mdemchsak

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Lord, I must listen to you, not to me or to my culture.  Please teach me your ways, that I may walk in your truth. 

Since most of you who read this blog are international, you understand some of the difficulties of living in a new culture. For example, a Chinese woman here in America once told my family that she was upset when an American lady referred to her as “man.”

“Couldn’t she tell that I’m a woman?”

“Are you sure she said ‘man’?” one of my kids said. “She may have said, ‘ma’am.’” The two words sound much alike, and “ma’am” seemed to better fit the situation, so the Chinese woman felt she had misunderstood the American lady and, thus, should not have been upset at her at all.

Perhaps you have had such problems in your intercultural experiences. Perhaps you have had difficulty ordering lunch at a café or buying groceries at a market. Perhaps you have driven on the wrong side of the road, or spoken out about something that the culture normally doesn’t speak about. Perhaps you filed the wrong paperwork or misunderstood an application process. Perhaps you have accidentally insulted a native or felt insulted when the native was not insulting you. It can be hard to think outside the norms of your own culture, and it is common to find that a foreigner (in any country) subconsciously and sometimes overtly views the new culture as inferior. “They shut up the shops at six? How stupid … My, aren’t they self-righteous prigs here … Do they ever pay attention to their customers? Don’t they know we’re paying their rent? … Their morals are so loose here … Look how they treat their women. It’s like going back to the 1600s … When do these people ever lighten up? … They have no order here … Look at how they drive; they’re maniacs … Why did she look at me that way? What did I do to her?”

Those are examples of judgments rendered on one culture from the lens of a different culture. Certainly such judgments can, at times, be legitimate, but they are more dangerous to make because the one doing the judging rarely understands the cultural values and rationale that lie behind the “stupid” practice. He simply thinks that his culture is right. He lacks information, background, and an appropriate grid to adequately understand the new culture. Consequently, he easily slides into ethnocentrism. I have done it; you have probably done it, too. It is really quite natural.

Now I want to apply this idea of ethnocentrism in a way that most people do not think about, for something like ethnocentrism occurs when we encounter God. You see, God is Himself a culture foreign to earth, and we can naturally slide into a sort of humancentrism that renders judgments against God from a limited knowledge base. Such judgments are dangerous.

Now, previously these blogs have focused on what God is like – the Father, Jesus, the Spirit. But we need to also talk about what we are like, and the moment we do that, we are switching cultures. We are going from heaven to earth. Sometimes we humans have strong opinions about what we are like, but we must understand that God does not view the human race the way most humans view the human race. If we are to understand the human race from a Biblical perspective, we shall have to be open to learning a new culture. We shall have to step out of our humancentrism and be willing to adopt a God-centered mindset. Such a change can be harder than moving to another country. But it is necessary. It requires humility and an open mind. If, however, we cling to our human ways of thinking, we shall miss God altogether.

Christmas is the most celebrated holiday on Earth. Every December half the globe puts up lights and trees, makes special foods, exchanges gifts, attends parties, travels to see family, and talks about peace on Earth. But why? What’s so special about Christmas?

Ironically, most people who celebrate Christmas do not understand what makes it so special. To many people, Christmas is nothing more than gifts and Santa Claus or a nice season to have parties. Oh, they do know that somewhere in the background the holiday is tied to the baby Jesus, but their knowledge somehow never reaches their hearts. Jesus gets thrown in the basket along with decorations, cookies, and presents.

The problem with this thinking is that Jesus never becomes anything more than a baby in a manger. And if Jesus is nothing special, then neither is Christmas. The beauty of the holiday rests on the beauty of the Savior. If we miss the beauty of our Savior, we miss the beauty of Christmas.

Christmas is special because at Christmas God invaded Earth.

Christmas is special because it means that the human race is not left to itself. We have hope.

Christmas is special because that baby died on a cross and took God’s punishment for your sins.

Christmas is special because Christ destroyed sin and through faith He makes you clean.

Christmas is special because Christ rose from the grave, and death no longer has the final say.

Christmas is special because it brings us peace with God.

Christmas is special because that baby is the King of kings — every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Christmas is special because it reveals the wondrous love of God.

The forgiveness of sins is tied to Christmas.

Our glorious inheritance in Christ comes as a result of Christmas.

Holiness and righteousness are ours because of Christmas.

Eternal life results from Christmas.

