coming of Jesus isn’t just a symbol or a sign, it is not just history, it is reality and it is presence. Open your heart. Ask God to walk with you and guide you. The epic part about a prayer like that, to a God like ours: He will, because He has.
Myles Ginter
Pastoral Intern and Student at Kuyper College
