What if God was one of us?

“What if God was one of us… ? Just a stranger on the bus,?    trying to make his way home” . . . Joan Osborne crooned.

The fact is, Joan . . . he was.

Take another look at Paul’s writing to the Roman Christians on the existence of God-- “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.  But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”  Romans 1.19,20,18   New Living Translation

God reveals himself through nature, through his created works.

And in the fullness of time,

       God revealed himself to us through Jesus Christ,

              God in the flesh.

                     God became one of us.

Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin.  We let those words roll right off our tongue without giving them much thought, but friends, when was the last time you heard of a virgin giving birth to a baby?  It was a totally outlandish claim, except it came true!  Think of Isaiah claiming that the Jews’ long-awaited Messiah would be born of a virgin . . . you can imagine people scoffed at him, much as they did Noah when he began building an ark in an area of the world that seldom saw rain.  Unbelievably, Jesus was indeed born to a Jewish virgin some 700 years after Isaiah’s prediction.  God came down and took on human flesh, and loved us.

Jesus began his public ministry, and performed many miracles that were documented by other non-Biblical writers of the day—particularly Jewish historian, Josephus.  He trained a ragtag group of 12 men to carry on his work, and told them he would be leaving them. Then, they looked on as he was mocked, tortured, and brutally crucified.

After three days in a dark tomb, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, just as he said he would.  How could that be?  He was God incarnate, and death could not hold him.  After, He appeared to more than 515 different people—individually, in groups, indoors, and outside.  And when one of his own, Thomas, doubted it was really him, he invited him to touch his nail-torn hands, and look at his mangled feet, where the nail had been driven through them.  Yes, Jesus was flesh and blood.

The truth of God has been made known to us through Jesus Christ, God Incarnate.  John wrote, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1.14     "...God was manifest in the flesh..." 1 Timothy 3.16    "...For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 2:9

After returning to the Father, he depended on the remaining eleven disciples and their friends to carry the truth about himself to the world—truth of the existence of a loving Creator God, the redeeming work he had completed on the cross, and the coming of the Holy Spirit to his followers.  They told the world what they had seen and experienced of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

Those witnesses told how Jesus loved – after all, he came from love . . .

They told of his miracles, of restoring life--but then, he was the Creator.

They recalled his masterful teaching--no wonder, “The Word was made flesh!”

What if God was one of us?  He was, and he revealed the Father to us by his coming.  Yet, he reveals himself to us as individuals – “You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29.13

He is not just a far-off God, sitting in an ivory tower; no God is alive, he is at work, and he desires to know you, and even more incredible, he desires to be known by you.

Christine