In his devotional My Utmost for His Highest Oswald Chambers lists several examples of the joining of divinity and humanity. In the life of Jesus, the supernatural repeatedly appears in the everyday.
“The great marvel of the Incarnation slips into ordinary childhood’s life;
The great marvel of the Transfiguration vanishes in the devil-possessed valley;
The glory of the Resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore.
This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.”1
Because we are living in the time of Jesus’ soon return, it is vital that we understand that divinity sometimes appears in the mundane. Jesus, the Almighty Creator of the cosmos, miraculously entered humanity as a baby, fully divine yet fully human. Thus, divinity and humanity were united for eternity.
Unnoticed by most, the divine and human Messiah lived, died, and arose victorious over evil and death.
The Ordinary May Be Supernatural
The miracle of Bethlehem is stranger than fiction. Without a human father yet through an ordinary woman, Jesus became Immanuel, God with us. This is unbelievable to the natural human mind, but spiritually revealed to all who are open to sacred realities. The extraordinary comes through the commonplace—the mundane.
An Amazing Story of the Seemingly Ordinary
The angel Gabriel appeared to a young womanliving in Nazareth. A virgin, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph. Gabriel told Mary she was highly favored, and would conceive and give birth to a son, conceived of the Holy Spirit. The Holy One to be born would be called the Son of God.
Mary accepted the mission. Jesus, the divine Son of God and the human Son of man, was humbly born in Bethlehem. Angels and shepherds announced His birth. Later Wise Men followed a star and came to worship. Incarnation happens; divinity is joined with humanity.
Now everyone who receives Jesus as Savior and Friend becomes a Bethlehem, a temple of the Holy Spirit, a dwelling place for God. From this point on, divinity and humanity are so connected that it is easy to miss the divine as it quietly shines through humble followers of Jesus.
The Transfiguration Followed by Encountering Evil
TheTransfiguration of Jesus on a mountain manifests the relationship of the supernatural with the ordinary. One day Jesus took three disciples up on a mountain, where He met Elijah (who had been translated to heaven without experiencing death) and Moses (who had died but was resurrected). These men had come to encourage and strengthen Jesus for the crisis of the cross.
On the mountain the disciples fell asleep, and on waking, they saw Jesus transfigured, talking with Moses and Elijah. The disciples were overwhelmed. Then God the Father spoke: “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Luke 9:35).
The next morning, at the base of the mountain, evil was at work. A large crowd had gathered as the remaining disciples were unable to cast a demon out of a tortured boy. The father begged Jesus to heal his son as the boy screamed and convulsed. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy.
As the great miracle of the Transfiguration faded, Jesus descended into the valley. Divinity and humanity were joined together in Him. One moment Jesus conversed with heavenly beings, and the next He faced evil in a life-and-death struggle. So it is with every person who chooses to serve God in this life. Daily conflict with evil happens even while we fellowship with the divine. Victory is through our great High Priest, who sits on the throne of the universe.
Truth and Hope Beyond Our Reality
Jesus lived a difficult life on earth. He died a cruel death, but was resurrected. Let’s be clear: no one took Jesus’ life from Him. He gave up His life, He rested in the grave, and then as divine He took up His life again. In the process He redeemed humanity as only divinity could. This is truth beyond our reality. We know only death, grief, and trouble. Our hope of eternal life is well beyond us, but is in Jesus, who was and is the source of all life.
A few days after the resurrection, six disciples, along with Peter, decided to go fishing. All night they caught no fish. As morning approached, they noticed a fire on shore, and someone called out, “Have you any food?” They answered no. Then the voice said, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” They did, and suddenly the net was full of fish. Divinity flashed through the ordinary, and John said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”
They scrambled ashore, and Jesus served them breakfast by the Sea of Galilee. Then Jesus deliberately restored Peter as a leader in this motley band of believers who shook up the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The glory of the resurrection descended into breakfast by the sea. The Almighty Creator descended into and redeemed humanity. Miracle of miracles, divinity joined with humanity. Humanity would never be the same again. Weak, hurting, and lost humans could now be re-created and eventually given new bodies like Jesus’ glorious body. That day is soon.
Any knowledge humanity has about God comes only through divinity revealing truth in a way we can understand, often through the ordinary. The Incarnation was the pinnacle of God’s self-revelation to His universe. Scripture is clear: “There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5, NLT).2
1 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Uhrichsville, Ohio: Barbour Books, 1935), Nov. 16, see https://utmost.org/still-human/.
2 Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
