Because of God's grace and work of conversion, justification, and sanctification, the Saints do not mar God's inheritance, but rather adorn it.
The impact of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus upon our humanity is seldom appreciated. By becoming man - by putting on human flesh - our Savior ennobles our kind.
It is a thing almost inconceivable that God should clothe His deity with our humanity, and be made like unto us.
He did it to redeem us, that the Second Person of the Trinity might be qualified to act as our substitute in the judgment, and that He might partake of death to satisfy the demands of a God offended by our sin.
Thus, Jesus is our "God with us" and becomes a fit and honorable Savior and Prince over us. No angel, no star or galaxy, no animal below can ever claim that God became as one is its own, but praise God, His people can so exclaim - God became man to save us!
God always intended that mankind be the crowning object of His creation, noble and set to rule over the earthly creation. But man fell, and never attained the honor that God intended.
Psalm 8 expresses this promise by God to man, but we have miserably failed to attain unto it. Our Lord Jesus, made in the likeness of man, does fulfill the honor and glory intended for man! He is the second Adam, the one Who claims the promises that fallen man fell short of.
This is so, even though He suffered death to emancipate His own from the grip of death and judgment.
Thus, Jesus has put right our heritage for us - He has restored, by His obedience and blood, the entitlements of the Saints as men created in God's image.
He has by His incarnation and cross-work ennobled us! |
