Christian thoughts from everyday life in and around the three cities.
INCARNATION MORE REMARKABLE THAN EVOLUTION Today there are just ten days left until Christmas. We celebrate again arguably the most unique event that ever happened in human history.
An incarnation (with lower case ‘i’), is the act of showing oneself in bodily form. Christian theology teaches the Incarnation (with capital ‘I’), is the assuming of a human body by God the Son. I believe that God showed himself in human form as Jesus Christ.
Evolution is a theory some scientists believe, to try and explain the gradual changes in plants, animals and humans, which produce today’s species from ancestors characteristically unlike themselves.
God our Creator knew humankind could never evolve sufficiently to recover everything we lost at ‘the Fall’. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, our most important relationship was broken. People are still made to relate to God, but that single disobedience has become a solid barrier which no purely human being can cross by their own effort.
Our ancestors were sinners before the Holy Creator God, and so are we. Like them, we are separated from God. No amount of our praying, fasting, charitable work, or otherwise good living, will ever remedy our situation. And that is how things would have permanently remained for everyone, except God has stepped into our world.
God appeared as a baby born in a stable at Bethlehem. His divine Father and human mother named him ‘Jesus’. He was the precise representation of God. His nature was God. He was man as God intended man to be.
Don’t misunderstand me please. God the Son always existed. Long before this he spoke our world into creation. At Christmas, we Christians remember the fact that this already living God the Son became flesh. He lived for a while among people. This would be unbelievable if it were not gloriously true!
You and I can never evolve on our own into a right relationship with God. God’s Incarnation as Jesus provides the only acceptable Saviour. In Jesus’ birth, life and death, God himself removes the barrier between him and us.
So the way to a truly Happy Christmas is opened. Ask God the Son to make you a child of God. I have found this Jesus remarkably worthy of my trust. I’m sure you will too.