By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (1 John 4:2)
If you find your mind filling with protestations, rationalizations and evidences against the belief that Jesus Christ was God incarnate, then be aware that these do not come from God and are attempting to deceive you. Even the very academic apostle Paul considered the incarnation of Christ to be a mystery, something true, but beyond our ability to understand (1 Timothy 3:16).
It is a common experience for us to ‘suspend disbelief‘ in order to enjoy a story, novel or a movie without constantly nitpicking over minor inconsistencies with reality as we know it. I invite you to do this regarding the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is not faith, it is simply approaching the gospel with a willingness to at least hear the whole story before deciding whether to believe it or not.
While our minds may seek an explanation of how God could become a baby, born of a virgin, the New Testament writers simply state that he did and emphasize instead their amazement at what this means. Perhaps the best example of this is Philippians 2:5-11 in which Paul walks us through the significance of what Jesus did in his incarnation, with no explanation of the mechanics of how exactly it all worked. And so we come to John’s blunt statement:
The Word became flesh and dwelt amoung us (John 1:14)
It happened. Give John the consideration you would give your favourite author and read what he has to say. Maybe God will speak. Also remember that those disbelieving thoughts might be lies!
