Theology, Incarnational Principle - Essay Example

The incarnational principle s – God draws near, communicates his presence, and imparts his saving and sanctifying grace through physical means, gestures, objects, persons, events, and other media that we experience with our senses (Storms, 2006). This is amply conveyed through the different scriptures. Jesus’ story does not end with his death or burial, says L T Johnson in the 6th chapter in The Creed: What we believe and Why it matters. Jesus’ presence continues with the resurrection and enthronement at the right hand of God. This book further explains that resurrection was Jesus’ entry as a human person into the immortal existence of God. Jesus is powerfully present, ruling the creation with God. In John the words explain Jesus as saying that He has come from God and is ascending back to Him. In saying ‘God was in Christ’ immediately a relationship of Christ with God can be established. “God has put all things under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and has made Christ Head of the Church, which is his body”, (Thompson, 2002). Jesus reigns over all things in heaven and earth. Thompson further emphasizes although Jesus was crucified by human beings, God has raised him to life and made him both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36-37). The confession of Jesus itself expresses the unique relationship of Jesus to God. Thus, God has communicated His presence through Jesus who lived on the earth and imparted grace for the benefit of humanity. In other words, Jesus was an incarnation of God. Hardon (1997) emphasizes that Jesus assumed human flesh, body and soul, dwelt amongst us as one of us to redeem us. He further says that there is no holiness in the practice of virtue unless one believes that Jesus was an incarnation of God. The purpose was to provide us a motivation to live a holy life. Bible teaches that Jesus is God is by showing that He has all of the attributes of God (Delphi, n.d.). He knows everything (Matthew 18:20; 28:20; Acts 18:10), is everywhere (Mt 16:21; Luke 11:17; John 4:29), has all power (Mt 8:26, 27; 28:18; Jn 11:38-44; Lk 7:14-15; Revelation 1:8), depends on nothing outside of Himself for life (Jn 1:4; 14:6; 8:58), rules over everything (Mt 28:18; Rev 19:16; 1:5) never began to exist and never will cease to exist (John 1:1; 8:58), and is our Creator (Colossians 1:16) (cited by Delphi). Because He is an incarnation, Christ has two natures – the divine nature and the human nature both of which is complete and remain distinct. He was born as a baby from a human mother ((Luke 2:7; Galatians 4:4); he became weary (John 4:6), thirsty and hungry. He also experienced all the human emotions like weeping and sorrow (John 11:35). He lived just as one of us on earth. Jesus came back as man to pay for penalty of human; he can sympathize with us and identify with us. Thus, he had all the attributes that the incarnational principle states and one is convinced that Jesus was an incarnation. Jesus had a sinless life which is difficult for a normal human being to maintain. He rose much before others and went out to commune with God. He spent forty days in wilderness, he spent nights in prayers. His knowledge of the world was immense, again not an easy feat for an ordinary human being. In the midst of great temptations he could keep away from Satan and declared, "Man shall not live by bread alone" (Deut. 8:8). He always treated an individual as an end to himself and not a means to an end (Ockenga, 1958). He treated everyone with equal dignity, honor and value, which demonstrates that He believed the same divinity within everyone. An ordinary person could never treat all as equal. We would return blow for blow, and evil for evil, having no endurance capacity but Jesus was willing to bear evil rather than inflict it; he was ready to forgive rather than seek revenge as do normal human beings. Christ had "committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23), which is not possible unless one has committed himself to God. He had the ability to face any situation, any kind of suffering with patience. He had a clam acceptance of any emergency and was in possession of himself. He took the death on the cross as a satisfaction for sin and conveyed to the world and humanity that suffering would end in pain. In his death, he became the victim offered on the altar of sin and he took our sin in his own body. All these are logic enough for to believe that Jesus was truly an incarnation. I have had numerous experiences which convince me of the incarnation principle. Once while on a holiday with the family I developed a severe headache which disturbs me very often. It had spilt everyone’s evening and we had just three evenings with us. I was feeling awful and wanted to scream. I tried taking some pills only to throw up whatever I took in. finally I asked my family to go ahead for dinner and I remained in bed. I closed my eyes and called out to the lord; I prayed fervently and all of a sudden I found the room filled with bright white light and I actually saw Christ landing in the room, just at my head, from nowhere in the white robe. I felt a small touch on my head and within seconds He had vanished. The very next moment I sat up in bed and I did not find any trace of the headache which had spoilt our evening and had been irritating since early afternoon. When the family returned from dinner they were surprised to see me smiling and sitting up in because. They then ordered dinner for me too. This may be just an example but there are several such incidents which convince me that God incarnates in various forms to live with us human beings, to help us developed our self and go back to him. References: Delphi (n.d.), Understanding the Incarnation of Christ, 25 Oct 2007 Hardon, J. A., (1997), Imitating Jesus Christ, Incarnate God, 25 Oct 2007 Ockenga, H. J., (1958), Jesus, The Christians Example, 25 Oct 2007 Storms, S., (2006), Sacramentalism - Part I, Enjoying God Ministeries, 25 Oct 2007 Thompson M M, (2002), Jesus Is Lord: How the Earliest Christian Confession Informs Our Proclamation in a Pluralistic Age, 25 March 2007 Read More