Immanuel: God With Us

“"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

    and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us).”

- Matthew 1:23

Lift up your eyes and see the Majestic King of the Cosmos in all His splendor and magnificence. Look upon His glory and grace as the procession of angels shout with jubilance and without exhaustion. Watch as they prostrate themselves in all humility and hear them proclaim “Holy, holy, holy!”

He is the Ruler of all Dominions. He wears a Robe of Righteousness, spotless and undefiled. He sits upon His imperishable throne formed from cedar and decorated in pure ivory and mother of pearl. He delights in the weight of His royal diadem —bejeweled with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds—which rests neatly on His head. His right hand confidently holds His scepter made of incorruptible iron, gilded in glimmering gold; adorned in topaz, carbuncle, and jasper. With it, He decrees the planets to orbit and the mountains to quake and the oceans to rise and settle. He takes pleasure in organizing His creation, and more so providing for it, giving His creatures not only the necessary provisions for life, but sweet dainties and blessings upon blessings, also. All His movements are weighty and full of grace.

Be astonished, O Peoples of the earth. Be ye astounded, for before your eyes is the God of Galaxies, the Lord of Lands, the Great Creator of all things visible and invisible. He is Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, First and Last. He does as He pleases and fashions as He desires. There is no flaw in Him. Before Him there is none like Him nor shall there be anyone like Him hereafter. This is your God and He shines brighter than a thousand suns. This is your God and He manifests His glory upon the Peaks and the Deep. This is your God, so Out of this World, so Otherly, so Unique. He has no need of anyone or anything, and anything that came into being came simply because He delighted in it and He saw that it was Good. Behold Him, O ye Peoples!  Behold Him now!

What lesson are we to learn from this... this spectacle, this pomp? What can we gain from a God who is so great and so grand and so difficult for us to perceive? I will give you an ancient riddle that has never been fully grasped by the minds of men. Why—if He created all things and has dominion over all things—should God stoop down to the level of a People who detested Him? A People who, being so worldly and so full of carnality, openly and radically lives in hostility toward this God of Creation? Why should God visit them?

Lift your eyes once more and behold. God had removed His Robe of Righteousness, folding it gently, and placed it on His eternal throne. He removed his crown of gems and hung it upon the top rail of His seat. He sets His scepter on the floor of the throne room and exits the procession of holy angels. But why? What power had moved the King of the Cosmos to do such a thing? And not only this, but He dips His toes and fingers in the pool of Space He created, and He stretches Time so radically that Humanity has split History into two epochs—before and after His Advent. But why?

 The closest and most simple answer to this riddle is, who else? Who else could wield Love perfectly and execute Justice righteously? Who else could have both power and volition to save a broken Humanity? Who else could rescue a People from their lustful cupidity? Who else, but God?

And so, God descends. And He becomes an example unto all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. He becomes Himself into the form of a Humble Servant adding bone and flesh upon His Nature. He becomes into our very likeness. The Invisible becomes visible, the Uncreated becomes part of His creation, although never created Himself. The Author has put Himself in His Holy and Redemptive Pages to liberate His enslaved characters. This is the Incarnation taking place before our very eyes:

He develops within the womb of a meek teenage girl who has not been defiled by any man. He grows a brain like us, a heart like us, limbs, muscles, and toes like us. He has need of nutrients from His mother and so she provides food for Him though her umbilical cord, and He gladly accepts. At last, after nine months, she is ready to give birth. There with her betrothed, most humble Joseph, they witness the greatest miracle of all—the God-Man is born. But surrounding this crying babe is no throne room, no royal robe or crown, no scepter, no angels. His audience, only His lowly mother and father, a donkey, a mule, an ox. There was no pomp during the first hours of His birth. No gold or frankincense. Just a Baby in a poor man’s manger.

It had to be done; there was no other way. To redeem those He loved, to rescue His People from their sins, to give Peace on Earth and Good Will toward Humanity. He needed to be our example of Humility. God could have very well crushed our obedience out from us or consumed us with His perfect Wrath and Omnipotence. Instead, He chose to tabernacle among us and live as we were supposed to live. He chose to draw near. Why? Because He loves us, because He did not want to leave us without hope, and because only He had the desire and ability to save us from our sins.

You see, the God from God, Light from Light descended into Humanity, became Humanity because He alone could pass the test of Righteousness that Adam and his Sons failed to accomplish. We were in desperate need of a new Representative, a Perfect Representative, a Representative who could both be the Propitiation of our sins and the Same Liberator from our Curse. And so, He became in our likeness so that the world could sigh with relief. He chose not only to become like us, but to live like us, breathe like us, digest like us, suffer like us. It was necessary, not for His sake, but for ours, to descend and to not consider equality with God. He relieved us from the Power of the Ancient Curse. No longer do we see shadows or glimpses, or blurry reflections of a Promise. No. We see God Himself in His fullness. In His Grace and Truth. No longer in Arks or Tabernacles or Temples of old. We have His very Presence amidst Humanity.

The Begotten Son of God (not made) is now called the Son of Man. His name is Jesus, Son of the virgin Mary, Son of the Living God. Surely, now, God is with us.

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