Category: Articles and Devotionals

The Incarnation was a very costly move.

It was costly for the Father.

It was costly for the Son.

And yet, God did it.

Why?

The Bible tells us that the Incarnation is the perfect expression and revelation of Divine Love. And strange as it seems, love and sacrifice are intimately connected.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins

It’s Christmastime and many people give gifts to those they love. My son, remarking on how many of his friends are getting engaged this Christmas recently wrote, “Engagement Season…because nothing says ‘I Love You!’ like seasonality.”

The truth is that Christmas is a time of Love coming to mankind.

And Easter is when it was shown in its fullness.

Thought for the day: Love gave the gift of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the gift of perfect Love.

Questions for reflection:

1. Read Ephesians 2:1 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” How is God’s love shown to us in the Incarnation?
2. Read 1 John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.” How does the gift of Love at Christmas keep on giving even beyond Easter?
3. How might you give to others this Gift who keeps on giving?

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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 <><

The Incarnation was God’s answer and man’s only hope.  If anything created could have saved us, then God was a fool to do it Himself.

Think about that statement for a moment.

Now think about all the things we think are going to save us:

• exercise
• diet
• health care
• concern for the planet
• jobs and the economy
• gold
• elections

Certainly you can add your own ideas to that list.

Unless God is the only point of hope for you, the list contains created things.  Even if some of the created things were done by created beings.  And yet think about it: none of those created things are going to save us.

Death still happens because sin still happens. And why does sin still happen?  Because we have a sin nature.

It takes God to redeem our sin nature.  And here is our hope…not in something created, but in the Eternal Word made flesh.  Our Hope is in Christ Jesus.

In His Incarnation. Nothing created could do it.  So, God did it Himself.

Thought for the day: God’s holiness and our sin are such opposing opposites that God had to save us Himself.

Questions for reflection:

1. When a person insists on doing something himself, what are some of the reasons?
2. How is God doing it Himself different?
3. How is God’s eternal and infinite being sufficient to save all who are willing to be saved by faith?

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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 <><

Q: Why did Jesus come as a man and not some other sort of creature?

A: Because only man bears God’s Image.

Jesus, as a man, was not only an Image bearer of God, He is the Image of God.

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Jesus was Incarnated in human flesh in order to rescue the Image of God from mortality. It was through Jesus’ humanity that God would reconcile man and all the rest of creation groaning under the weight of human sin…and reconcile to Himself these things through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross.

Thought for the day: No other man bears God’s Image the way Jesus did.  Jesus is God’s Perfect Image, His Perfect Reflection, and His Perfect Revelation.

Questions for pondering:

1. What is the significance that Jesus IS the very Image of God?
2. Read 2 Corinthians 3: 17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” When will we reflect God’s Image perfectly? Even so, will we ever BE the very Image of God?  Look at the reflection in the photo and ponder the distinction between an object and its perfect reflection.
3. How does a perfect and eternal being provide a sufficient and complete sacrifice for all mankind?  Would a near-perfect reflection on account of behavior alone have accomplished the same thing?  Jesus did not earn heaven and achieve godhood by being a well-behaved guy.
4. What role does our faith accomplish if Jesus paid it all in the death of God’s perfect Image bearer?

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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 <><

Strange, isn’t it, to think that Jesus still has a body? Once incarnated, He would have a body forever. No return to being some sort of spirit minus a body like the Father or the Holy Spirit. No return to being uncontained, as it were.

My first thought as I was pondering this was a song by the Talking Heads titled “And She Was”—a rock tune written by David Byrne. In talking about his inspiration for this song, he wrote, “I used to know a blissed-out hippie-chick in Baltimore…She once told me that she used to do acid (the drug, not music) and lay down on the field by the Yoo-hoo chocolate soda factory. Flying out of her body, etc., etc. It seemed like such a tacky kind of transcendence… but it was real! A new kind of religion being born out of heaps of rusted cars and fast food joints. And this girl was flying above it all, but in it too.”

Okay, that’s pretty weird.

Jesus didn’t have an out-of-body or rather in-the-body experience as some sort of drug-induced trip from which He’d return to reality. Nope. For Him, He existed before all time and then, in God’s perfect timing, He added full humanity to His full divinity and it would be a forever thing.

The Infinite would gain—through the Son’s Incarnation—the experience of being finite. (Aw go ahead and say, “Whoaaaaa”)

The experience of death. (Whoaaaa.) The experience of knowing what created beings feel and know…even if Jesus was never created.

Jesus was Incarnated—in part—to experience full humanity. (Whoaaaa…)

Thought for the day: Once Jesus was Incarnated, He would be the Word made Flesh. There would be no Flesh going back and returning as simply the Word.

