Taking the last two posts a step further, the staggering thing is that God steps into this world in the form of real human flesh, not a different or special kind of flesh, but the very same kind, with all it’s limitations and temptations.
We had broken the circle of love that we were made to dwell in, but, God doesn’t say ‘that’s it, you’ve messed up, it’s over for you/us, I don’t want anything more to do with you,’ no, he has a plan, and it’s not about dealing with it from a distance, or sending someone else to do the job, or a set of rules for us to keep to get back in with him.
No, instead it involves God coming here and stepping into our broken loveless world with the most powerful demonstration of love this world has ever known – the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us – Love cannot stay and wait and see what happens, it acts, or rather God acts, after all God is love, a loving community of persons who have always loved and will continue to do so. Love seeks an answer, Love has an answer.
To get some idea of the staggering nature of this love we do need to stop and think about how far we have fallen, or travelled from what true love is. The Bible paints it in all its horrid detail, a detail that some people struggle with, but they are there for a reason, to show us what humanity is like when it has broken out of the circle of true love.
And just in case we think anything has changed today, that we have evolved to a better and more advanced form of humanity, the fact is nothings changed. The bad stories we read in our newspapers, see on the news bulletins, plus own resentments and bitternesses, our unwillingness to forgive, our own selfishness, our use of people to get to where we want, and dropping them when we are there, etc. etc. – all demonstrations of self-serving love; love gone wrong, or wronged… we know them too well.
Self-serving love is repulsive, it’s obnoxious, it stinks, you just don’t want to come near it – it’s about what works best for you, for me; it’s about control, power, it’s a complete inversion of true love.
Into this mess God has come…………. in love………. to bring salvation, a big word involving dealing with the wrong, cleansing, delivering, righting, reconciling, renewing….
Christmas is not about whose got the power, but who has the love, and God certainly has. Yes God is sovereign, almighty, all-powerful, but that power is rooted in his love. The Bible doesn’t say ‘God is power,’ but ‘God is love,’ and that he has demonstrated that profoundly in sending and coming in the person of Jesus Christ his Son to be our saviour.
‘God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.’ Charles Wesley.
Amazing God, amazing love!
The Word 4 Life 