Christmas brings the greatest gift anyone has ever given.

If someone gave you a billion dollars, you would celebrate.

Well? At Christmas God gave you something greater.  He gave you … Himself.

That’s what makes Christmas so special.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  (Gal 5:16)

 Father, you call me to walk by your Spirit.  I see this is right, and I see the simplicity of it, but it is hard.  Be gracious to me and grant me to rest in your Spirit and to allow Him to fill me as I walk through life.

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, a man sent a car to his son who lived in a remote village. The father had a friend deliver the car, and he drove in late one night and parked just outside the son’s house. He placed a note on the windshield and then left in the night to make his way to a neighboring village. The note read, “Son, a gift for you. Dad.” At that time, cars were a new thing.  They were not everywhere like today.  In addition, the son was a teenager who had never left his village.  He had never seen a car before, so he wasn’t sure exactly how to use it. He saw that the car had wheels, however, so he knew it could roll, and he spent his time getting around in the most unusual ways.   Sometimes he hooked his car to a pair of oxen and let them pull it. Sometimes he used horses, and once he even got several men to help him push it. Now this parable is rather silly on the surface, but it does illustrate something.  This car owner did not understand what he had.

And neither does the church. Too often we are just like that son. We are busy exerting great efforts to accomplish something that would better be accomplished by turning on the engine. The Holy Spirit is the engine for living the life of God. In one sense living for Jesus is as simple as using the engine and letting it carry you. And yet so many who go by the name of Jesus are too busy pushing or pulling their lives to accomplish God’s will. We are more apt to live in our strength than in His Spirit. That is a problem.

The Bible talks about walking in the Spirit, and there are some principles involved in doing so, just as there are some principles involved in driving a car. This week and next week, we’ll look at some of those principles.

The Great Distraction

“Anything except the Spirit of God.”

That is Satan’s mantra. From his perspective, he will encourage you to visit the sick and fight injustice if those things will keep you away from the Spirit of God. If you are so busy doing good deeds that you have no time for God, Satan will take that. You may not be pushing the car in the direction that would be his first choice, but he will take what he can get. At least he has you pushing the car. You are no threat to him.

Satan will distract you from God with anything that works. He will use money. He will use fishing. He will use your family. He will use the church. He will use your desires, your pleasures, your comfort. He will use food, music, education. He doesn’t have to get you robbing and killing in order to own you. He has merely to get you to focus your life on something that is not Christ. His job is actually quite easy, for he has a great ally that dwells inside you. The Bible calls this your flesh.

Paul frequently contrasts the flesh and the Spirit (Rm 8:1-13; Gal 5:16-26). In these contexts, the flesh refers to our natural human desires and priorities and the common thinking of the world. A man who lives his life in the flesh is pursuing whatever he pleases and doing so in a manner consistent with the prevailing culture.

The flesh refers not just to those desires that are sinful but to those that are earthly. We desire food and drink, comfort and pleasure. We want to have fun. We want to travel. We want to try the latest ice cream flavor or see the newest movie. None of these things is necessarily sinful. They can be innocent pleasures. In fact, the Spirit may grant them to us as gifts to enjoy, but when they become the focus, we are in the flesh.

In addition, the flesh involves living in a manner consistent with the prevailing culture. For example, the world says, “If you want to grow a business, you offer a product the people want, you price your product affordably, you make your product easy to access, and you market yourself well.” Today, many churches have built themselves on these principles. The principles are actually good, but they were never meant to be the foundation for a church. Consequently, when a church does this, its growth comes more from the flesh than from the Spirit.

Many church people live in the flesh and never know it. Their life is devoted to basketball or research or parties or a boyfriend or a job or something else, but it is not devoted to God. They never see the problem with this because the pleasures they devote themselves to are legitimate. “Why, if I were stealing or hurting someone, I could see a need to repent, but what’s wrong with biking?”

Nothing. The problem is not biking. The problem is you. God wants His Spirit to reign in you, but you would rather go biking. Your comforts and desires are the driving force in your life. You think that as long as it is moral, you can do whatever you want. That’s not what God made you for. Unfortunately, that is how most people live.

