An Eternal Solidarity (1 Tim. 2:5)
When we imagine the huge difference between God and ourselves, it is astounding to think that God would reach out to us by condescending to take on human flesh. But after He was done, most of us would have been content for Him to abandon His affinity with us, and return fully to what He was before. However—and this absolutely astounds us—we learn that Jesus will forever remain in solidarity with us by retaining our nature!
Consider the implications of the following passages in regard to Jesus' eternal solidarity with us:
"By His life and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal separation between God and man; but in Christ we become more closely united to God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. 'God so loved the world . . .' He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. . . . God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the 'Son of man' who shares the throne of the universe."—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 25. "Christ ascended to heaven, bearing a sanctified, holy humanity. He took this humanity with Him into the heavenly courts, and through the eternal ages He will bear it, as the One who has redeemed every human being in the city of God."—Ellen G. White, The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1054.
A friend of yours, hearing about Jesus' eternal solidarity with us, says: "That is going too far. It is too much!" What would you say to that person? And how do you feel about the fact He will be like us for eternity? However incredible a concept, what does it tell us about God's love for humanity?
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