Counting the Waves of the Incarnation.

Athanasius, the 4th century Church father, wrote, “The achievements of the Savior through His Incarnation are so astounding and so numerous that any one wishing to describe them in detail would be like one who gazes at the expanse of the Sea, and attempts to count its waves.”

Almost 800 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the prophet Isaiah said, “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given....”  The Prophet is speaking of the long-awaited Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the King of all Kings, and notice the verbs he uses.  The child is “born;” but the Son who rules the Kingdom of His Father is “given.”  One emphasizes His humanity, the other demonstrates His Deity: the Child is born, but the Son is given.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son [Monogenes- ‘uniquely born,’ there is not another like Him and there never will be!] that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life” {Jn. 3:16}.  “And the government will be on His shoulders.  And He [Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah] will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace....”  Each of these Hebrew phrases is a Messianic title, names to be borne by the Great King who would one Day sit on David’s Throne.  “Wonderful Counselor” is the wisest Ruler; “Mighty God” is the greatest Warrior; “Everlasting Father” stresses His eternal nature as Provider and Protector; and “Prince of Peace” means His rule will bring “healing” to “the nations” {Rev. 22:2}.

Isaiah say’s, “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end [Notice, just as the prophet Daniel would affirm two hundred years from this day, ‘His Dominion will be an everlasting dominion ...and His Kingdom is one that will never be destroyed,’ 7:14c].  He will reign on David’s Throne and over his Kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the LORD Almighty [Yahweh Tsevaoth- ‘Lord of the Everlasting Armies’] will accomplish this,” 9:6-7.

In this passage God becomes human.  Our God became one of us, just like you and I.  Every part of Him as human as every part of you.  Our forefathers in the Faith called Jesus “very God and very man.”  By this they meant ‘undiluted divinity, unadulterated humanity.’  In Jesus we see the Creator of All That Is laboring in and among us {very God}; but blink your eyes and look again and you see the Creation to which we are bound in these bodies {very man}.  Theologians call this hupostasis: infinite Deity and sinless humanity welded as One forevermore!

Jesus’ equality with both parties— holy God on one side and fallen man on the other— means He can stand as the Mediator between us.  As Job longed for in the midst of his anguish, “If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay His hand upon us both [See this?  A Mediator is someone to ‘arbitrate between us,’ someone equal to both parties.], someone to remove God’s rod from me [His wrath], so that His terror would frighten me no more,” v. 34.  The apostle Paul declared triumphantly, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men— the Testimony given in its proper time” {1 Tim. 2:5-6}.  A mesites, a “mediator,” is one who arbitrates between two parties to remove a disagreement— what we call ‘reconciliation’— and to reach a common goal— which we call ‘redemption.’  By the grace of the God-Man, the unique and only Son of the Father, we have been reconciled to our Creator, redeemed from the slave-market in which we were born, and set firmly in the Fields of Freedom, under the care and protection of His eternal Kingdom {cf. Col. 1:12-22}!

A glorious End to an inglorious beginning.  Indeed.

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
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