Our flesh is, thus, the great distraction. The flesh is not always focused on sinful things, but a life focused on the flesh is always sinful. Paul’s point is that the follower of Jesus is to have a different source for life. We are to walk by the Spirit and not by our flesh. We are to turn the key in the ignition instead of pushing the car. We may find that when we turn the engine on, we end up doing some of the same things we were doing before. We may enjoy a good piece of music or a burger or a friend. We may fight injustice or sexual temptation, but in the Spirit these things are not the primary focus. We do not think that our strength will accomplish anything. It doesn’t mean we don’t work. Heavens no. It means that our work flows out of something other than our own abilities, and our thoughts are based on something other than our own pleasure. We seek His pleasure, not ours, but in doing so, He gives us greater pleasure and greater enjoyment of Earth’s lesser pleasures than we could ever imagine.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.  (Rm 8:9)

I come to you, Father, with amazement and gratitude at the fact of Your holy presence within me through Your Spirit.  God is in me!  Hallelujah!

Perhaps the greatest mistake church people make is that they try to live a godly life without Jesus. The thrust of their life can be summarized something like this: “I will be kind to my children … I will memorize the Bible … I will work to spread the gospel … I will overcome my anger or lust … I will show patience with my boss … I will give to the poor … I will … I will … I will …” The problem is not the tasks they resolve themselves to perform. Those are often noble and upright. The problem is the source. These people actually think that their own efforts will amount to something. They want to live for God, but they are so busy living for God that they neglect to live from God. Most of these people would call themselves Christians, but this sort of life is not Christian. It is pagan morality in Christian clothing.

Jesus is the foundation for a vibrant, godly life. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. If we try to live out His ethic without His strength, we will fail. If we try to love as He loved but never rely on His love inside us, then we deceive ourselves. Jesus must be the source for how we live.  Of course, Jesus has risen and ascended from this earth, so he is no longer here in a bodily sense, but He is still here. Today, we have access to Jesus through His Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is central to righteousness, joy, and humility, but we woefully neglect Him. That is why the church is often rife with unrighteousness, joylessness, and pride. Sinful people are trying to live a righteous life out of the strength of their sinful nature. It does not work. You might as well ask a fish to be a bird. If we are to live God’s life instead of our own, we need God to do it. The Holy Spirit is that very thing — God doing it.

The Holy Spirit is not an attitude as we might speak of the spirit of the age or say that a woman has a humble spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, as we see in Star Wars, nor is He like the Great Spirit in some nature religions. He is, quite simply, God Himself. And He has come to live inside His people. The people of Jesus, thus, become God’s temple for the simple reason that God’s Spirit dwells in them (I Cor 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit’s indwelling is a gift of God. We do not have the Holy Spirit because we are good. We have Him because God is good. The presence of the Spirit is nothing more than grace.

On one level, this is crazy. God lives in us? On another level, it is pure joy. God lives in us! It is the only way for us to ever truly live the life of Christ. Thus, the people of Jesus must rely on the Spirit He sent. We have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. So rely on the Spirit. Listen to Him. Call upon Him. Let Him fill you. Continually. He communicates Scripture (II Pet 1:21). He teaches and guides God’s people (Jn 14:26; 16:12-13). He convicts the world of sin (Jn 16:8). He gives new birth in conversion (Jn 3:5-8). He is our assurance of an unfathomable inheritance (Eph 1:13-14). He is our Counselor (Jn14:16, 26). He gives life and peace (Rm 8:6). He provides power for ministry (Acts 2 and 1:8). He provides victory over sin in our lives (Rm 8:13). He grants godly character (Gal 5:22-23). He is the source for all of these things and more.

The Holy Spirit has the power to do these things because He is God. He can work intimately in God’s child because He lives inside. God is not just a god way up in the sky. He has come to dwell inside His people. The Holy Spirit is how we experience God in our lives. Everyone who follows Jesus has the Holy Spirit inside (I Cor 12:12-13). In that sense, we do not need to ask God for the Spirit. In Christ, we already have Him. But having the Spirit and being filled with Him are different things. In addition, having the Spirit and recognizing we have Him are also different things. We often do not see what we have. Some understand intellectually that the Spirit is in them, but they don’t rejoice in it. They have heard the teaching, but they have not made it personal.  Hence, they acknowledge truth with their head but live life in their flesh.

