Despite the fact that it is far fetched and not connected with reality, a movie I really liked is Face Off. Made in 1997, starring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, it involves the fairy-tale procedure of an agent switching faces with a criminal in order to solve a case. Of course, mayhem ensues, but a great line occurs when John Travolta, playing the agent, says, "I will become him." There's an agent willing to go to great lengths to solve a case, even though it could cost him everything.
Sounds a bit like God, doesn't it? He spends a few thousand years trying to explain to the Israelites that this whole world is about Him. He makes covenants with them, blesses them, and generally loves them. But, like blockheads, they don't get it.
So God does the unthinkable and becomes one of us. Forget all the details of a virgin birth and other miracles that Jesus would perform, this is God entering His own world and becoming like His creation. He spends 3 years trying to explain to us that it's all about Him. And if you think God becoming man is amazing, read the part where man kills God.
The ultimate slap in the face as man tells God 'we don't want you here' is met with more of God. But what more could God possibly give? How much closer can He get to us?
Enter the Holy Spirit. It could have been enough to have God communicating to us through prophets. It should have been enough when God decided to walk this Earth. But now God has decided to live within each one of us. "And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).
If we are the kind of creatures that act differently when someone important is around (and we are), then this should be motivation to live differently all the time. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)
Simply put, God can't get any closer than this.
Sounds a bit like God, doesn't it? He spends a few thousand years trying to explain to the Israelites that this whole world is about Him. He makes covenants with them, blesses them, and generally loves them. But, like blockheads, they don't get it.
So God does the unthinkable and becomes one of us. Forget all the details of a virgin birth and other miracles that Jesus would perform, this is God entering His own world and becoming like His creation. He spends 3 years trying to explain to us that it's all about Him. And if you think God becoming man is amazing, read the part where man kills God.
The ultimate slap in the face as man tells God 'we don't want you here' is met with more of God. But what more could God possibly give? How much closer can He get to us?
Enter the Holy Spirit. It could have been enough to have God communicating to us through prophets. It should have been enough when God decided to walk this Earth. But now God has decided to live within each one of us. "And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).
If we are the kind of creatures that act differently when someone important is around (and we are), then this should be motivation to live differently all the time. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)
Simply put, God can't get any closer than this.
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