1 JOHN 1:1-2

“1We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning,a whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.”

1 John 1:1-2 NLT

Though there is a very real and even supreme element to Christ’s spiritual nature, his deity is made manifest in human form. This choice to “lower” himself to a state of mere physicality is important to our understanding of love. Right from the beginning of the creation story, as woven by John, we see that Jesus was self-sacrificing. In this case, he sacrifices status and practices self-control to be truly human and to deliver us a meaningful means of salvation from our finite mess, made of sin. This gospel message is not intangible or ethereal. It has a form that can be corroborated by the senses. It was incarnated into history in such a profound way that all of history has bent to it. Whether we accept it or deny it, the message of the gospel in the God-Man, Jesus Christ, stands out as unique in finite space-time. To truly talk about Jesus, this has to be acknowledged as the foundation of the conversation. Its admittance opens the keys to heaven and its denial closes the gates.