The life story of our Lord has its roots away back, before there were any beginnings. He was himself the beginning of the world’s story, and he will be its end. Yet he did make a new beginning on this earth as human flesh and blood in the land of the Jews. There that baby was born who cleft history into two; into B.C. and A.D. Even the big bomb didn’t do that! The world has never been the same since the Son of God was enfleshed here. His “en-man-ment” established history’: center and ultimate meaning. Because he came we know how precious we are in God’s sight, and what tremendous possibilities he has opened up for us. Because the Lord stood on the same ground with us, this world will always shine with a kind of glory that nothing can altogether becloud.
Why did he come? He loved us more than he loved all the power he possessed in heaven, more than he loved unstained garments of light. The Son of God laid aside all his splendor to become one of our human race, whose very name had smelled to high heaven! I just don’t get it. It’s utterly beyond my wits to explain why he would come to this stable of beasts. Like a little child I’ll have to say, “It was just because. . . .” Because God loves us. Because that’s the way God is. Oh, who can reason his way into the secret heart of divine love?
And who can understand how the unfenced God could wear the skin of a little child? Would the One who bestraddles the abyss of space get hurt if his mother dropped him on the floor? Though thunderbolts leave the Almighty unscathed, men would pierce him with nails. The great Giver of life was destined to die. The timeless One began to have birthdays. The beginning of all things was born. They couldn’t tell the Creator of the universe from a creature born in a barn. Such statements sound completely whacky to some of my brainy friends who claim to know what God can do and can’t do. The “God” they have dreamed up wouldn’t even think of such things, let alone try to do them! But then I can’t expect their man-made “God” to be capable of doing any of the things that the true God is always doing. Who could have predicted that God would make exactly this kind of world and none other? Light didn’t have to travel just so fast and no faster. The Almighty could have made hosts of creatures quite different from those he actually chose to make. God writes his own prescriptions and draws his own blueprints without consulting us as to what he may do or may not do. He is God. If he chose to enter this world’s history through the small door of a woman’s body, that’s his business. It’s only one more surprise in a world full of surprises. He can step down his voltage to keep from scorching us, and step into our midst if he wants to. This was God’s doing. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God.
Books by Dr. John A. Ross
