As it is written: “For
Your sake we are killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter” (cf. Psalm 44:22).
Yet in all these
things we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved
us. For I am persuaded that
neither death nor
life, nor angels nor principalities
nor powers, nor
things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
shall be able to
separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:36–39
John so
aptly points out that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was born into this world
taking on mortal flesh. By doing so then God through Jesus Christ imbues the
children of God with His holy innocence and the simplicity of the oneness we
have with the Father and which is manifested in us. As Jesus manifested in us
we come under the vehemence of this world who in their hearts hate the fact
that there is a God and that this God came to earth and by means of His Son
gives salvation to all who believe. Think on this fact: God come to earth born
of the Virgin Mary and the Son of God is born into every saint. This was by the
direct act of God and then I as a child of God exercise the right of a child.
Having this right allows me to always be face to face with my Father. Whatever
the circumstances of life are; we have the ability to be in constant contact
with the Father. We must identify ourselves this way but we so often refuse or
attempt other methods to approach the Father when it is simple enough. How?
Allow God to get His way in you realizing and allow yourself changed into the
image of His Son and that His Son is getting hold of you? Too much, clamor
these days. Too much worldly, and New Age thinking in our Churches. This allows
the culture of this world driving our worship: and for what? We so often
continue to put to death the Son of God. We leave no room for quiet holy
communion with the Father. As we learn just how the Logos, the Word is and that
He is the Only Begotten Son of God, God’s Wisdom clothed in flesh so that the
purpose of God will be completed by His death; are we drawn to Him, or is this
world with all its glamour pulling us away?
A reminder:
This voice that issues from God has an outward effect and yet His voice remains
in His heart. Just as your voice does for it enters the air and remains in your
heart and at the same time as entered into the hearing and mind of another.
Just as the Word took on visible flesh and became publicly in view, the entire
Word remains in the Father’s heart, although the whole is by the same flesh no
less transmitted to us. So the Word is completely in the Father and completely
in the flesh, flowing as a river, as a conduit reaching and an overflowing
river crossing all the orders, as mentioned in the opening Scripture, and
reaching down to our flesh. We must not neglect this fact: Along with the name
and substance of flesh we must come to understand the rational soul. The Word
of God did not assume flesh with the soul as some heretics; i.e., Appolinarians
suppose, for He did come to save that what was lost: “for the Son of Man has
come to seed and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). The whole of
man lost, the entire man, both, in body and soul. In man the body was moribund,
and in his soul already dead, both being eternally damned. So, how could the
whole man be saved? The Word became complete man of flesh with a rational soul.
If God took on flesh only and not the soul, where did he plant his foundations?
Only our rational spirit is spacious enough for that. Only as we are acquainted
with the rational are we able to perceive what we see with the mind and be able
to perceive with the soul. Therefore, the Word assumed flesh and by doing so
did not omit anything as a special exception to Himself, that is, He did not
omit the rational soul. We who hope in the incarnation, the Incarnate Word have
this hope secured that God did not by some other means secure salvation for His
children. The Word fulfills having a rational soul the Scripture by God the
Father when He gave utterance to the good Word: “My heart is overflowing with
a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen
of a ready writer. You are faire than the sons of men; grace is poured upon
Your lips; therefore ‘go9d ahs blessed you forever”(Psalm 45:1–2). Luke
quoting from Isaiah 52:10 states: “And all flesh shall see the salvation of
God” (Luke 3:6). God became man and dwelt among us: “And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, he glory as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Through all
things from His way to us, from the invisible to the visible he has come to us.
He came in all reality of our flesh, in all the laws of human nature, He dwelt
among us. Does this not raise the hair on the back of your neck to think that
God so loved you that He came, Himself, the Son of God, His Wisdom, to save
you? Nothing, nothing in this world or any other world whether of angels or any
other creature can separate us from the love of God.
Now I know that the LORD
Saves His
anointed;
He will answer him from His
Holy heaven
with the
Saving strength of His right hand.
Psalm 20:6
God has joy in your strength
Richard L. Crumb
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