Emmanuel, God Through Us
By Pastor Javier Lobos
No Word of Scripture encloses such a great mystery as that of the apostle Paul to Timothy, “God was manifest in the flesh”. In like manner, the apostle John also refers to this mystery saying, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”.
That God would become man, without ceasing to be God is incomprehensible to the human mind. In like manner, it is incomprehensible to our mind that man would come to take part in the divine nature without ceasing to be man. When the new birth occurs, Christ once again takes His place among men. It is then that man comes to be part of the divine nature, and God takes part in human nature. The joining of the divine and human natures is expressed with the word, “Emmanuel”, God with us.
“We in God”
In the midst of the mystery of these words, we can understand the method with which God purposes that man obtain such great a salvation. All divine work in the soul of man does not begin while God does not come near to him.
Grace is the method that God gives us to obtain salvation and holiness. Man’s method of reaching holiness is legalism. Those are two methods that are diametrically opposed and incompatible—God’s has led millions to salvation; man’s has proven to be a failure.
The Heavenly Father does not chasten him who He has not taken as a child and who is foreign to Him. God cannot work in the soul that is separate from Him—definitely not! First, He joins man to Himself, so that through that union, He might communicate the divine life and the divine power so that the dealings to which he must submit will not be in vain.
By living our lives in Christ, all aspects of our lives are elevated to a new level, and a seal is placed upon them all, which makes them new in Christ. Life now has a new dimension in Him.
When We become Believers in Christ
Our new life is not unlinked to a natural parentage (our parents continue being our parents); it does not destroy any human obligation (we must continue working to provide for our family); it does not nullify any natural law (the law of gravity continues to affect us); it does not nullify any spiritual law (we continue to reap what we sow).
The relationship with our natural parents takes on a new meaning, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.”
We must continue working, but we have a new motivation for our job because of our relationship with Christ: “Your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
The marriage relationship is sealed: “In the Lord.”
Daily life has a new description: “Shew out of a good conversation in works” and “now are ye light in the Lord.”
The joy, the pain and suffering, faithfulness and faith, strength and courage, all are now in Christ.
Regarding death, until the Lord destroys it, it will continue to appear, but it can be crowned with a blessing, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”
So when Christ receives man, He receives him with all that He is; and instead of separating him from his natural life, He encompasses it all, elevates it, sanctifies it, making man one total and complete new creation. That creation is the new man, the life of Christ deposited in him through being born again —it is Emmanuel!
“The Mirror”
In this new creation, we men are “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” So, as opposed to the human ways of legalism, in which, through good works, man intends to obtain God, the divine method of salvation implies that good works are the inevitable result of the life of grace in Christ. Those works are an evidence of the biblical faith. Biblical faith is not something abstract, nor is it simply a creed or doctrinal declaration.
Christian faith is evidenced by the works that we do. Jesus admired faith that was accompanied by action —Jesus saw people’s faith by what they did. Biblical faith is action.
Good works in the life of the believer must flow from the life of Christ that has been deposited in him. Otherwise, it is of no value. How do we identify the works before ordained by God so that we can walk in them? We do it by being doers of the Word and not hearers only.
He who does not put the Word of God into practice is like someone who sees his face in the mirror, “the perfect law,” and immediately forgets what it was like. And, therefore, he does not put it into practice. We could very well say that this is about a person without vision. The difference between him and someone with a vision is that the person with a vision approaches the mirror of Scripture and immediately sees what he is truly like. He begins to see Christ in the mirror of Scripture.
How can this reflection in the mirror be the image of a man?
It is the image because, from the time he was born again, he is in Emmanuel, of whom Moses and the prophets wrote! He is a new creation! Therefore, the perfect law is a reflection of the life and works of Christ —works that God prepared so that Christ could live them through this redeemed man!
The man with vision sees himself in the mirror and remembers what he is like. The man with vision is he that does what the Word says. What the mirror reflects for him is a person in Christ. Because God is the one who has made us a new creation, we must walk through this new life allowing “Emmanuel” to be manifest through us —Christ in us.