Questions for reflection:

1. When Jesus returns, what does the Bible say? Read Luke 21: 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Will Jesus have a body?
2. Read Luke 24:13-31 about Jesus walking with the two men on the road to Emmaus. Did Jesus have a body? Was it a regular human body? In what ways was it different?
3. Why is it important that Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t just His spirit but also His body? What if His body was still in the tomb…what could anyone prove?
4. Does Jesus’ body still serve some function, and if yes, what functions does His humanity serve? For thinking about “in Him”, read 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (Consider also Eph 1:4-14, Eph 2:21, Eph 3:12, Eph 4:21, and Col 2:6-7)

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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 <><

We cannot get into the mind of God to know why He does things, but the good news is He tells us all that we need to know. The Incarnation is mysterious. He doesn’t expect us to know how He did it.

How can God simultaneously be the Son of God and the Son of Man? Isn’t it a contradiction?

No, it’s a mystery.

God even tells us so.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

A finite human child is born who is the everlasting Father.

To us a son is given (the Son of Man) and yet He’s also called Mighty God (the Son of God).

How can a child be the Father or how can the Son of Man be God Himself?

Jesus’ mother Mary even asked how God was going to do it.  God didn’t tell her specifics.

He only had an angel reassure her.

Luke 1:30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.

This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Fully God. Fully human. Full of logical inconsistencies from a human rational perspective and yet, to God it is no conundrum, no riddle, and no inconsistency. It’s a mystery to us, but not to Him.

1 Timothy 3:16 Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

Thought for the day. The mystery of the Incarnation is a wedge of faith. It divides those willing to let it be a mysterious truth from those who refuse to accept anything unless it can be understood.

Questions for reflection:

1. How are we helped in our faith by knowing that nothing is impossible with God?
2. In what ways is the Incarnation a wedge of faith?
3. What would we have to know in order to have a mind expansive enough to understand this mystery completely?
4. Read Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Identify the mysterious elements in this passage.
5. Is it enough just to have Jesus reveal God to us? Read John 14:9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”

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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 <><

So, was the Incarnation God’s “Plan B” after Adam and Eve went AWOL and became rogue humans?

Nope. It was the plan all along.

Even before He created Adam and Eve. 

It was pre-existing.

Perhaps it seems rather odd to you that God would plan to send Jesus to die before He created the ones who would bring death into the picture. Yeah. It is rather strange. Especially since God is all about life.

John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

And yet, He contemplated human mortality and prepared His solution to it. He knew we’d rebel and yet He created us anyway.

In the Godhead (Father, Eternal Word, Holy Spirit), there was no death, only life and life-giving. Yet Scripture says,

Ephesians 1:4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will– 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

God’s choice to redeem us as holy and blameless—rebels though we have been—was a choice God made even before Creation. It was pre-existing. And our God who is all about life would bring about eternal life for us through His Son’s Incarnation and death for us.

Thought for the day: The very same God who is all about life and gave us life at Creation—even knowing that we’d bring death into the picture–would give us the Incarnation as His solution to human mortality. In doing so, He amplified the beauty of eternal life through the ugliness of death.

Questions for reflection:

1. How did God know that death existed if He’s all about life? Read Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
2. Genesis 3:23 “So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” How did God keep us from taking matters into our own hands? Would living forever in a sinful state be eternal life or more like a forever death sentence?
3. How does death make eternal life all the more glorious?

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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 <><

Why Incarnation? Why not some other way?

Well, the truth is, there was no other way possible.

Today, we’ll look at the first of the reasons why it was the only possibility. The first hint of the Incarnation—the first occurrence of the Gospel in the Bible—was proclaimed, prophesied to mankind.  But it was also a shot across the bow to the serpent all the way back in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

Adam and Eve used to be in the Garden of Eden, naked as the day they were created. But then they disobeyed God, they rebelled against Him and they reaped the consequences that God told them ahead of time were going to happen.

Boom. Mortality.

Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Once mortality happens, there’s no going back. Not even for God. There’s no rewind, do over, replay, or sending the video up to a booth for an official review. Why? Because God saw the play, the promised consequences happened (cause and effect!), and now Adam and Eve are mortals with a sin nature and they die. They surely die. While it may mean the end of their lives, it’s surely not the end of our story.

Hope is as sure as God’s promise…which is as sure as it gets. Why?

Boom. Love.

God enters the picture with a promise—a prophecy—telling humanity that there’s hope for their mortality. Sure, we aren’t going to like death—most people hate and fear the very idea at least of our own death—but eventually God will send a seed, an offspring of humanity, but not through Adam. Through Eve. This promised Messiah will defeat death.

