Morally Logical Decision
Morally Logical Decision
Thus, I believe it was a morally logical decision that when Jesus Christ became incarnate it was in the flesh and body of a man because God had made man in His image.
I believe that although man was fallen and lost and on his way to hell, he still had a capacity and potential that made the Incarnation possible, so that God Almighty could pull up the blankets of human flesh around His ears and become a Man to walk among men.
There was nothing of like kind among angels and fallen creatures—so He came not to condemn but to reclaim and to restore and to regenerate.
We have been trying to think of this condescension of God in personal and individual terms and what it should mean to each one of us to be loved of God in this way.
Now I think I hear someone saying, “But John 3:16 does not mention the cross. You have been telling about God’s love but you have not mentioned the cross and His death on our behalf!”
Just let me say that there are some who insist and imagine that whenever we preach we should just open our mouths and in one great big round paragraph include every bit of theology there is to preach.
John 3:16 does not mention the cross and I declare to you that God is not nearly as provincial as we humans are. He has revealed it all and has included it all and has said it all somewhere in the Book, so that the cross stands out like a great, bright, shining pillar in the midst of the Scriptures.
We remember, too, that without the cross on which the Savior died there could be no Scriptures, no revelation, no redemptive message, nothing! But here He gave us a loving proclamation—He sent His Son; He gave His Son! Then later it develops that in giving His Son, He gave Him to die!
I have said that this must be a personal word for every man and every woman. Like a prodigal son in that most moving of all stories, each one of us must come to grips with our own personal need and to decide and act as he did: “I am hungry. I will perish here. But I will get up. I will go to my father. I remember his house and his provision” (see Luke 15:17–20). He said, “I will go”—so he got up and went to his father.
You must think of yourself—for God sent His Son into the world to save you!
* Puck: a mischievous imp from English folklore who was immortalized in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.