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Archive: When God Became A Man

By H.C. Morrison, Methodist Evangelist

Adapted from his message “The Christ of the Gospel” preached in 1915

“Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” — I Timothy 3:16

The inspired writers nowhere undertake to explain the mysteries which abound in the revelations God has made to man. It must be understood that the revelation of the divine Being—the incarnation[1] of Jesus Christ—and the new and holy life of peace and joy which come to those who trust in Him cannot be figured out and explained by mathematical processes or in terms of human philosophy.

Who can explain to us electricity? We know it exists. It is about us everywhere; it illuminates our pathway with its light; its penetrating rays may destroy germs and heal us of disease. We may cook our food with its heat. It leaps across the ocean carrying our message with the speed of lightning, but Edison himself cannot tell us what electricity is.

“Great is the mystery of godliness.” To the devout Christian, who believes the Bible, loves Jesus Christ and worships God in spirit and in truth, the mysteries connected with our holy religion are not an objection but a fascination, always claiming reverential study and constantly increasing our spiritual comprehension of divine goodness and the glorious plan of human redemption.

In accomplishing this great work, infinite wisdom found it necessary to combine two natures in one Being. Man’s condition was such that it was necessary to offer him a Redeemer so human that He could sympathize with him, and so divine that He could save him.

God had created men, but He had never been a man. God had seen men toil, but He had never blistered His hand with carpenter’s tools. He had seen men weep, but He had never wept. He had seen men struggling in the midst of temptation, but He had never felt the onslaughts of the tempter against Himself. He had seen men bleed, but He had never bled. He had seen the millions struggling on the crumbling verge of the grave, and finally sinking into its hopeless depths, but He had never felt the cold grip of death, or spread His omnipotent shoulders upon the bottom of a sepulchre.

God determined to come into the world … to take the weight of humanity upon Himself … to walk its rugged paths … to carry its heavy burdens … to know its deep sorrows and heart-breaking griefs … to meet and conquer its tempter and destroyer … to suffer and die among its outcasts and criminals … to lie down in the house of death, and then to arise in majesty and rend the gate of the tomb asunder, opening the way for a redeemed race from the grave to the glorious resurrection and eternal life.

The wisdom of the incarnation is seen when we remember how difficult it is for the finite to grasp the infinite, for the earthly to comprehend the heavenly, for the sinful to approach the holy. It is hard for us to fix our thoughts upon that great Being without body or parts, who is eternal in existence, omnipotent in power, and omnipresent. The poor human intellect staggers with the thought. We do not know where to begin, how to proceed, or where to leave off. The wings of our imagination grow weary, the brain grows dizzy, while the heart hungers on, and we are made to cry out in the language of Job: “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” (Job 11:7-9)

It is easy to think of the Babe of Bethlehem, and with the wise men to worship Him. Even in His infancy lying in the manger, He was a true object of worship. There is no intimation that the gathering of the eastern sages and the humble shepherds on bended knees about that wondrous Child was sacrilege. It is delightful to stand amidst priests and doctors of the law, listening to His wisdom, while He is yet a youth; to go down to John’s baptism and see Him standing meek and lowly in the presence of the rugged preacher, and saying: “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) It thrills us to follow Him up the mountain side, to look with awe upon the temptation.

We can trail Him along His pathway by the crutches and the canes which have been cast aside by the halt and the lame He has healed, and the shouts and praises of those from whom devils have been cast out.

As we follow Him there is no doubt that He is God manifest in the flesh. He walks like a man, but He works like a God. We behold His humanity when He lay sleeping in the boat, and His deity when He arises and rebukes the wind and storm, and the tempest sinks into silence at His command. He weeps like a man at Lazarus’ tomb, but with Godlike voice He breaks the power of death and brings Lazarus forth alive. As a man, He sits hungry at the well’s mouth; like a God, He breaks the few loaves and little fishes and feeds the multitude. Like a man, He goes into the mountains for prayer; like a God, He walks the waves of the sea of Galilee and overtakes His disciples who have gone forth in the ship. Like a man, He climbs the mountain; transfigured like a God, He stands upon its crest in garments whiter than the light.

What a marvelous combination of the two natures-human and divine! Spirit begotten and virgin born.

Jesus had a human mind, which “grew in knowledge.” He had a human soul, of which He said in Gethsemane, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” (Matthew 26:38)

In coming to the world’s Redeemer, seeking to know something of Him and what He means to the world, and what He is to us, the Holy Scriptures weigh infinitely more with us than all the reasonings and philosophies of men. They have absolute right-of-way. Turning to the Scriptures we find the inspired writer saying, “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16) That is, the nature of man.

And again, “Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:17,18)

It is by means of this divine Christ, who was made like unto His brethren in body, mind, and soul, that the wide chasm stretching between an infinitely holy God and an utterly depraved and fallen man is bridged. Our Redeemer becomes to us a faithful “high priest who [can] be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,” (Hebrews 4:15a) and yet possessing in Himself that eternal power and godhead which make Him one and equal with the Father, able to save to the uttermost.

