The most striking Christmas card I have received in years came from this past season. The headline read: 'History is Crowded With Men Who Would Be Gods' Underneath were the images of nine powerful historical figures: Alexander the Great, Tutankhamen, Julius Ceasar, Maharishs Yogi, Adolf Hitler, Vladmir Lenin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Gautama Buddha and Mao Tse-tung. Who would deny that these individuals aspired to reign as gods with supreme power and authority?
What made the card unique was the message inside which read: 'But Only One God Who Would Be Man.' Underneath was a reproduction of a Dutch painting depecting the infant Jesus in the manger with Mary and Joseph looking on.
The record of Scripture is profound and clear. God the father loved teh world so much that He gave His only Son. Think about that for a moment. God, the Son, willingly laid aside His role as God, gve us His seat at the right hand of the Father, to be born of human flesh. God became man completely human, completely normal.
It is here that the whole issue stretches our understanding, because being completely human and completly God means something marvelous, something supernatureal. Paul expains how Jesus laid aside His excercise of deity to become man in Phillippians 2.
Was Jesus ike us in the sense that He was tempted and torn, at times, between right and wrong? The record says He was in every way tempted as we are, yet without sin. As man He was capable of sinning, but He was also able not to sin-which gives us hope as well.
Many men would be gods, but only one God chose to be man. Amazing, yet true. John adds that 'whoever believes in him shall not perish [or be lost] but have eternal life' (John 3:16) That's the bottom line.
Resource Reading: John 1:1-12
=DG
What made the card unique was the message inside which read: 'But Only One God Who Would Be Man.' Underneath was a reproduction of a Dutch painting depecting the infant Jesus in the manger with Mary and Joseph looking on.
The record of Scripture is profound and clear. God the father loved teh world so much that He gave His only Son. Think about that for a moment. God, the Son, willingly laid aside His role as God, gve us His seat at the right hand of the Father, to be born of human flesh. God became man completely human, completely normal.
It is here that the whole issue stretches our understanding, because being completely human and completly God means something marvelous, something supernatureal. Paul expains how Jesus laid aside His excercise of deity to become man in Phillippians 2.
Was Jesus ike us in the sense that He was tempted and torn, at times, between right and wrong? The record says He was in every way tempted as we are, yet without sin. As man He was capable of sinning, but He was also able not to sin-which gives us hope as well.
Many men would be gods, but only one God chose to be man. Amazing, yet true. John adds that 'whoever believes in him shall not perish [or be lost] but have eternal life' (John 3:16) That's the bottom line.
Resource Reading: John 1:1-12
=DG
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