Chapter 5 – Word Made Flesh: The Christlike God

Jesus is the perfect representation of God; indeed, he is God incarnate (Jn 1:14).

In the Nicene Creed, the Church confesses:

‘We believe in one God, the Father almighty …and in one Lord, Jesus Christ. Light from Light, very God from very God …of one essence with the Father.’

This is consistent with Paul’s teaching in 1 Cor 8:6.

The NT writers insist that Jesus:

‘was and is the exact image of God’s essence, the precise imprint of God’s being (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:13). They testify that in Christ, “all the fullness of the Godhead lived in a human body” (Col. 2:9). John’s first epistle contends for the central Christian truth: that Jesus Christ came ‘in the flesh’ (1 John 4:2).’

We will need to face the dilemma of a seemingly two-faced God (love versus force), and of a seemingly two-faced Christ (Lion versus Lamb).  We will need to understand how the victory of Christ is achieved through the love of Christ.

‘Incarnation’ refers, not just to Jesus’ birth, but to his entire life.

God is, and has always been, Christlike.

Birth of a king

When Jesus was born, the angels sang of kingly glory (Lk 2:14; cf. Rom 4-5).

It is very easy to conceive of God as like a human king, only more so.  He is in control.  He commands our allegiance, obedience and worship.

The emperor image

Eusebius taught that God’s kingdom would advance unchecked through the might of Constantine.  Victory would come through violence, and peace through conquest.  This era of political will and military might was also the time when doctrinal orthodoxy (via the Council of Nicea) was established.  The emperor was God’s agent on earth, with the church as his willing chaplain.

Such triumphalist thinking continues today in the form of the ‘divie right of kings’, ‘manifest destiny’ and ‘Amaerican exceptionalism’.

But remember how Jesus came

He came, not to a palace, but to a manger.  Not with a victory parade, but with the adoration of shepherds.  Not with swagger, but with humility.  Not in might, but in vulnerability.

And in all this he shows us what God is like.  God is not like Constantine, but like Jesus!  Jesus shows us how true sovereignty works.  He is the Servant King (Mt 20:25-28).

In the words of Derek Flood:

‘Jesus models the way of God, not as one who ‘lords it over others’ but as the servant Lord, and calls for us to embody that way too. Following Jesus means rejecting the way of domination, the way of worldly kings.’

Lowly king

At every stage of Jesus’ life, he subverts the idea of worldly kingship, and undermines our notions of power and victory.

He is a lowly king, coming in humility and experiencing humiliation.  The latter was temporary, but the former a permanent mark of his character (Mt 11:19), and of the eternal nature of God.

And it is this lowly Christ who draws near to the lowly (cf. Isa 57:15).

The lowliness of Christ is seen, not only in his birth, but (and especially) also in his passion.

We can think of the crucifixion as what we did to Christ (Acts 7:52).  But we can think of the cross as what Christ did for us (Gal 6:14; 1 Jn 3:16).

‘This distinction…clarifies what God the Father is doing and not doing on Good Friday: he is not a co-conspirator in the crucifixion of his own Son, nor does he get any pleasure out of betrayal, punishment or killing. Rather, the significance of the Cross is that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself …”’

The Revelation par excellence

‘God is love’ (1 Jn 4:16).  And love is defined by the cross (1 Jn 3:16).

Do we want to know what God is like?  Look at the cross.

My impression of this chapter is that it is the truth, but not the whole truth.

Christ is presented in Scripture as both ‘Lamb’ and as ‘Lion’.  Hopefully, we shall see what Brad Jersak makes of the second of these.