The Incarnation :: By Alice Childs

I do not fully understand all that the incarnation of Christ encompasses. What is clearly taught from scripture is that Jesus was and is both fully God and fully man (Colossians 2:9). In order to procure our redemption, He had to become a man subject to human frailties (He got hungry and needed to eat; He got sleepy and needed to sleep; He grew fatigued and needed to rest, for example), but in His humanity also existed His full deity. He was without sin in His perfection, and He could not sin in His humanity because of His deity.

God the Son had to die as a man in order to qualify Him to pay the infinite price (wages of sin) incurred by all mankind as a result of Adam’s fall. The first Adam was created without sin; but because he (as all created things are) was a created being and thus not divine, Adam and Eve had the capacity to sin, and of course, they did.

God created them perfect, but gave to them the freedom of will to choose obedience or rebellion. Adam, of course, chose rebellion. Jesus – the eternally existent One (Revelation 1:8; 22:13-21), God the Son, incarnated into human flesh, at Bethlehem was born as the 2nd Adam – both fully human and fully divine.

This uniqueness of being qualified Him to live the perfect sinless life, never sinning in thought, word, or deed. Being a divine human God-Man thus qualified Him alone to pay the penalty, the righteous justice that holy God demanded as an atonement for the sin-curse under which all of humanity is born guilty (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Because of Adam’s rebellion, mankind needed a Savior. Only God alone could be that Savior.

It was not Jesus’ physical suffering, as great as it was, that paid in full the sin-debt of mankind. No, it was that instant when Jesus “became sin” for all humanity – when God “laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53).

When Jesus from the cross cried aloud, “It is finished!” all that ever needed to be done to accomplish the eternal redemption of fallen man was finished and completed in that instant. The doctrine that one can lose one’s salvation negates Christ’s finished work for the salvation of all mankind at Calvary, once for all time, for all who are willing to believe upon Him alone for salvation (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Jesus’ triumphant cry of, “It is finished!” cancels out all false “works-based salvation” doctrines which attempt to add to God’s perfect and completed salvation the efforts of fallen sinful man to the finished redemption that only God could do.

And finally, Jesus’ cry of, “It is finished!” silences the insidious doctrine of Calvinism, which in essence states that God doesn’t love everyone the same –  some He loves enough to save them from eternal damnation and others He chooses to send to an eternal Hell. This fatalistic teaching twists the love of God and the choice of Jesus to die in payment for the sins of the world (John 3:16) and the stated fact that He was the propitiation, not only for our sins, but for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2).

I could go on for days writing about how necessary to salvation Jesus’ incarnation is to our salvation, but hopefully this will suffice.

We, in our fallen finite minds, will never this side of eternity grasp all the depth and intricacies of the incarnation of God the Son into humanity. We believe it by faith, but a faith that is rooted and grounded in the “many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3) that the Bible gives us about how:

God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son (that means the only one of His kind),

that whosoever (that’s inclusive of all as in everyone – anyone)

believeth in him (this excludes all of fallen man’s “filthy rags” efforts to either obtain or maintain God’s free gift of salvation) – believeth – the only thing necessary for acceptance if this gift is to believe according to the scriptures)

shall not perish (in the eternal 2nd death)

but shall have (that is be justified immediately – instantly and eternally saved upon one’s belief)

everlasting life (a promised new and incorruptible body and mind to unite with a believer’s already redeemed spirit) – a redeemed body (Romans 8:22-25; 1 Corinthians 15: 53-55) that is fit to dwell and live forever in the presence of God.

This is the completed purpose of the incarnation of Jesus into the world He created.

 

The Peaceable Kingdom :: by Alice Childs

How I long for that Peaceable Kingdom
Where the wolf shall lie down with the lamb
Where the evil and fighting has ended
And the earth is renewed once again

To be freed from the evil and bloodshed
Of a world that was cursed by the Fall
When God will recreate Eden
And the Lord reign as King over all

Where the babies and children are treasured
Where their laughter is heard in the streets
Where each living creature is safe and secure
Every bird and each gentle beast

Where all people dwell safely together
And no fear mars any home
With immortals and mortals together
As King Jesus reigns from His throne.

From Jerusalem’s bright holy mountain
To the farthest reach of the earth
The Lord will rule just and holy
And all living things will have worth.

For one thousand years in this Kingdom
Where peace will at last have arrived
All mankind can breathe deeply of freedom
From hatred and sin and all lies.

Oh, how my heart so longs to be there!
United with family and friends
To be joyfully bonded together
In fellowship never to end!

But for now there’s a world growing darker
With a terrible time just ahead
For those who will not make the rapture
Will be left here to suffer instead.

But no one has to remain here!
All who choose to can go in the air
When Jesus steps out of His Heaven
And calls for His bride to appear.

The door of grace is yet open
And all who are willing can go
For those who believe on the Savior
The rapture of Glory will know.

Oh, that glorious kingdom is coming
After horror and torment and pain
When Jesus returns in His triumph
To establish His thousand-year reign.

How I long for the rapture to happen
How I long for those last 7 years
Not for the bloodshed that’s coming
But to bring to an end all the tears

All the heartache and horror and evil
To be cleansed from a sin-ravaged earth
To see joy and hope returning
To a world that has had a new birth.

And yes, there is great trouble coming
God’s terrible judgment draws near
But all things are restored as brand new
When that Peaceable Kingdom is here.

And the babies and children will play there
With the animals all great and small
Each protected and loved and treasured
As King Jesus rules over all.