Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man

“The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.”

Undercover Boss is a fairly successful TV show. I’ll admit that the premise has sucked me in on more than one occasion. The idea that the head of an ultra-successful organisation would slum it with the entry level minions in his business to get an idea of how things were going & what he could do to improve things is fairly cool.

If we are entertained by millionaires who are willing to make themselves blue-collar workers again, how much more amazing is God, the creator of Heaven and Earth, the one who sustains all things, yet this God, out of love for his creation, would deign to enter this world in human flesh. To experience all that it is to be human, to be tempted, to suffer indignities forced upon him by sinful men.

For some reason, the idea of God-become-man, particularly the virgin birth, really sticks in some people’s craw

I’ve never had an issue with the virgin birth as some have, since, appealing to reason, as the Higher Critics would call us to, if we are speaking about the all-powerful God here, then it is most reasonable to assume that he can “break the rules” as he enters into our mortal experience, especially when it serves as a reminder of Jesus’ nature as both fully God and fully man.

What does it mean for me? Again, a blog like this is only ever dipping into the surface of such things. One thing I would point to is the simple, yet profound truth that, through Christ, God can understand me in the most personal and experiential of ways (as if the one who created me couldn’t already do so), yet, being the Son of God, Christ is able to provide in his death (and subsequent resurrection) a sacrifice which is so worthy that it can bear the weight, not only of my sins, but the sins of the whole world!

Of all the things that I marvel at as I approach God, the divine combination of the transcendental and the personal is one of the most amazing!

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14