Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union with Christ

by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick Narrated by Heather Anne Henderson

Overview

Everyone, Christians included, knows what it's like to feel isolated and alone. We've all wondered if anyone really understands us or truly cares about our lives. The good news is that we aren't alone, and the gospel tells us why: Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth to be forever united with his people-to be one of us. In fact, he has so united himself with us that the Bible says we are literally “in” him. Far from being alone and lost, the Incarnation changes everything for the Christian. Writing with everyday readers in mind, Elyse Fitzpatrick fleshes out the practical implications of our union with Christ and gives us confidence that we are not alone in this approachable and applicable devotional book.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170199259
Publisher:	EChristian, Inc.
Publication date:	10/31/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

From Beginning to End It's All about Him

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

LUKE 24:27

The story of Jesus, the long-awaited Christ, is what the entire Bible is about. Perhaps I should say that again. The beginning and end of everything in the universe and most particularly everything recorded in the Scriptures is Jesus Christ. He declared himself to be the "Alpha and the Omega," the one "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8). He "is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead." In all that is, he is "preeminent" (Col. 1:18). He is the sun around whom all beings orbit, whether they are aware of it or not. He is the director, the author, the actor, and the finale of every act that has ever been played out on humanity's stage.

The man Christ Jesus is the preeminent message of the Bible. Of course there are other messages and secondary peoples and histories, but he's the point of everything that has been written. He is primary; he outranks everyone and everything in importance, dignity, beauty, wisdom, and honor. And because of who he is and what he has done for our salvation,

God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:9–11)

I suppose that those of you who have been Christians for any length of time are nodding in assent. Yes, of course Jesus is the main character in the Bible! That's obvious, isn't it? Well, yes, it should be obvious. But while many of us would agree that Jesus is key, the all-encompassing message of his preeminence, although assumed, is not usually the message we hear. No, the message we usually hear is something about us and what we're supposed to do to make God happy, or, at least, about how we can avoid making him unhappy and live satisfying lives. But as we'll learn in the chapters to come, the Bible isn't primarily a rulebook, nor is it a self-help manual; it's not about how we become better people so that we can earn blessings by working hard. It's all about Jesus, God made man, his life, death, and resurrection. It is about his determination to be in union with us.

The message of the Bible is Jesus Christ, the one truly good human person: who he is and the work he's done for our salvation and his Father's glory. Of course, what he has done does intersect with our lives and change us, but we're not the subject of this story — he is. He is the subject, and all the verbs are about his work. But this story didn't start a mere two thousand years ago in Bethlehem.

THE SON BEFORE THE BABY

Way before the Christmas story was written, the Bible resounded with the message of the Son. In fact, all of the Old Testament writings are about Jesus. Every law, every prophetic utterance, every narrative, every psalm is meant to remind us of him, to force us to look away from ourselves and to look to him for salvation.

Adam's, Abraham's, and Israel's entire experience was designed from the beginning to foreshadow the end [that] ... Jesus, the beloved Son, would keep the covenant and bear the curse on their behalf and ours.

In fact, Jesus himself claimed that he was the subject of all of Israel's history. I know that this might be a new thought for some of you, so here are some passages from the New Testament for your consideration. Notice how Jesus identifies himself as the subject of all of Moses's writings:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. ... If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. (John 5:39, 46)

Think of that! Jesus said that Moses actually wrote about him! But that's not all he had to say on the topic. After the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples on the road to Emmaus and taught them (and by extension, us) the right way to read and interpret all the Old Testament Scriptures:

These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. (Luke 24:44)

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27)

EVEN BEFORE THE AGES BEGAN

Jesus (and the rest of the New Testament writers) made it abundantly clear that all the history contained in the Old Testament was ultimately about him: his person and his work. But even further back, even before Genesis 1 and the first light of creation, he was already involved in our salvation. His preeminence in our salvation didn't start when Adam and Eve were created or even when they first sinned. Although Jesus the Godman doesn't actually appear until his physical birth in Bethlehem around two thousand years ago, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, had existed in communion with God the Father and God the Spirit eternally. From before the Word was spoken and the Holy Spirit hovered over the womb of the unformed world (Gen. 1:2), God the Son existed in inexpressible light and endless joy in union and loving fellowship with his Father and the Spirit. The Son, the personal Word, was "with" God and was, in fact, God (John 1:1–2; 1 John 1:1).

