Living Incarnationally

As we take this season to reflect on this holy day of Christmas, the Incarnation, the inbreaking of deity into reality, I am continually astounded at this miracle. Just the fact that the Lord of the universe, holy and exalted as He is, would choose to limit Himself so much and come into this world, born into humble circumstances, living a life of homelessness, and finally subjected to a shameful, torturous death--it blows my mind. 


And how this miracle impacts our daily living is something that I'm still working on trying to grasp. Because an incarnational worldview is what sets Christianity apart from other religions. For while most religions seek to escape the reality of this world, Christianity is all about a God who dives headlong into the world in order to redeem it. And so do we. We who are redeemed do not seek to escape this world, but rather to invest in it, to live incarnationally, confident that Jesus is bringing about redemption for all of the fallenness of the world. We get to play a role in that. 


For Jesus tells us: "As the Father sent me, so now I send you" (John 20:21). As Jesus was sent into this world to redeem it, so are we. We are to live in such a way that reveals the incarnated Lord to this world. Not escaping reality, but embracing it as our mission field. 


The way you look at life changes dramatically when you start to see everything not as fallen beyond all hope, but fallen and in the process of being redeemed. And there is nothing that is beyond Christ's redemption. The pedophiles, the murderers, the rapists, the tax collectors, the Buckeye fans, no one is too far fallen that Christ cannot redeem him. "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still" (Corrie Ten Boom). 


So let us live incarnationally, diving into the (often terrible and messy and fallen) realities of this world, knowing that there is a reality greater still that is working to redeem all of this around us. Let us love with hearts of faith that know the truth of God's love working through us. And let us celebrate this Christmas in knowing the power of redemption through Christ's coming into this world. 


A light has burst into the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And we who are called the light of the world are called to seek out the darkness in order to bring God's illumination.