Who will rescue me from this physique that’s topic to loss of life? Thanks be to God, who delivers me by way of Jesus Christ our Lord! — Romans 7:25a
I’m desirous about the 2 sides of me. There may be the particular person I am after which there’s the particular person I need to be. These two folks appear at all times at struggle with one another inside my mind. On my good days, I one way or the other handle to behave just like the particular person I need to be, however let a bit stress seep into my life or a battle erupt, and this different particular person reveals up carrying my pores and skin. I default to a model of myself I don’t like, somebody who poaches peace and breeds chaos. Psychologists may name that particular person my “false self” or my “shadow facet.” Regardless of the time period, what a strong self it’s! Few issues are extra disappointing as discovering out too late that I’ve given in to that “self” … once more.
I think I’m not alone on this battle. The apostle Paul speaks for all humanity when he writes to the Romans, “I don’t perceive what I do. For what I need to do I don’t do, however what I hate I do … For I don’t do the great I need to do, however the evil I don’t need to do — this I carry on doing.” (Romans 7:15-19, NIV).
Everyone knows too effectively this cycle of frustration — of reaching for our higher nature solely to seek out ourselves discouraged by a repeat look of our baser facet. Understanding what we learn about ourselves, we must be all of the extra awe-struck by the fantastic theology beneath the Bethlehem story.
What we have fun at Christmas is the truth that God got here to us in human kind. Theologically, this invitations us into an concept even deeper than the presenting scene of animals and hay-lined mangers. Whereas the technical time period — hypostatic union — wipes away the heat of that pastoral image, it calls us to contemplate the true reward of this cosmic actuality. The incarnation is the melding of divinity with humanity. He who was totally God held collectively the facility of his divinity with the expertise of his humanity … completely. And since he did, he now has energy sufficient to reconcile these two natures inside any particular person.
When Jesus our Messiah entered into our world, he turned the primary of a brand new form of particular person, one who recognized utterly with our limits with out releasing his divine nature. His beginning didn’t erase the truth that he’s the Phrase who spoke all creation into existence in Genesis chapter 1. His loss of life didn’t negate the truth that he’s the Warrior who battled with loss of life and gained in Revelation chapter 19.
Absolutely God, totally man. If we slight him on the God facet we slide into theological liberalism, specializing in his teachings and instance with out embracing his cosmic energy. If we slight him on the human facet, we’re at risk of unitarianism — unable to just accept the distinctive nature of the Son or his humanity within the temptations, his frustration with fallenness, his struggling on the cross. However Jesus resisted sin, as a result of he felt it. He beloved his enemies as enemies as a result of he sensed their opposition. He forgave folks as a result of he skilled the grief of their sins in opposition to God. He skilled life as a human, however completely. And since he has made good peace with these two elements of himself, he’s ready — this Spirit-Man — to supply us each sample and permission to hunt wholeness for our personal damaged lives. Actually, Jesus has completed in his physique by way of the proper union of divinity and humanity what all of us lengthy for many … peace.
In his letter to the Ephesian church, Paul speaks of Jesus as the reply to the “dividing wall of hostility” that exists between two sorts of individuals. He writes,
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the 2 teams one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting apart in his flesh the legislation with its command and rules. His goal was to create in himself one new humanity out of the 2, thus making peace, and in a single physique to reconcile each of them to God by way of the cross, by which he put to loss of life their hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16).
Paul makes reference right here to a non secular barrier between two sorts of individuals, however it’s no stretch to say that the partitions between us are additionally partitions inside us. Actually, I think that dividing wall that builds inside fallen folks creating chaos and dis-ease is the very one which creates the hostilities between us. We battle one another as a result of we battle ourselves, and worry eggs us on. We lengthy to be saved from the stress of unanswered questions and the stress to be what we are able to by no means be, however we’re afraid of discovering we aren’t worthy of the salvation we’re provided. In the meantime, we ignore the outstanding reward of incarnation. Because the prophet Isaiah wrote:
… it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles have been a punishment from God, a punishment for his personal sins! However he was pierced for our insurrection, crushed for our sins. He was crushed so we might be entire. He was whipped so we might be healed. (Is. 53:4-5, NLT)
That is such excellent news! In Jesus Christ our Lord is the miracle of an ideal God at peace with an imperfect world. He’s the one reply with energy to talk peace into the divided mess that’s us. In his personal physique — in that union of divinity and humanity — Jesus proves that peace for imperfect folks eager for an ideal world is feasible for us, too. Which signifies that one thing as clinical-sounding as “hypostatic union” is as private as our longings and as hopeful because the empty tomb. It’s our assurance that Jesus has come not simply to get us to heaven however to heal our divided lives now.
Understanding that Jesus has energy to tear down all “dividing partitions of hostility,” we are able to start to apply the peace that Jesus has proven us in himself. Even when we don’t really feel it we are able to “act as if” (to borrow a phrase from restoration circles) Christ’s work is ample to heal our divided selves. We will act as if our greatest inside battles are gained on days when doubt creeps in. We will act as if our restoration is full even when we’re nonetheless on the journey, and as if {our relationships} are healed even when they’re nonetheless in course of. We will act as if our bodily well being is bettering, as if our melancholy is therapeutic, as if our funds are stabilizing, even whereas these issues are nonetheless underneath development.
In brief, we are able to know peace on this life, and Jesus — full God, totally man — is our assurance of this fact. The identical energy that held his divinity and humanity collectively in that blessed manger can maintain us collectively, too. And the God of peace, as Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “can sanctify (us) by way of and thru” (1 Thes. 5:23) — spirit, soul and physique. This makes Christ Jesus all of the extra worthy of our worship, and the Incarnation all of the extra worthy of our celebration.
