How Is the Incarnation of Christ Relevant to Us Today?
“And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” John 17:5
How is the Incarnation of Christ relevant to us today? It is relevant in a number of ways. First, it reminds us of the great love of God for us. God did not love us from a distance. If he had, he might have sent an emissary to us to express his goodwill. He might have shown some token of his love that would have been meaningful but not costly to himself. God, however, did none of those things. Instead, he committed himself to a very costly act of love and mercy by becoming flesh and blood. God did not stay in the comfort of heaven but left it to come to us. This is a supreme demonstration of God’s great love.
The Incarnation is relevant in a second way, as it points us to an important aspect of our call to evangelism. We cannot simply wait for people to come to us. We must go to them. As Christ left the comfort of heaven to come to us, so we are called to leave our comfort zone to go to others. This is the great challenge of evangelism today. It is easier to be comfortable than to risk the discomfort of seeking the lost.
There is another way in which the Incarnation is relevant to us today. It is that Christ has ascended into heaven and now serves as our Mediator to the Father. Since the entrance of sin into the world, a mediator between sinful humans and a holy God has been needed. In the Old Testament the priests served this function, going into the temple on behalf of the people. The New Testament provided a better covenant with a better Mediator. Christ has become our Great High Priest who entered the Holy of Holies once and for all. He has broken down the barriers that separate us from God. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was split in two, from the top to the bottom. This symbolized that in Jesus, the way to God’s intimate presence was now open to all.
There is mystery that surrounds Christ’s work as our Mediator. It has to do with Christ’s presence at the right hand of the Father. When the book of Acts records the ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:6-11), it says that Jesus rose bodily. We might have expected Jesus to gleefully shed his human body, leaving it where he stood. We might expect that he would gladly be rid of it. This is not what happened, however. Jesus ascended bodily, though it was in his “resurrection” body. What does this mean? It means that, in some sense, Jesus has retained his human nature in heaven. This is what allows him to truly be the Mediator between God and humans. Though Christ has returned to his heavenly glory, he still retains his human nature. When we are promised that one day we will see Christ face to face, it is the face of Jesus of Nazareth we will see.
The scriptures promise the visible, bodily return of Christ. This is also a great mystery. The two angels that appeared to the disciples when Jesus ascended said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The return of Christ will mark the final victory of God and the coming of his kingdom. It will also signal the great reckoning that the scriptures call the Last Judgment. When asked about the timing of his return, Jesus said that no one knew the day or the hour, not the angels in heaven nor even the Son (Matthew 24:36). The nature and timing of this great event is hidden in the providential plan of God. We cannot know the exact details of its nature, and the scriptures do not give us enough information for much speculation. We have this hope and promise, however. All of history is in God’s hands. One day all human history will culminate in Jesus Christ. He will come to judge the living and the dead. When he does, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11). God will be glorified, and all things that are out of sorts will be made right.