Humanity, we have a problem. In the light of who God is, against who we are, we see a great chasm. In short, God is holy … and we, quite obviously, are not. How does a holy God reside in and with his people? Thankfully, God had a plan, revealed in part to us after the very first sin; typologically revealed through God’s Old Testament sacrificial system; and fully in view when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. What mankind needs is a reconciler, a holy mediator to bring together God and his people. This mediator would do what we could not; he lived in perfect obedience to God’s law, died a sacrificial, substitutionary death for sinners (bearing their guilt and judgment); rose victoriously (confirming the defeat of sin and death), and now sits with God the Father reigning as the Sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords.
John, in his Gospel, records Jesus exhorting, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. (14:6)” This is the kind of exclusive particularity that so offends our pluralistic culture. But it is so, because it must be so. When we ask what kind of saviour can truly save, the answer begins and ends with our Alpha and Omega – Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…All things were made through him. (Jn 1:1,3)” We were part of that wonderous and good creation, in perfect harmony with God, until our first act of rebellion. The early church father Athanasius beautifully summarizes why it must be our Immanuel Jesus, the Word made flesh, who bridges the divide between God and man.
“What – or rather Who was it that was needed for such grace and such recall as we required? Who save the Word of God Himself, Who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? His part it was, and His alone, both to bring again the corruptible to incorruption … the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning. There is no inconsistency between creation and salvation; for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word who made it at the first.”[1]
Glory to God!
Christ Connection:
I hope the connection is obvious today! Here are just a few of the numerous verses that reveal to us who and what Jesus is to us:
John 1:1,14; Galatians 4:4-5; Romans 5:8; John 14:6
[1] Athanasius, On the Incarnation, (A.R. Mowbray & Co., 1944), §§ 1,7