God's love and the incarnation

I was reading a book on the incarnation of Christ last night. It's a subject I return to frequently. I was amazed to discover all over again that the incarnation is such a radical expression of God's love and compassion.

The thought that the God of the universe would become human, make himself a slave to other humans, and die a shameful death for them (Phil 2:5-11) is a ridiculous idea to many people. Granted, it does sound ridiculous. But then God's love is ridiculous. It has no limits. God is utterly free of self-interest. He doesn't pull back. Therefore, I find the incarnation believable because it expresses the greatness of God's love. It would have taken less love to leave us humans to our own self-destruction. That's how I know God didn't do that. He overcame our self-destruction for us by personally entering into it. Entering into our plight rather than just yelling at us from afar demonstrates the incredible compassion of God. Love and compassion -- that is what the incarnation says to me.

And people wonder why we worship Jesus!

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