Gospel Incarnation

May 21, 2008

Joe,

Many church leaders today speak of something called Gospel incarnation. What they mean is that in order to be Christ’s ambassadors in this world, in addition to proclaiming the verbal message of Christ crucified and risen for sinners, we also need to live out in our daily lives the love, compassion and servanthood of Jesus. As Jesus is God-incarnate, God in flesh, displaying the eternal glory of the invisible God, so also Christians are called to put Christ’s glory on display not only with our words, but with our lives. When our attitudes and conduct are consistent with the character of Jesus revealed in the gospel, then we are ‘incarnating’ the gospel to those around us.

This past Sunday we heard a sermon from Acts 9 on the conversion of the Apostle Paul. One thing that our pastor did not call much attention to (since it was a sermon on Paul) was the gospel-incarnating activity of Ananias. As we discussed the text last night in our life group, the Lord impressed upon me the staggering nature of Ananias’ gospel incarnation.

For me it’s all summed up in the two words, ‘Brother Saul’. The Lord had appeared to Ananias, telling him to go and find Saul, and lay his hands on this persecutor of Christians so that he could receive back his sight.

Ananias was incredulous: ‘Lord, I have heard the reports of this man, and how he has been seeking to destroy Your Church, and how he has come on this journey to arrest those who call upon You. How can I go and serve him?’

But the Lord persisted, “Go Ananias, for I have big plans for this hater of My glory’.

So Ananias went. And in going, I see an awesome display of gospel incarnation. He comes to the place where Saul was staying and says, ‘Brother Saul…’

Brother Saul! He calls this enemy of Christ, this man who had sought to arrest and persecute the believers in Jesus, a brother. In calling Saul ‘brother’, he incarnates a radical kind of love to Paul, a love that demonstrated the unmerited, astonishing love of Jesus for sinners. I can’t help but think that Ananias was empowered to do this because his own heart had been melted by the grace of God, so that he knew that Paul was no worse a sinner than he was.

Who are the people in your life who are hard to love? May God remind us all of richness of His undeserved love for you and me, that we might incarnate that love to those who we deem ‘unlovable’. For in reality, they are no more difficult to love than we are!

Larry

Posted by Larry | Filed Under Scripture Meditation, Seeking Him