There, in time, before time began, the Trinity existed in perfect happiness within his person. He was not lonely; he never needed anything. In himself, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit were absolutely complete, a Trinity existing in perfect harmony and unity. But then, in overflowing love, grace, and mercy, God chose to make a covenant within himself, sometimes called the pactum salutis or covenant of redemption. In it the Son agreed to be sent as a redeemer for a race of men yet to be created, but in order to do so, he would have to become a new sort of person, one in the likeness of his fallen brothers and yet immutably God. He agreed to do this not out of necessity, not because he was forced to or lacked something in himself that only the incarnation would provide, but because of God's "own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began" (2 Tim. 1:9).

Now, before we look more deeply at what that means, why not take a moment to think a bit more about it? Consider this: before the ages began it was God's plan to come to you, to call you to himself, to save you and make you his own. Though you were lost, he set out to find you and make you one with him. He wasn't shocked or taken by surprise by Adam's fall in Eden. Before the ages began he had already planned for it. He is not shocked or surprised by your weakness or sin. He saw it all before you were ever born and yet purposed to come to you with his grace — not in judgment, but in lavish grace.

Our sin and salvation didn't necessitate a plan B. His purpose to bring salvation before the ages began is now and always has been the only plan there ever was. Our sin didn't paint him into a corner or leave him scrambling to try to fix the big mess we had made. We were chosen "in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4).

IN ALL-KNOWING LOVE THE LORD CREATED

In love God made mankind, knowing what it would cost him, knowing all about Bethlehem and Calvary and all our sins before they even existed. In joy he said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). By his Son, the creative Word, he made "all things" (John 1:3), including man, and gave him life by personally breathing into him his first breath. So Adam and Eve were created — perfect creatures in perfect love and harmony with each other and with their creator, the Son, who would visit them for joyous walks in the "cool of the day" (Gen. 3:8).

But this bliss would not last. Soon the couple would know the bitter taste of conflict, disunity, and isolation; they would be sent wandering and weeping away from the garden, and they would know that without a doubt this was their own doing.

The Serpent tempted them by questioning the very love of God for them that was at the heart of their creation.

"If God really loved you he would let you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil," he hissed. "Go ahead; help yourself. That way there won't be any difference between you and him. In fact, you'll be just like him. Take care of yourself. You can do it!"

The Lord had wisely fashioned Adam and Eve in his own image for fellowship with him and with each other, and, oh, the madness of craving something other. Of course, they knew that what they had in communion with their creator and each other was great (even though there were differences), but they were captivated by the thought of how much better life would be if there weren't any differences at all! They didn't want to be creatures any more — they wanted to be gods, too! They knew about goodness already, but they didn't know about evil, and they were so curious. Wouldn't it be a good thing for them to know everything there was to know? Didn't they need to help themselves out?

Adam and Eve drank from the poisonous cup of autonomy and independence. They ate and fell. They fell from their blessed communion with the Lord and were banished from the beautiful garden he had created for them. They fell also from blessed union with each other. God's image in them was shattered (though not completely obliterated), and in that shattering every relationship within the race of man would thereafter be marred. On our own, we would never know the "oneness" we all long for. Where once Adam and Eve had been "one flesh," now they were individuals. Where once they had been self-forgetful, now each was "turned in upon himself. ... Each [knew] that he or she was no longer what he or she ought to be." They experienced shame. They hid. They tried to cover themselves with fig leaves; they wept in isolation.

Notice that Adam immediately began to refer to himself in the singular "I" rather than as "we" (Gen. 3:10). The deathly individualization of humanity had begun, and with surprising ease Adam deserted his wife while casting aspersions upon the Lord's wisdom for giving her to him in the first place. Adam was utterly alone. He had abandoned his wife. He no longer trusted his God. On her own, Eve was weak and vulnerable. And though we are no longer hiding behind a tree in that garden, the die had been cast for the rest of us. All their children, all of us, will hide from each other and the Lord in isolation, suspicion, and shame, trying to weave together fig leaves to cover our shame.

SEPARATION AND DEATH

Before Adam and his wife left the garden from which they had been banished, God cursed them and told them of the enmity and conflict that would forever plague them. There would be enmity between mankind, animals, and the created earth, between the wife and her husband. The evening walks with the Son would end (for now). Man was alone, isolated, solitary, lost.

Thankfully, that isn't the end of the story. Although the Lord had spoken a curse of death for disobedience, he also comforted them with good news. Eve would be a mother. Through the woman a child would come who would bruise or crush the Serpent's head (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20). Even in the devastation that their sin had caused, there was still good news: there would be new life, offspring, another Man who would comfort his mother, who would be born from her and who would be uniquely created in God's image. He would walk in the evening with his people and talk with them about the inevitability and blessing of another tree. The enemy would be vanquished. And as a foreshadowing of this new Man's life and death, God clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of animals: living, breathing creatures were slaughtered to cover their nakedness and shame.

BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM

In astounding grace, God called a descendant of Adam and Eve, Abraham, out of Ur, a land of idol worshipers. God promised that through Abraham all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3); that is, through Abraham's offspring, namely, Jesus, God would again come to his people, but this time in a way that no one could have foreseen (Gal. 3:16). God's Son would become a man! A miracle birth would occur, and this Promised One would eventually give his life as ransom for the blessing of many, fulfilling God's ancient promise to Abraham (Acts 3:25). Abraham was one of the greatest men in the Old Testament, but his story is not meant to focus us on him or his goodness or his life. Yes, we are to follow in his faith, but Abraham isn't the point of the story. Jesus, the one in whom Abraham believed, is.

Abraham trusted in Jesus! How could that happen? After all, Abraham lived and died thousands of years before Jesus was even born. Jesus knew that he was the ultimate fulfillment of his Father's ancient promise to Abraham. Thousands of years after the promise of blessing had been given to Abraham, Jesus shocked his listeners by declaring that Abraham had seen "his day" and had been gladdened by it. Jesus tells us that Abraham knew him because this man, Jesus, had existed before him. His hearers incredulously asked, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:57–58).

In using the phrase "I am," Jesus was declaring that not only had he existed before his actual physical birth in Bethlehem, but also that he was Yahweh himself. That his hearers understood exactly what he meant is shown by their response to his words: "So they picked up stones to throw at him" (John 8:59). They were infuriated because Jesus was proclaiming that God had been furnished with a body and a soul and that they were looking at God in the flesh! His audacity was too much to bear. His blasphemy had to be silenced.

TWO MIRACLE BIRTHS, TWO BLOODY MOUNTAINS

After many years and numerous trials, the Lord finally granted aged Abraham and his elderly wife, Sarah, a beloved son, Isaac. This miracle son, born to a father who was "as good as dead," and a mother who was "past the age" (Heb. 11:11–12), would ultimately be offered up as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. The wood for the sacrifice was laid on Isaac's back while he and his father made the journey up the mountain with knife and fire (see Genesis 22).

Like Isaac before him, Jesus too would carry the wood for his sacrifice as he walked up Calvary, probably the same mountain that Abraham had walked up before him. And there, like Isaac, Jesus willingly lay down on the wood to die. But although Abraham was willing to offer the son he loved as a sacrifice, there could only be one promised Son offered up by the loving Father, so it is here that the similarities between Mount Moriah and Calvary ended.

Isaac would never know the thrust of his father's knife, but our Lord experienced far more than that — his wrists, ankles and side were pierced for our transgressions (Isa. 53:5). Isaac would never gape in wonder at his father's desertion, but the Son would cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). At the very moment when the Father should have freed Jesus from his captivity, as Abraham had freed Isaac, the Father poured out all his fiery wrath upon him. Jesus was the ram who was "caught in a thicket" (Gen. 22:13) and slaughtered on a mount so that we could go free. He was caught in the thicket of our sin, but this was no accident. He willingly walked into it and became "sin" (2 Cor. 5:21) and a "curse" (Gal. 3:13) for us so that we might be eternally his. The perfect incarnate Son is the only offering who can atone for sin — for Abraham's, Isaac's, and ours. No matter how hard we work, we cannot atone for our sin or make it up to God. Jesus alone is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Now Abraham's experience becomes ours, and we, like him, meet Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides on the "mount of the Lord" (Gen. 22:14). In Christ, Jehovah-Jireh has provided all we need: a savior, a redeemer, a friend and a husband. We are no longer alone, trying to offer sacrifices that prove our love and fidelity. We are his. We have been found.

JESUS: THE PROPHET GREATER THAN MOSES

God prospered Abraham and his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. Jacob grew to become a great family, known by Jacob's new name, Israel. During a time of famine the family went down to Egypt under Jacob's son Joseph's care, and there the family multiplied into a great nation. Soon they were forced into slavery by a ruler who did not "know" Joseph (Ex. 1:8), but God delivered his people out of Egypt through great plagues and wonders by the hand of a deliverer, Moses. Even Moses knew that he wasn't the point of the story, though God used him greatly. He knew that there would be a greater true Deliverer who would come after him and of whom he foretold:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. ... And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. (Deut. 18:15, 18)

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Found in Him"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Elyse M. Fitzpatrick.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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