On Incarnation, a Reminder from David Bentley Hart, and Living into Friendship with God

A Note from Me

Toward the end of his earthly life, Jesus said to his disciples: “I no longer call you servants… but friends” (Jn 15:15). At the center of the Unitive Way lies a union so intimate and relational that it becomes nothing less than friendship with God.

This, I think, is one of the reasons Jesus will always be Jesus. Always human. Always embodied.

I didn’t always understand this. For a long time, I held a more transactional view: that the Son of God put on flesh, became Jesus of Nazareth, completed His mission, and then shed his humanity and returned to heaven. Mission accomplished. Over and done with.

But that’s not incarnation—it’s intervention.

Emmanuel does not mean God visits us.

It means God with us.

God will forever manifest himself through the resurrected humanness of Jesus. The Incarnation is not just about God rescuing us, it’s about God relating to us. It’s about God longing to be with us. It’s about God inviting us into his life.

Through Christ, that’s exactly what we’re offered: an eternal friendship rooted in mutual delight—one that deepens without end.*

*From Chapter 10 of my forthcoming book Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation

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A Voice from the Past

“Orthodox Christology, after all, insists not merely that there is no conflict or rivalry between Christ’s divinity and his humanity, nor merely that they are capable of harmonious accord with one another.

Rather, it asserts that humanity is so naturally compatible with divinity that the Son can be both fully divine and fully human at once without separation or confusion, in one agent whose actions are all therefore at once fully human and fully divine.”

—David Bentley Hart, You Are Gods: On Nature and Supernature

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A Question to Carry

How does it change your view of God to see Jesus as still human?

Grateful you’re here—more soon

—Jon

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