The Incarnation: Infinite Condecension!

How awesome to think about the eternal nature of God! When I think about the fact that God has no beginning but has existed eternally my mind can grasp it for a split second and then the thought is lost.

I was reading a commentary on the book of Genesis (I love the book of Genesis because of the tremendous pictures of God seen there) and the author makes the statement,

"Although it is impossible for us to comprehend fully this concept of an eternal, transcendent God, the only alternative is the concept of an eternal, self-existing universe… (Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record, Baker Books, 1976, page 40."

I have often thought about what God was doing before He created the first thing He created. God is eternal, and if you want to think of it in terms of past, present and future, He has an eternal past. He has always existed. So the day came (I realize that I am using concepts like days and time but that is the best I can do) when God decided to create the first thing He ever created.

Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." That does not mean God’s beginning. It only refers to the beginning of what concerns the creation of the universe and the existence of man. Further, we know the angels had already been created from a reference in Job.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy (Job 38: 4-7)?

From verse seven it is clear that the angels were present for the creation, celebrating God’s creative acts.

There came a time in God’s eternal past when He created the first thing He created. From that point backwards He had already existed eternally. I cannot possibly know what He did during that eternal time that stretches backwards forever. Our concept of time is not adequate. My human reasoning keeps reaching backwards and desires to settle on some beginning point. But God is eternal. Eon after eon passes and God, who eternally exists in three persons, creates nothing. Eon after eon after eon passes and still nothing. Then all at once He moves! I cannot understand it. We will need something other than time to understand it and still be able to honor the truth. Let’s put it this way: God's eternal past stretches back to the point where time does not exist; where the language and concepts that we understand are inadequate.

Then, when I catch some glimpse of God's grandeur and unsearchable nature, I think of the Second Person of the Godhead and the Incarnation! His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2)" and yet He came into our world saying, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, O God (Hebrews 10:5-7).’ ” And with that He "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2:7)." The God of the universe made Himself accessible to us, even dying for us, so that we could be reconciled to Himself! One preacher said it would be like one of us loving our dog so much that we would be willing to become one just for the sake of fellowship with it. Even that does not come close to the gap that was between us and God before the Incarnation!

“God is utterly ineffable and incomprehensible to us, for his sublime greatness and majesty infinitely exceed the capacity of human beings to know and describe him as he is in his own nature. However, while retaining inviolate the mystery of his own being, God has chosen to make himself known to us through a movement of love and infinite condescension in which he has drawn near to us by becoming incarnate in Jesus Christ, thereby bringing himself within the range of human knowing (Attributed to Irenaeus by T.F. Torrance in The Trinitarian Faith).”

Renovation of the Heart

This fall we will try an experiment with the Renovation of the Heart class. We will see if we can get people to reflect on the class and interact together with this blog site.

Stay tuned!