The God Who Becomes a Human Being

D.A. Carson writes: “In his 1903 book The Dynasts, Thomas Hardy describes God as “the dreaming, dark, dumb Thing that turns the handle of this idle show.”  Hardy’s God is not a person but a thing.  It is devoid of relationships, friendship, fellowship, warmth.  It is utterly silent (“dumb”); it cannot speak.  Yet in some ways it controls our lives, presumably in some sort of impersonal, amoral, purposeless, and fatalistic fashion, as it “turns the handle of this idle show.”

The God of the Bible, the God who is there, is not like that.  Though he is sovereign, he is also personal: he is presented as passionate, relational, warm, indignant, loving, wrathful.  Above all, he is the God who communicates—not only in spectacular events, and not only in nature (Psalm 19:1-2), but also in words that have been written down in the Bible.  So important is this category of “word” that eventually it is applied to the highest and greatest revelation of all: the revelation of God in the person of his Son, who is consequently called God’s Word, his self-expression.  For this Word “became flesh” (John 1:14).  Jesus is not merely a spokesperson for God, a kind of souped-up prophet; he is the explanation of God, the narrative of God, the exegesis of God (Hebrews 1:1-4).

In other words, while pondering the incarnation or wrestling with the doctrine of the Trinity, one must see that a huge claim to revelation is being made—the revelation of God.  If this is taken seriously, one can never again reduce Christianity to the level of mere ritual and popular religion: it is bound up with God becoming a man, with revelation of the most exquisitely high order.  Jesus cannot be reduced to the level of guru equivalent to other gurus.  He is utterly unique.”

If you are interested in talking more about the eternal Son of God who entered human history and became man, you are warmly invited to come and join us for our next Bible study, which takes place tomorrow night (Wednesday, May 25) from 6:30 to 8 PM.  We meet at 9257 Amsden Way in Eden Prairie.  Our study will focus on John 1:1-18.