On Christmas Eve, as Christians around the planet prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, it can be helpful to think a bit about what the Incarnation means. And not thinking just for thought’s sake, but also for the sake of cultivating a deeper union with God, stronger Christian character, deeper Christian unity, and loving actions in the world Jesus came to save.
There is so much to draw from the Incarnation of Jesus. It is an incredibly rich doctrine, a rich reality, that God became human and dwelt among us. But not only that, he became human and dwelt among us in part so that we could be united to him in love and be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This union is a transformative union, a relationship that is intrinsically ordered to the glory of God and the good of humanity.
I still have a hard time understanding Jesus’s teaching that it is better for him to go, so that the Holy Spirit can come to us (John 16:7). In all honesty, if it was under my control, I’d prefer to have Jesus by my side, or at least physically accessible to me, as I walk through each day.
But as I say this, two things occur to me.
First, it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit in us that we are able to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) and experience the love of God poured out into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). And these are ways the Incarnation is exemplified in us. As we exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in our homes, workplaces, communities, churches…wherever we are, we, in a small, mysterious, but very real way, participate in the Incarnation by allowing Christ to manifest himself in and through us. And as God pours out his love into our hearts via the Holy Spirit, the Incarnation continues in us.
Second, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains so clearly in Life Together, there is an important sense in which Jesus is physically present to each one of us - he is physically by our side, accessible to us through the physical presence of other Christians in our lives. I have come to experience and appreciate this much more in recent years, and for that I’m very grateful. I encounter Christ in my relationships with my siblings in Christ. He is really present to me in them, and in that way is physically present to me.
There is obviously much more to say about the importance of the Incarnation. But these truths are remarkable. God is with us, in so many ways. My prayer is that we would discover his presence in new or deeper ways not only as we celebrate his birth, but as we set our hearts and minds to walk in the Way he walked, the Way of love.
Merry Christmas!