Romans 5: 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ..12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned– 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

Thought for the day: Jesus, the prophesied seed of the woman, needed to become incarnated (God with us!) as the only way to overcome human mortality.

Questions for reflection:

1. Read all of Romans 5. Why is God’s action more than enough to overcome the action of one man named Adam? Both had lasting consequences. Why are the actions of Messiah eternal whereas Adam’s consequences only last until death?
2. Why was the seed prophesied to be from the woman Eve and not Adam?
3. In Romans 5, why does the Apostle Paul say the law was useful but not effective in saving anyone?

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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 <><

In the musical The Sound of Music Fraulein Maria sings Do Re Mi which starts with “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.” Which is really kind of a no-brainer even if it does make for a cute song with 7 children dressed in drapes.

Let us start at the very beginning:

What is the Incarnation?

The word itself is derived from the late Middle English: from ecclesiastical Latin incarnat– ‘made flesh,’ from the verb incarnare, from in– ‘into’ + caro, carn– ‘flesh.’ “Embody or represent (a deity or spirit) in human form.” That’s what the Oxford dictionary says which hardly does the concept justice!

If that was the case, the sea witch in Disney’s The Little Mermaid movie would have been “incarnated” as Ursula the adversary of Ariel—a witch who first bargains for Ariel’s voice and then sends her speechless to the prince before Ursula’s becoming human herself as she competes against Ariel to be the prince’s bride.

Incarnation? This is not just a spirit taking human form…a witch or a mermaid getting some legs.

Some people refer to the Incarnation as “God with flesh on”…which also misses the point to some extent with respect to the miraculous nature of it. Jesus was incarnated as more than God’s coat, skin deep.

Throughout the centuries, the church fathers have tried to nail down what the Incarnation was and how that whole Triune Godhead-thing works. They had an easier time identifying what it was NOT.

• They concluded that Jesus did not go into a different phase like H₂0 can be steam, water, and ice depending on the environment and circumstances.
• They concluded that Jesus did not simply enter a different season (i.e. pre-flesh, flesh, and post-flesh) on a timeline where He ceased to be God during that flesh season when He was somehow a created being and not God.
• They concluded that Jesus didn’t morph like an egg becomes a caterpillar, makes a chrysalis, and becomes a butterfly. His divinity never developed. He didn’t become God as a function of maturation.
• They concluded the Incarnation wasn’t a mirage, a magic trick, a hologram, or other masquerade of just pretending to be a real man.

Theologian Robert Reymond describes the Incarnation this way: Without ceasing to be all that he was and is as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son of God took into union with himself in the one divine Person that which he had not possessed before—even a full complex of human attributes—and became fully and truly man for us men and for our salvation. Jesus of Nazareth was and is that God-man.

Yeah. Theologians write that way. All this to say: Jesus is, was, will be, and always has been God. During the time frame of His earthly ministry, He added (to His already full divinity) a full humanity —a perfect humanity by which He would save us and a perfect humanity that He would retain after His death and resurrection. All the while being fully God.

If you’re like “Wow! That’s amazing!” yes, it is. And we’re just getting started. For now, ponder this thought and reflect on the questions below.

Thought for the day: The Gospel writer John says it this way: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

Questions for reflection:

1. Consider each part of John 1:1-2. Why is each phrase important?
2. Look back over what the Incarnation is NOT and ponder why it’s an important distinction.

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We’re counting down 10 days until

the 2015 Advent Devotional Series

entitled Incarnation begins. 

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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.

The devotionals will come automatically along with the remaining sermons from Plymouth Church in Racine and perhaps an occasional gardening post.

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It has come to my attention that some of you are still excited about last year’s devotionals entitled Carol Me, Christmas!  Yes, it was a fun series!  If you’d prefer those devotionals, you’ll find them in the sidebar archives beginning November 2014.  The announcement was http://seminarygal.com/carol-me-christmas-advent-2014-devotional-series/.  It will require a bit more work to access them, but I know you hymn-folks don’t mind a bit of work.  It put a song in the heart of many of us all through Advent last year!  🙂

As long as I was going down memory lane, I located the first one in the 2013 series When Love Showed Up In-Person. It can be found in the archives beginning December 2013  http://seminarygal.com/advent-begins-2013/ .

The Advent season as told through the Gospel of Luke began back in December 2012 with this one http://seminarygal.com/advent-1-2012-expecting-the-unexpected/ and is contained in the archives as well.

I love writing these devotionals for both Advent and Lent.  I hope this year’s Incarnation series blesses you with a deeper and more meaningful Advent season to make your Christmas truly merry!  In His grace, Barbara <><