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The incarnation is no contradiction of God's transcendence or sovereignty. Never think of Christmas, the incarnation, in any way as a qualification of God's sovereignty, His Lordship. We shouldn't say: Yes, God is sovereign Lord, who does as He pleases; but He is ALSO, in ADDITION, the God who has become incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth.
Rather, we should confess that God is Lord precisely BECAUSE He was incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. The incarnation is the proof of God's sovereignty, His greatest demonstration and act of Lordship. Our God has proven that He is not sealed off from human birth, human life, human death, human resurrection. We think in our sin and rebellion that we can create a God-free Zone, that we can keep God out of human life. According to the gospel, there is no sign saying "No God Allowed" at the gateway of human life. Or, if there are such signs, our God can push past them, our God HAS pushed past them and entered the territory that we thought was OURS and ours alone. And as a result, no moment of a human life is untouched by God, nothing human is alient to Him, save sin alone.
The truly sovereign God is the God who can take flesh, suffer, and die. The truly transcendent God, the truly Godlike God, is the one who can enter human life and make it His own. We can boast to all the idols and pretenders and secularists: Can your God do THAT? Can your God be born, life, die, and rise again as a man? Before THIS display of God's sovereignty, all mouths are stopped, all idols are proven to be nothing and less than nothing. Because our God not only can but HAS done all that.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, December 07, 2003 at 03:18 PM
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