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I am constantly brought back to the reality that God has become man. When you are raised and grow up in a Christian environment, this reality can run the risk of seeming trite, but then you stop and think about what it is we actually confess about God.
God is above us, He is transcendent in and through and also outside of and apart from all time and space.
Such a God cannot suffer, such a God cannot be affected by us, and yet, God can do anything, and so this God chooses to suffer, He chooses to step into time and experience suffering, weeping, rejection, hate, humiliation, He chooses all of this because "to love is to suffer, there can be no other way." As Dostoyevsky has taught us.
But wait, even this does not exhaust the inexhaustible. Why does He suffer? Why do any of us suffer? It is because sin has entered the world, our sin. Yet in His great love, God does not say, "You've sinned, now you must suffer." He says, "You have sinned, and I love you, therefore I will condescend to suffer. I will be rejected so that you can be found, I will weep so that I can wipe away tears, I will pray so that I can live in and enter into your prayers when I answer them. I have become a man and even seen fit to lay my life down so that I may take your life up again. I will die, and you will live. Your life is infinitely valuable to Me."
I am inclined to agree with the man who said that if Jesus was not real I would have to bow down and worship the one who invented Him, for that is how great He is. But better yet, Jesus is real, and He lives, for He has risen from the grave and trampled death by His death. Let us praise Him!

Picture courtesy of Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff.

#orthodox #orthodoxy #orthodoxsaints #easternorthodox #quoteoftheday #quotes #orthodoxchurch #orthodoxchrisitan #orthodoxchrisitans #easternorthodoxy #jesussaves #jesusstillsaves #incarnation

Description
I am constantly brought back to the reality that God has become man. When you are raised and grow up in a Christian environment, this reality can run the risk of seeming trite, but then you stop and think about what it is we actually confess about God.
God is above us, He is transcendent in and through and also outside of and apart from all time and space.
Such a God cannot suffer, such a God cannot be affected by us, and yet, God can do anything, and so this God chooses to suffer, He chooses to step into time and experience suffering, weeping, rejection, hate, humiliation, He chooses all of this because "to love is to suffer, there can be no other way." As Dostoyevsky has taught us.
But wait, even this does not exhaust the inexhaustible. Why does He suffer? Why do any of us suffer? It is because sin has entered the world, our sin. Yet in His great love, God does not say, "You've sinned, now you must suffer." He says, "You have sinned, and I love you, therefore I will condescend to suffer. I will be rejected so that you can be found, I will weep so that I can wipe away tears, I will pray so that I can live in and enter into your prayers when I answer them. I have become a man and even seen fit to lay my life down so that I may take your life up again. I will die, and you will live. Your life is infinitely valuable to Me."
I am inclined to agree with the man who said that if Jesus was not real I would have to bow down and worship the one who invented Him, for that is how great He is. But better yet, Jesus is real, and He lives, for He has risen from the grave and trampled death by His death. Let us praise Him!

Picture courtesy of Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff.

#orthodox #orthodoxy #orthodoxsaints #easternorthodox #quoteoftheday #quotes #orthodoxchurch #orthodoxchrisitan #orthodoxchrisitans #easternorthodoxy #jesussaves #jesusstillsaves #incarnation