The gift of the Holy Spirit means that you have access to the mind of God right now (I Cor 2:9-12). It means that you can have a conversation with God wherever you are. It means that God can communicate with you from the inside. The fact of the indwelling Spirit means that our prayer lives should be dialogues instead of monologues. It means that we should read Scripture through the eyes of the Spirit, and that when we do so, Scripture comes alive. It means that He should be central in our struggles for purity and righteousness. It means that we should seek and listen to Him for advice. It means that we should rely on His Spirit for the ability to love that annoying relative. It means that we have joy at our fingertips and peace forevermore.

It means all these things because God lives inside His people. On our own, we are frail earthen vessels, but inside this clay pitcher that I call “me,” God has placed a treasure of unspeakable worth. Why then, do we focus so much on the clay and ignore the riches inside?

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit … (Mt 28:19)

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (I Cor 3:16)

Holy Spirit, You give me the presence of God inside. Hallelujah. Bless You.

When Jesus was on Earth, God was on Earth, walking, talking, eating, sleeping. Today, however, we can no longer put our hands into Jesus’s side or watch Him break bread. The physical presence of Christ is gone, but this does not mean that Christ is gone.

When Jesus was on Earth, He spoke of a Comforter He would send, a Counselor, the Spirit of God. He said that His people would be better off without His physical presence but with this Holy Spirit than they had been when they had witnessed Him raise the dead. This Spirit would now be God on Earth. He would teach people righteousness, convict people of sin, and be the presence of Christ in their midst. Thus, you can still know Jesus even though physically He is no longer here, for He and His Spirit are one.

The Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit is a doctrine for the church age. Jesus became God with us when He came, but today the Spirit forms Jesus in our hearts. The Spirit, in one sense, is now God with us, for where the Spirit is, God is. Paul writes to God’s people and says “… you are God’s temple.” Why? Because “God’s Spirit dwells in you” (I Cor 3:16). We are now the place where God lives because we are the place where His Spirit lives.

Here are some pictures that Scripture gives us of the Spirit. The Spirit was hovering over the waters at creation (Gen 1:2). The Spirit brings new birth (Jn 3:1-8). The Spirit knows the deep things of God (I Cor 2:10-11). The Spirit is the Lord (II Cor 4:17-18). The presence of the Spirit is the presence of God (Ps 139:7-8). The Spirit, Christ, and the Father are all in you if the Spirit is in you (Rm 8:9-11). The church must baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). We could go on, but Scripture plainly attributes to the Spirit the things it attributes to God. Thus, when you have the Spirit, you have God.

For the Christian, this is rather basic. The people of Christ are to be a people of the Spirit. In the future, we shall discuss what this means practically, but for now suffice it to say that in Christ you and I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit whom God has poured into our hearts. Christ may have ascended, but God dwells in us.

The Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (Jn 1:1, 14)

Lord, I look at the Incarnation and marvel. Praise You!  

The radical claim of the Christian faith is that God became a man. Christians call this the Incarnation, which means something like “in the flesh.” For a time on Earth, God had skin and bones as you and I do.

Some people say that’s crazy, and I suppose, in one sense, they are correct. Reality often is crazy. But if Jesus is God, as He claimed, then rejecting Him is crazier. The Incarnation raises the stakes in Jesus. He is not just a good teacher. He is not just a noble man. He is not one choice among many. He is not someone you can listen to only if you feel like it. He is God, and He has every right to demand your allegiance. But many people have problems with the idea that they must yield to Jesus. I understand. I’m as human as you are. I don’t like yielding any more than you do.

Sometimes people will say that the problem they have with the Incarnation is intellectual. They will say that the idea of God being a man is a logical impossibility, for God cannot be limited. It is interesting that they then put a limit on God by telling us something God cannot do. Why can’t God enter history? Isn’t He God? Why limit Him if He can’t be limited?

Of course, what they mean specifically is that the omnipresent, omnipotent God, cannot at the same time take on a human body and be finite, weak, and physical. When Jesus is physically in Capernaum, He cannot also physically be in Rome. If Jesus gets tired, He cannot then have all power. Other similar issues exist, but if you think along these lines, you’ll begin to understand the intellectual issue.

I do not pretend to have the final answer to every question. In fact, I think it OK that I do not fully understand God. But perhaps some pictures will help us travel toward an understanding. First, one must remember that the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity allows God to retain all of his attributes while still being human. You see, in one sense, the eternal God may have died, but in another sense, the eternal God never died at all. What happened to Jesus happened to God, and yet God was still above what happened.

