This article was written by Gene Whitehurst. It is a creative look at our Lord’s decision to come as a baby.
Heb 4:15-16 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted IN ALL THINGS as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
A fictional account of a great truth!
Father, its time for me to go to earth. I’ll take on a body as theirs and become exactly and fully human as they are.
Son, I can create a body for you exactly as I did for Adam. I can place you on the earth fully grown, you can teach lessons of truth, perform miracles, set examples, and then die on the cross for their sins.
No, Father. I want to fully experience what it is to be born and grow up – from baby to man – and learn by experience what it is to be truly human.
Son, as the all powerful and all knowing God, I can implant into your mind and soul every thing that human beings go through so that you will know all things that they endure.
No again, my Father. I want to not just know what it is like. I want to actually experience what it is like to be one of them. Only this way can I be a true human.
I want to be born in obscurity in a home of poor parents. I want to grow up in a home and experience the issues of family relationships. I want to go to school and learn. I want to have to study hard to learn as they do. I want to get dirt on my face and I want to know how it feels when someone in school calls me a ‘goody goody.’ I want to suffer the hurt of unwarranted slander.
I want to suffer through the death of a friend. I want to endure the betrayal of a hand-picked follower. I want to know what is like to have my followers desert me in my final hour. I want to suffer hunger and thirst. I want to have sufferings as they have had them.
But Son, you must remember that I allow trials in the life of a human based on his physical and spiritual capacity to handle trials. And in your case, you have no weaknesses, so your temptations and trials and suffering will be more severe than anyone would ever experience.
I know my Father. That is what I want. That is what I want to do. I will do no less for them.
Father, I want you to allow me to suffer gruesome treatment and execution at the hands of my enemies. It will be undeserved suffering, but I want to endure this so I can know by experience what ultimate human suffering is.
And finally Father, I want to suffer at your hand. I want to take their sins as my own and I want you to punish me for their every sin. Then we can offer a free and glorious salvation for all who believe in me as their Savior.
When my born again one comes to me at the throne of Grace, I want him to know that the one that they come to is truly one that knows and understands…and most importantly, that this high priest has walked through this life with joy and suffering just as he has walked. It isn’t just something I know about him. I want to have experienced it as one of them. I AM ONE OF THEM. I AM MAN in the truest sense of the word. I will be known as the God-Man.
Agreed my son. Let us begin in Bethlehem!
Heb 2:17-18 “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren IN ALL THINGS, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
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