Antidote

The idea of the Incarnation of Christ in human form is critical as it fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament. Without Jesus being both fully man and fully God the tenets of our faith begin to disintegrate. If Jesus is not divine then He is just another fallible human sage or teacher with no ability to forgive sin. This completely undermines the concept in the Bible laid out for the giving up of the blood as atonement for sin. His incarnation and subsequent death and resurrection provided a suitable sacrifice for the fulfillment of the Law and for mankind’s sin (Lev 17:11). As I read the article today called: "The Invasion of Planet Earth" by Bob Deffinbaugh Th.M. I am struck speechless (no reference to Zechariah) by the frequency of the words evident/evidences and attestation/witness or similar words. Words that we often expect to see in a naturalist or empirical worldview but not as readily in a Christian view.

Then it hits me.

We have a God that condescends into a form that is critical to the reality of mankind. He comes in a form conducive to “sight” and “sound”. Why? Because humans most readily absorb things in a “hands-on” method. Jesus knows His creation better than anyone or anything. He comes in a way that is most readily accepted by humans. The eternal God that is spirit comes in a “touchy-feely” form. As the title of the post suggests, He invades. Invasion implies something…it is the onset or the advent of a physical object into an environment. In our case Jesus Christ comes into time and space-into the world. As with any physical incursion into something you would expect to see a “cause and effect” pattern. Whatever or whoever incurs has a direct effect on the surroundings, the environment or the people. This is exactly what we see with Jesus’ incursion into the world. He is the cause and Christianity is the effect. Without a cause (Jesus) there is no effect (Christianity). This is exactly why Jesus’ advent is critical both theologically and philosophically. As we can expect from dealing with a real episode that has its inception in time and space there are going to be real evidences (in the case of Christianity supernatural also). The entrance of Christ physically into the world satisfies a basic need of a man who has a fallen nature and who is spiritually dulled by his sin.

The incarnation also acts as the very thing that will help remove that sinful nature and help the observer/believer see with eyes of faith rather than eyes that search out physical evidences. Jesus “invasion” into the world served a purpose of creating or strengthening a faith while simultaneously offering tangible rock solid proof so we could rely less on “sensory attestation” in the future and more on “spiritual attenuation” or a focusing on Jesus in faith… not evidences. Although we are prone to backslide and lose faith...evidences are always a nice thing to have for a person that is struggling with their faith which we all do from time to time. I am betting God also knew this and that is another reason for the Incarnation. It’s nice to have the evidences but if our faith strengthens in the Lord, we don't really need them. They are a nice safety net.

Another way of looking at this is from a medical point of view. The world is a diseased place and so is man. They are both infected with sin. Jesus comes in an Incarnate form entering into the diseased entity to cure it just as an injection of medicine into a body. If we take this to its logical conclusion we then understand the Jesus eventually leaves after establishing the church or the entity that will maintenance the health and maintain the cure that He has brought to the world---Himself (and His Word). In His place would come an exact replacement in the form of a Parakletos or The Paraklete. The Paraklete would the ironically, enter directly into mankind in the same manner that Christ entered the world. There He would stay to maintenance the cure to sin and progressively heal the sinner from his disease---their sin.

Jesus Christ is the antidote to sin just as He is the answer to the prophecies of the Old Testament. If Jesus is the life, light and truth which is the antidote, then it stands to reason that sin is clearly a deadly darkened poison.