Second, the doctrine of the Incarnation is that in Christ God voluntarily set aside certain prerogatives (Ph 2:5-8). Think of the story The Prince and the Pauper. In the story, the Prince of Wales, Edward Tudor, son of Henry VIII exchanges places with a pauper boy. In doing so, he never ceases to be prince. In fact, he often tries to convince the people that he is the real prince, but no one will believe him. He is fully prince and fully pauper at the same time. Now this story does not correspond exactly to what Jesus does in the Incarnation, but it does give a helpful picture. Jesus was a king who for a time became a peasant. Though He was God, He emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. (Ph 2:6-7)

When Jesus became a man, He did not cease to be God any more than Edward ceased to be Prince while he was a pauper. Jesus retained all of His rights and attributes as God, though we might say that He freely chose to hide some of them for a time in order to accomplish a special purpose. He may have been divine, but he did not appear such to the people. He was, thus, fully king but also fully peasant. This is not logical contradiction, but it is, nonetheless, beyond comprehension. And it is marvelous.

Now the The Prince and the Pauper is just a picture, not an explanation.  The Scripture says, “The Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Creed says that Jesus was fully God and fully man.  God became a man. I cannot fully explain how that is the case any more than science can fully explain (at this writing) the workings of the atom. But I do not see that logic demands of us an either/or choice. Reality, wherever we look, is far more complex than we often imagine. This reality is no different. The scientist lives with tension on many issues. So must the people of God. The scientist must have faith that as more information is uncovered, the mystery will subside. God’s people must have faith that more information is coming.   For Earth, real as it is, is but the laboratory for heaven, and while we can learn much in this laboratory, we can never quite reproduce the conditions of heaven. It is not until we get there and are able to see God in the field (so to speak) that we will be able to understand some of the depths of his nature, and how it is that he can become flesh and dwell among us. But then, I suppose, when we get there the question itself will be rather trivial. Who cares about philosophy when you are gazing at glory?

I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  (Jn 14:6)

I sat in an enclosed patio at an inn in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Enormous picture windows surrounded me on three sides, and Lake Superior was right outside those windows. The morning sun was bright and dancing on the water. It was one of those peaceful times when you get away, and I was enjoying my time alone looking out over the endless blue of the water and the rocky jetty with spruce trees popping out of it. My Bible was in my lap, and I was intermittently reading, then gazing at the lake, then reading, then gazing at the lake. I like doing that. I don’t know if it’s that I love nature or that I get easily distracted. Probably both.

A young woman entered the patio area and sat down at a couch opposite me. She noticed that I had a Bible and asked me some question or other about my reading. We spoke for a bit before I asked her, “Are you a Christian?”

“I’m a Unitarian,” she said.

“Do you read the Bible much?” I asked.

“No, not really. But I like Jesus.” We talked for a short while and she then opened up. “I don’t really understand my church,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, a lot of the leaders in my church get violently upset if we talk about Jesus. I mean, we can read from many books in the church and we can even read from the Bible and talk about it. But what we can’t do is read or talk about Jesus without these people getting upset. I really don’t understand it.”

“I understand it,” I told her and then asked her, “Have you ever read what Jesus said about himself?”

“No, not really.”

“Jesus claimed to be your Lord. He said that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. He called Himself the Son of God. He said that unless you believed in Him, you would die in your sins.

“I think these leaders are angry at the name of Jesus not because they misunderstand him but because they perfectly understand him.”

Jesus has always divided the people. In His own day, some people worshiped him while others crucified him. It is no different today. Jesus was and always has been a lightning rod. His claims offended many people.  Those who think that all religions say the same thing must ignore the central claims of Christ to do so, for He spoke of Himself in a way that no sane man talks, and, in doing so, He founded a faith that is like no other religion on earth.

Nowhere in any religious system will you find anything that approaches the Christian concept of the Incarnation. Scripture says that God paid a visit to earth. This visit, however, is nothing like Zeus or Apollo coming and going and taking on various forms to suit their pleasures. It is far beyond Allah reigning with authority and justice from heaven. It is contrary to the nature gods of Hinduism or the impersonal forces of Buddhism. Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses scorn it; Hindus trivialize it; philosophers denounce it as nonsense. No one understands it. It is distorted, then criticized, but when not distorted it is still not fully comprehensible. The radical claim of the Christian faith is that, for a period of about thirty years, the eternal and transcendent God walked around on earth, ate, slept, wept, spoke, died. The central claim of the Christian faith is that there was a man who was God.