The conflict of the centuries has raged around Jesus Christ. He was unknown until He was manifest in the flesh. And the Father was unknown—that is, He was never understood—until He was revealed in the Son. The world had heard of the eternal God. He had revealed Himself to a few men; the prophets had proclaimed His laws for our government, angels had now and again brought some message from the headquarters of the universe.

When the disciples insisted that He should show them the Father, He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9b)

What amazing words are these! We never could have had any such conception of the eternal God of the ages. We knew He could build a universe, fling the stars from His fingertips into their orbits, but we never dreamed that He would become a Carpenter and fix the windows in the hut of a poor man. We understood that He sat upon the throne of the universe and angels and archangels bowed in adoration at His feet, but it never occurred to us that He would sit down and partake of a frugal meal among sunburned fishermen. We understood that He commanded all the mighty hosts of heaven, that angels flew on lightning wing, that at His look and word devils fled in consternation at His command, but we did not know that He would gather little children into His bosom and bless them with His caress and love.

Had Jesus not come to our earth, and lived with us here, had God not been manifest in the flesh, we never could have known the heart of the infinite Father. We are profoundly impressed, as never before, that there is closer kinship than we have yet dreamed between God and His creature man, made in His image, redeemed by the incarnation and sufferings of His Son, adopted as His children, with the promise that we shall be satisfied when we awake in His likeness. It seems to us that contemplation of these great facts in our holy religion ought to lead to a universal rebellion against sin—a great heart-cry for redemption from all of its effects, for restoration to purity of heart and holiness of life.

The greatest need of our time is that we get away from mere theological theories and human philosophies about Christ and that we get back to Christ Himself. Not that Christ of men’s notions, manufactured by this, that, and the other school of theology, but the Christ God gave to men; the Christ of the Gospels, the Christ of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Bethany, Jerusalem, Gethsemane, Calvary, Mt. Olivet; the Christ who lived and labored, hungered and suffered, loved and forgave, who died in tears and blood and agony on the cross for a sinful race.

We can no more permit the theologians and philosophers to rob us of the humanity of Jesus, than we can permit the destructive critic and skeptic to rob us of the deity of Jesus. We must keep in our thought, worship in our heart, and proclaim in our message to the people the Christ of the Gospels, that human-divine Being, who lived, walked and talked with the disciples; that human Christ who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; that divine Christ who is able to save to the uttermost, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

This beautiful Babe of Bethlehem, this wondrous Youth of 12 years, this patient Carpenter of Nazareth, this meek and lowly Man followed by ignorant fishermen, “Receiving sinners and eating with them, ” this matchless Preacher of the truth, this majestic Master of devils, disease, and death; this Man in bloody sweat in Gethsemane, this Victim of human hate and mob violence falling beneath His burden on Calvary’s hillside, this white-faced, sinless Jesus hanging on the cross—Do you know who He is! He is God manifest in the flesh.

Do you ask what all of this means! It means that the Good Shepherd of heaven has come to earth seeking His lost sheep. It means the redemption of sinners; it means that fallen men are to be born again and become in Christ new creatures. It means that the depraved and sinful are to become sanctified, that strangers to the commonwealth of Israel are to become the sons of God. It means that the demon-possessed are to sit clothed and in their right minds at the Master’s feet. It means that this Jesus of Nazareth is God manifest in the flesh to save a lost race; that sinful men are to partake of the divine nature, that the demon-possessed on their way to hell are to become pure and holy beings, are to walk in righteousness through the earth and to ascend in triumph to heaven. …

Jesus Christ belonged to no special race of men. He was the Son of man, the own full brother of every man of every race. His kinship with men helps us to love and hope for all men. He belonged to no special age. He belonged to all ages, to all time, to all eternity. He was with the Father before the world was. Abraham saw His day and was glad. Moses promises His coming. Micah tells us that He was to be born in Bethlehem. David sings of Him in a hundred Psalms; Isaiah describes His humble person, His patient suffering, His cruel death, and His final triumph.

The civilized world today acknowledges Him the Son of God. The heathen world begs to hear His gospel. The multitudes of the earth ask to be baptized in His name, and millions of redeemed souls are waiting with hope and prayer for His coming. We believe in Him. We worship Him. We pledge and consecrate our all to Him. We cry to the lost race—”Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29b)

Our hearts respond.

 

All hail the power of Jesus’ name,
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all.

 

Let every kindred, every tribe
On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe,
And crown Him Lord of all.

 

Oh, that with yonder sacred throng,
We at His feet may fall,
We’ll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all.

[1] INCARNATION: God coming to live on earth as a man; fully human (except for sinning) but at the same time also fully God

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