No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:18 ESV)
Why the Incarnation?
To Reveal the Invisible God
I do not understand people who like bananas. I do not understand people who like the two party system. I do not understand people who like sleeping outside in the winter. I do not understand people who refuse to like all the things that I like.
But that understanding is bridged by something. Or rather, by someOne. The Christ we share overcomes the differences.
And that ability to accept those others began with the Incarnation. God, through Jesus, showed us how.
God’s holiness, power, and ‘other’ness might have meant eternal distance from His beloved created beings. A connection was already going to be different, but once mankind broke covenant any chance of community was abolished.
Humans could not comprehend God.
But when perfect, limitless, divine Jahweh somehow also became temptable, limited, and human Christ Jesus, that ‘other’ness of God became graspable by our minds, hearts, and souls.
We can know the One True Living God because of the Incarnation.
He is still very different, but He reaches out to us and we can grasp Him.
He is still beyond us, but He reaches down to us and we can recognize Him.
He is still beyond our embrace, but He reaches to us in love and we can have peace.
Without the Incarnation we would not know God, and no one can know God without the Incarnation.
So be in awe this Christmas season!