If this claim does not strike you as somehow shocking, you do not understand it. It is the central reason why people reject Jesus. As long as we talk about turning the other cheek or loving your neighbor or forgiving as God has forgiven you, people are with us. They like Jesus. He taught many good things. To some people, Jesus is like a big teddy bear. But when this good teacher begins to say that he and the Father are one or that the Son of Man shall return on the clouds of glory or that he has the right to give and take life, we squirm. The authorities in Jesus’ day squirmed, too. His claims were a large part of the problem they had with him. He said, “before Abraham was, I am” and they picked up stones to stone him. They knew what he was saying.

And so do we. In fact, that’s the problem. If we somehow thought that Jesus was saying something different, we would not squirm so. Nor would we devise so many elaborate ways to circumvent His claims. You know. “Jesus’ claims were just legend,” or “what he really meant was…” These efforts betray a lack of faith. A follower of Jesus does not spend time debunking what Scripture plainly says. The real problem people have with Jesus’ claims is not intellectual.  It’s that his claims get in the way with how we live. If Jesus was God on earth, then He really does have the right to be the center of our lives. He has, as He claimed, “all authority in heaven and on earth.” That is the sticking point.

Jesus says He gets to run your life.  Indeed, He gets to run the universe.  You can reply, “How dare he say that!”  Or you can bow your knees.

… for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin.” (Heb 4:15)

Lord, we rejoice that you understand our plight, that you were one of us and one with us.  We glory in your weakness, for your weakness is power.

Jesus was a man, and because He was a man He can represent you and me. That’s what we discussed last week. Consequently, we who follow Jesus derive much comfort from His humanity, “for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin” (Heb 4:15).

People long to have someone understand them, and when we see a person who has been through what we go through, we instantly relate to him. We see that we are not alone. We see a friend.

Corrie Ten Boom is one of my favorite Christians to read about. I would have loved to have sat and had coffee with her and talked for hours. She is so simple and pure and deep all at once. I relish the opportunity to see her in heaven. During World War II, she spent time in a Nazi concentration camp called Ravensbruck. She and her family were put there for hiding Jews and helping them flee the country from the Germans. Though she herself survived the concentration camp, her father and sister did not. She saw hell on earth. After she was released from Ravensbruck, she traveled the world and spoke of God’s love in Christ. One day she spoke in a prison in Ruanda, Africa. She spoke of the joy of the Lord that one can have even in prison, but she knew that many of the inmates were thinking, “After you talk you can go home, away from this stinking prison. It is easy to talk about joy when you are free. But we must stay here” (Tramp For the Lord, 80). She then told the prisoners about Ravensbruck — about roll call at 4:30 AM, about standing in the icy air shivering for three hours, about seeing the woman in front of her getting beaten because she could no longer stand on her feet, about looking at the smokestacks of the furnaces where the prisoners were burned, and about God reminding her of His presence in the midst of all this.

She said, “I looked out at the men who were sitting in front of me. No longer were their faces filled with darkness and anger. They were listening — intently — for they were hearing from someone who had walked where they were now walking.”

This is what Jesus has done by taking on flesh and blood. He has walked where you are now walking. He knows what you struggle with — better than you know it yourself. He became one of us.

This act of Jesus taking on humanity is the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen. For all the power Jesus had, He chose to voluntarily set aside certain divine rights and become weak. He still had these rights. He simply chose to hide them. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross (Ph 2:8). It is God’s way. When we are weak, then we are strong (II Cor 12:10). The weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men (I Cor 1:25). When we are weak we are becoming more like Jesus, who emptied Himself in order to take on the form of a man. We see the glory of God more clearly in the sufferings of Christ than we do in all the pomp and power of this world. Unfortunately, most people pursue the pomp and power and never see the glory.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14)

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim 2:5)

Lord, you became flesh to redeem flesh.  Praise Your Name.

Jesus was a man. That doctrine is central to Christianity. The creed says He is “fully man.” The Scripture says “He became flesh” (Jn 1:14) and calls Him the “man, Christ Jesus” (I Tim 2:5).   This basic Christian belief about the ordinary humanity of Jesus is not unique. Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Sikhs, you name it — all of these would agree that Jesus was a man. Sometimes, however, people think that Christians miss this idea, that Jesus’ followers deify Him to the point that He ceases to be human.

