Incarnation: Pathway to Judgment-Advent 18 (2015)

Sometimes I wonder how God felt about that whole flooding-of-the-earth deal. How necessary! How awful! How terrible! How incredibly sad!

Genesis 6: 5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth– men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air– for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

God’s heart was filled with pain.

God’s heart was filled with pain.  That’s a pain we will never understand.  Why? Because His Image, resident even in these evildoers—a broken image because of sin—was still His Image. God ended up sacrificing something of Himself in the flood, and the only redemption was in a man named Noah and his family. The only salvation was because of the ark God told him to make.

And even then, God was not starting with a clean slate, but only one as righteous as existed at that time.  The shadow of Adam still loomed.  Noah was righteous but not perfect. He was not holy. But God still is.

How sad, that even the animals had to pay the price for Adam’s sin. Adam—our representative head of our race—was mortal and was a sinner. Left to man’s own ways, we’re all destroyed and God’s Image in us is lost.  Every single one.  Every last vestige of God’s Image in humanity, utterly lost!

Enter the Incarnation. Jesus is the Second Adam who lives perfectly.

He is righteous. He is perfect. He is holy. He is God’s exact Image because He is God. 

And yet in the Incarnation, He’s also fully man.  Our Second Adam.

Moreover, He is the pathway to divine judgment.

He came to be sin for us as Scripture says, 2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Thought for the day: Just as Adam represented us and made us sinners, in the Incarnation Jesus represented us and by being God’s pathway to divine judgment, He makes us righteous by His shed blood.  If we’ll only receive His righteousness by our faith in Him.

Questions for pondering:

1. How was Jesus a better solution than another flood? Read Romans 5:19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
2. How is God’s Image preserved by Jesus’ crucifixion as the pathway to divine judgment…in a way another flood would not?
3. When Jesus returns, He returns as Judge. Read Acts 10: 37 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached– 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen– by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” How is Jesus God’s pathway to divine judgment without destroying God’s Image as He did in the flood?
4. How are those who refuse to believe (that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life) no different than those who died in the flood? 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

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Incarnation (2015 Advent Devotional Series) began November 29th.  By way of reminder, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2015 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><