Hand in Glove

Did you ever stop to think what made it possible for the Son of God to become a human baby? He is infinite and almighty. We are frail and finite. He is larger than the universe; we are very much smaller than the planet on which we live. His ways are higher than our ways—so far higher as to be virtually incomprehensible to us much of the time. How could it be suitable for God to become a man?

Let’s take an easier question. Most of us in the northern states are wearing gloves at this season of the year. What part of your body are your gloves designed to fit?—your elbow? your ear? your foot? Gloves are made to fit hands and nothing else.

The Son of God is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:13-15). He is the “exact representation” of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:1-3). He did not become God’s image. The Son has always been the exact image of the Father. This is an eternal relationship.

Adam and Eve (and the rest of us) were made in God’s image, according to God’s likeness (Genesis 1:26). Notice the prepositions, in and according to. We are not little images of God. Rather, we are shaped to be like the Image of God, who is Christ. We are images of the Image.

As the glove is the right shape for the hand, so human nature was created to be the right shape for the Son of God to enter. He fit perfectly into the human body and soul growing in Mary’s womb. The shape was just right, and because the Son of God is eternal spirit, He was able to compress Himself into that tiny body without diminishing His presence throughout the vast regions of space.

Here is another thing. You and I were created in the right shape to be dwellings for the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. His task is to conform us to the image of Christ. We are gloves for the hand of God, but the gloves are misshapen and unclean.

Would you like to put your hand into a glove that had a couple of fingers chewed off by rats and that was occupied by a black widow spider (and the debris of her feastings)? Neither, because of our sin, are we fit for God to enter us. Nevertheless, Jesus died to provide cleansing blood and rose to send His cleansing Spirit into the hearts of His people.

At the present hour the Spirit is renewing God’s elect according to the image of our Maker (Colossians 3:10), but at the last hour “we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). Then we will be fit to enter heaven, and the Lord of heaven will fit perfectly into us. We will be fitted for and filled with the Creator in the measure that is proper for us as redeemed creatures.