Quite the opposite is the case. Any attempt to make Jesus purely spiritual — as certain types of Gnosticism did in the first century — is not and cannot be Christian. Such attempts fly in the face of too many plain Scriptural references to the humanity of Jesus. Jesus, simply put, was one of us.

We too blithely pass this over. We think it nothing more than a nice doctrine. “Yes, yes. Jesus is human. So what?” We may not consciously say it that way, but that’s how we live. We don’t comprehend the depths of the humility involved in the humanity of Jesus. Or the love, which it so plainly shows. We think the doctrine quite ordinary and pat ourselves on the back for being reasonable folks. In reality, it is perhaps the most extraordinary sacrifice the world has ever seen. The weakness of Jesus is one of the greatest displays of the glory of God we will ever know. And we miss it. We miss it because He is so like us. We see humanity every day. We’re surrounded by it. We don’t think it glorious. So we don’t understand what is going on with Jesus.

When I was in elementary school, the teacher sometimes would have a little contest to give out some privilege.

“OK class,” she might say. “We just went over multiplying fractions. Now, I want one boy and one girl to come to the board. OK Marcus, you’re the boy. And Bethany, you’re the girl. Now get ready. I’m going to give you one problem to solve. If Marcus gets it right first, the boys get to leave for lunch first. But if Bethany gets it right first, the girls go to lunch first.” The fate of the entire group rested on the representative.

Something like that has gone on in history. Jesus is human; therefore, He can represent humans. His death can free you and me because He was like you and me. The power of His resurrection is for us because He was one of us.

The first man became the head of the race and brought sin into the world. In the same way Jesus has become the head of a new race and has brought righteousness into the world. Since the ultimate source of sin goes back to the head of the race, God’s ultimate solution must fix the head of the race. God does this by providing a new head of the human race. In Christ, God is undoing what Adam did. Or maybe we could say He is redoing Adam. God is saying, in effect, “Let’s start this human race all over.” But to do that, God must have a human.

Jesus is the human head of the new human race. The old race is characterized by sin. The new race is characterized by righteousness. We are members of the old race by birth. We are members of the new race by new birth. We inherited the nature of the old race from its founder. We inherit the nature of the new race from its founder. The humanity of Jesus makes all of this possible. Strip Him of His humanity, and you strip Christianity of its redemptive power.

The humanity of Jesus is not just a reasonable Christian doctrine. It is essential to many other Christian doctrines and central to the work of Christ.

On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev 19:16)

Therefore God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Ph 2:9-11)

But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” (Heb 1:8)

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way …” (Ps 2:11-12a)

Lord Jesus, You sit on the throne at the right hand of the Father. Forever You are king, and forever You shall reign over all other kings, for in Your presence, they are not kings at all. I bow my soul to the king of kings.

One day the President of the United States will be forgotten, the Premier of China will have no power, and the Prime Minister of England will be dust. One day these rulers will meet their king. When that happens, they will bow to Jesus of Nazareth — the king of kings.

The Bible is plain that Jesus outranks all other authorities. He is the ultimate commander in chief. He rules over all, and He is king because of who He is. He was not elected to His position, and He does not answer to the people. He did not attain His status through a coup or a war. He has always been the king of kings, and He shall always be the king of kings. He rules over every authority as God (Heb 1:8). He reigns over Earth because He made it (Jn 1:2; Col 1:16). He has authority to forgive all sins (Mk 2:1-12). He is the final judge of the human race, and all people must honor Him just as they honor the Father (Jn 5:22-23). He has life in himself (Jn 5:21). He is the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25). All who believe in Him will never die (v. 26). He is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). He is the unique Son of God and the glorious Son of Man. He receives worship (Mt 2:11; 14:33; 28:9). He is higher than the angels (Heb 1:1-6). He existed before Abraham (Jn 8:58).

The follower of Jesus must come to grips with this aspect of Jesus. Christ is not just a babe in a manger or a tragic victim of Roman oppression. He is the author of the whole story, the exalted ruler of heaven and earth. Deny this, and you deny God Himself. Embrace this, and God radically changes your life.  Acknowledging the rightful king is part of being a citizen of the kingdom of God.