1st Timothy 3:16 says, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." No controversy here, the unknowable God who asked the question in Isaiah 46:5, "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?" came in the flesh. In Exodus 19 God spoke directly to the children of Israel when Moses had led them out of Egypt to the Mount of God. God told Moses that if beast or man touch the border of the Mount of God they would die. What a fearsome God! But in Galatians 4:4-5, when the fulness of time was come the Bible says, "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
The question is asked why? Because in John 3:16 The Bible says that, "... God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Lord was asked in John 6:28-29, "...What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." I want to works the works of God, don't you? But believing in Jesus Christ is more than mental assent. It is being born again "of water and of the Spirit," as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3-5. The Bible says in John 3:17, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." He didn't come into the world to condemn us, but rather that you and I might be saved.
As I said previously, believing in Jesus is more than a mere mental assent. The Bible says in 2nd Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He wants to save you and I but He wants us to change our thinking and our ways. In the end of His discourse with Nicodemus He said in John 3:21, "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." Our opening passage of Scripture starts with the phrase, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness..." The reason there is any mystery, is that "...God was manifest in the flesh..." The unknowable, yes the fearsome God that spoke with Moses that day, came in the person of Jesus Christ the son of the living God to bring us to Himself. The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 5:19, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." Will you allow God in Christ to reconcile you to Himself?
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