A Note from our Pastor:

”And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

1 Timothy 3:16

Good Morning Dearly Beloved,

Our study verse this week brings us to the conclusion of the third chapter of 1st Timothy. In the prior verse, the Apostle Paul told his audience the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. In this verse, the Apostle expands on one aspect of the truth the church is supposed to maintain. This verse is packed with meaning and deserves ample consideration, as a result, this study verse will remain our focus for several weeks.

Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.

To be fair, the elements of the incarnation of Christ which remain mysterious to our finite minds are numerous. The fact Jesus was born of a virgin alone confounds human understanding. However, in this study, we will focus on three aspects: 1) God’s descent from heaven; 2) the combining of divine and human natures; and 3) the all-powerful divine and frail human in one person.

A belief in the incarnation of Christ demands the disciple accept and believe Christ’s eternal presence in heaven. Christ, as the son of God, has always existed in spirit form without a beginning. He was present when time itself was created and will be existent when time is no more. His rightful place was and is in heaven with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. However, because of the love God had for his people from before the foundation of the world Christ took on the duty of coming down from heaven, leaving behind his rightful glory, to take on the pain and suffering necessary to redeem God’s people. The willingness to do this is a mystery of God which the human mind cannot understand.

Furthermore, when Jesus the incarnate man was born of the virgin Mary he combined his divine nature with a new human nature. To be clear, Jesus’s incarnation was not his divine presence temporarily embodying a human form. Rather, Jesus from the time of his birth had both his divine nature and his human nature. His human nature came with all of the fear, temptations, grief, and joy any person experiences and was not diluted by his being fully divine. These two natures stand in complete contrast to one another and defy human logic.

Finally, the incarnation of Christ combined the all-powerful nature of the divine and the frailty of human nature. It actually required both in order to accomplish the work of salvation. Jesus willingly laid down his life to save his people. The weakness of the human condition would not have allowed for this. He could have been killed, but without the all-powerful divine nature, it would not have been willing. Yet, without the failings of human nature, Jesus could not have experienced the troubles of this life and, therefore, would lack the empathy for his people that he now possesses.

These things are not to be easily understood, they are the mysteries, but they are to be meditated upon.

Our Prayers are with you,

Brother Jeremiah