Page 44 - Nurturing the Nurturer 2018 Flip Page Program
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pact – covenant and God would have to create a
new covenant and God took flesh and became
the covenant. He sends us the once and for all
covenant who is Jesus Christ.
Now why did Jesus Christ take flesh? Why did
God come to save us in this way? There are 4
reasons:
1. To save us from our sins – to redeem us.
Heaven came to earth to bring earth back to
heaven. God took that cross – that’s why Jesus
mounted that cross for you and for me. That is
what his blood does – he saves us from our
sins.
2. To show us what love is. Love is more than a feeling. It is more than an idea or a
song lyric. Love requires sacrifice. Love thinks about the other. Love works for the
other’s salvation. God showed us in the flesh what love looks like.
3. To model holiness for us. To show us what it really means to be holy. Holiness is
living and breathing and active. Holiness serves. Jesus takes a basin and a towel
and washes the feet; he heals the blind; he reaches out to people that no one else
would reach out to. He teaches us what holiness really looks like in the flesh every
day.
4. To make us partakers in the divine nature. Literally, God took flesh so that we
could partake – take part in – his divine nature – that we could become like God.
God became man so that man could become like God. Think about that for a
second – we have a God who loves us so much that he wants to give us his divine
life that we call grace. St. Paul had a very interesting word that he used for grace in
the New Testament CHARIS. If you look at the word EuCHARISt you will notice
that this is how God puts his grace – his life – inside of us. The EuCHARISt at
every single Mass – heaven comes to earth to save us; to love us; to model
holiness and to allow us to take part in God’s divine life.
These are deep mysteries only made available because of the priesthood and God’s
grace. Why would God go to so much trouble? Why would God come to us in the
flesh? Why would God come to us under what looks like bread and wine? Why would
God do this? Exactly! Because God thinks that highly of each one of us. There is
literally no higher affirmation that God could give you that to say “I wish to dwell
within you because my grace will transform your sin; my grace will save you; my
grace and my life will feed you. You can take part in me and I will live in you.”
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