Get Your Pretense On!

42 • Get Your Pretense On!

succeed where they had failed in representing the interests and reign of God. And, in the end, the “strong man” (i.e., Satan) who illegitimately held captive humankind would be judged, destroyed, and overcome through the Messiah’s righteousness and power. We who believe know this Messiah to be none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, who gave his life for the world (John 1.14-18; 3.16-18; 3.36; 10.16-18; 11.23-34, etc.). With the coming of Jesus into the world through the virgin Mary and the conception of the Holy Spirit (theologically called the incarnation), the life of the Age to Come was manifested in a newer, fuller way than at any time in the past. Of course, the reversal of God’s Kingdom had salient moments of manifestation – the Exodus from Egypt, the entering into the Promised Land, the destruction and captivity of Israel and Judah, and the return of the remnant back to the Land. These notable acts of God demonstrated God’s ability to reverse the conditions of those lost, broken, and oppressed, and to rescue them, establishing a people under his reign. The incarnation, however, is a unique and final act of reversal, where the power and glory of God are manifest in his Son, a full living manifestation of the inauguration of the Age to Come into this present age. The uniqueness and finality of God’s revelation in Christ is seen in the prologue of the book of Hebrews: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. ~ Hebrews 1.1-4