Why Baby Jesus Is So Logical
Now that we have settled who will inhabit the White House, it's time to reflect on a question of immensely greater importance: Who is qualified to live in the "Father's House" — the Kingdom of Heaven?
Centuries ago Jesus of Nazareth spoke to that concern.
"In My Father's house are many rooms ("abodes", "dwelling places" in the Greek), and I am going to prepare a place for you," He said. (John 14:1-3, paraphrase)
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The assertion is remarkable. "Place" is the Greek word, "topon", a "marked off space". This "place" is tailor-made and especially reserved for a particular inhabitant.
TV home decorators, remodelers, and flip-artisans speak of a room in a house as a "space". The dining room doesn't have to remain a dining room, but can be converted to suit the inhabitant's needs. The Father's House is full of such "spaces", prepared uniquely for their residents.
The Father's House is no lonely place where hermits dwell in monk-life cells sealed off from all others, but a community of "near-ones" ("neighbors") in the best sense of the word. They share the Father's great love, and relate to one another warmly, sharing the Father's delight.
So who is "qualified" to live in that specific "space" in the Father's House for eternity? Jesus' amazing assertion leads to the no-nonsense proposition that answers the question of qualification.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life," Jesus replies, "no one comes to the Father except through Me."
"Through" is the little Greek word, "di", which can signify the means of movement. You can ascend into the sky "through" an airplane. Jesus is telling us that the means of our qualification for inhabiting the "designer space" prepared for us individually in the Father's House is "through" Himself.
This is why the Incarnation of God in the Person of a human — Jesus of Nazareth — is so logical.
To grasp it, imagine yourself as having a passionate interest in the oceans. You love scuba diving, and watching fish frolic. You wonder what is far below, where your dive equipment and human body cannot go.
You wish you could live for a while in the Mariana Trench. You must jettison your human flesh and become exactly like the life-forms living 36,000 feet below the surface. You cannot survive in that environment without becoming just like the creatures inhabiting that staggering depth.
The principle applies for dwelling in the Father's House — the Kingdom of Heaven. Its atmosphere makes it impossible for us to live there unless we become exactly like God. His holiness is so pure and radiance so great that He is a "consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29) To live in the Father's House we must be as good and glorious as He.
The Bible distinguishes between the quality of life that enables us to live in the limited material world, and that fit for the environment of the Father's House. "Bios" is a Greek word appearing in the New Testament to describe the finite life of material existence. "Zoe" is the term frequently used for the eternal life of Heaven.
How do we become Zoe-Beings, qualified to dwell in the Father's House?
Religions most often answer that with law and good deeds through which people try to earn enough merit to qualify themselves to dwell in the Father's glorious presence. Jesus comes into the world with a refreshingly new answer — Grace.
Here's where the logic of Incarnation becomes so evident.
No finite human can transfer to us a holy character, because they can't give what they don't have. Only God can give us His glorious Being. Thus God must enter our world as one of us, pass through every temptation that hounds us, overcome it, take the judgment that our sin provokes, and then pass along His life-quality to us.
The Zoe-Being takes on bios-existence to enable us to have His Zoe-quality of life.
God's perfect justice intersects with God's perfect mercy at the cross. There God Himself in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth takes the death-judgment which is the penalty of our sin. No one else can do that because even the most noble of us have their own sin-penalty, and don't have enough "merit" to take ours.
Because God-in-Christ is fully man, He is capable of death, but because He is still fully God death cannot conquer Him. He emerges from the grave three days later, qualified to pass to us not only His victory over sin and death, but the very essence of His holy character, qualifying us to live forever in the pristine environment of the Father's House.
Only God becoming incarnate could pull this off.
So how do we respond to this sublime logic?
Decades ago, leaving my office at the White House, I would occasionally hear the roar of a helicopter and see the Washington fire department at the back gate. I would wait, because I knew the president would soon emerge and board the chopper.
Firefighters surrounded the helicopter, dressed in fireproof suits. In the event of a crash their mission was to dash into the flames and try to save the nation's leader.
But they could not enter the fire unless they wore the right covering.
So, as the Bible says, "we must put on Christ" if we want to be qualified to live in the special place in the Father's House. We do that by acknowledging our sin, believing and confessing that Jesus is God Incarnate who took our sin-penalty and through His resurrection can transfer to us His holy life, and turning away from sin, to Him and His holy character.
God honors our freedom, and so His salvation is a gift we must take freely. It's the greatest Christmas gift anyone could receive.
That's why there was a Baby named "Immanuel" — God with us — in the Bethlehem manger.
