If we had known Jesus’ address when he was a boy in Nazareth, we would have found him apprenticing as a carpenter, and could have said, “That boy with wood shavings in his hair is God come to live among us!” I believe that the doctrine of Jesus being fully God and fully man is impossible to grasp completely, yet it is taught in the New Testament and is something we must believe. Beautiful explanations, like our verse today, exist. Another is the beautiful Christ-Hymn Paul quotes in Philippians 2:5-7. This song reminds us that Jesus was equal with God, but emptied himself of divine prerogatives and became human and suffered death on the cross. God taking on human flesh and being Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23), is an awesome reality of grace. God chose to be like us because we could not make ourselves like him. God came to us because we could not go to him. In Jesus, God took on human flesh so we could be given fullness in Christ. By faith and in baptism, we were joined to Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection (Colossians 2:12, 15). That faith experience means God’s victory in Jesus over sin, death, demons, and hell, and also delivered us from these things as well (Colossians 1:13-14). What’s more, our future glory with Christ is fully assured (Colossians 3:1-3). Jesus Christ is head over every power and authority for us!
Almighty God, I acknowledge that you are too great for me to comprehend fully. You are far greater than my mind can grasp. Your grace amazes me. Thank you for sending Jesus so I can be forgiven, delivered from the evil one, and go home to you and live forever. In your name, Christ Jesus, I confidently pray. Amen.
