The Mystery & Vitality of Incarnation

by Pastor Dave

Mystery. That which is mysterious defies rational explanation, or at least perfect understanding. God becoming man remains a mystery.

Christian philosopher Os Guinness writes, "The fact is that the greatest mystery of all, The Incarnation, comes at the very beginning and is the central reason why we believe in God. We cannot explain it: there is the beginning of the mystery of faith. But because of the evidence neither can we explain it away: there is the beginning of the rationality of faith." (From "The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations.")

The month of December provides us with a great season of celebrating The Incarnation. While walking through a K-Mart store last week, I worshiped as a Christ-honoring carol was broadcast through the speakers. Yes, our secularized culture is gaining ground around us, so we should rejoice when vestiges of Bible culture can still be apprehended.

Last month, while ministering in India to a number of my brother pastors who have lost everything, many of whom who have encountered beatings and all of whom have risked their lives for the Gospel, I heard the Spirit’s voice coming through my own one day when I said to them, "Brothers, I am here because Jesus sent me to you. He sent me to proclaim His words of healing, of encouragement, of endurance. You ask why I was willing to leave the comforts of America and to spend thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles? As a messenger of His, I’m here to speak His Word to you."

The spoken, lived out Word that was preached and taught touched these brothers deeply. At the concluding service, many embraced me, some even clinging, hoping somehow that such physicality would communicate their love to me. And it did so, to my very spirit. You know, we could have simply written a letter, or sent an e-mail or CD of a sermon. But it took my presence, my physicality, my touchability to communicate deeply. One can say, in a secondary way, that my trip to India was incarnational.

That’s where the power of God’s mission begins and ends. He came, lived, suffered, died and rose again to secure our salvation. He sends us into a needy world to do the same, on behalf of His Gospel and His glory. Thankfully, God didn’t resort to simply writing the Gospel in tract form and dropping it from Heaven.

The wonder that we celebrate this season, and year round, is that God entered into our humanity... and our suffering. John opened up his first epistle with words of mystery, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us." (I John 1:1-2, ESV).

Jesus. Jesus, may we never lose the childlike wonder, the mystery of Your Incarnation.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich." -2 Corinthians 8:9 (ESV)