God’s Descent, Our Ascent

by George Aramath

As we prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ, let us re-examine one of the greatest miracles performed by God for our sake, His incarnation. His birth and descent brings about our rebirth and ascent. Jesus means ‘God Saves’, which is His mission. When the birth of Christ is announced, the angel proclaims, “they will call him ‘Immanuel’ which means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23). How easy it is to breeze through these words. By God being with us, we are able to be with Him in Heaven. His descent brought about our ascent. What other religion proclaims the Creator descending to His creation? His descent brought about the greatest climax of any story. It essentially changed the entire course of history. Before this point, God was seen as being distant and afar. His birth allowed us to partially know the Unknowable. We get a glimpse of God’s glory, and it’s only a glimpse because God is hidden in so far as He allows Himself to be revealed. And this revelation takes place through His incarnation. St. Ephrem beautifully illustrates this point when he writes, Look, Lord, my lap is now filled with the crumbs from your table, there is no room in the folds of my garment, so hold back your gift as I worship before you; keep it in Your treasure house in readiness to give it to us on another occasion. (Faith 10:22)

St. Ephrem desires only the small crumbs from God’s table, for this is all the knowledge and revelation that he can take. He recognizes the awesome majesty of God’s limitless knowledge that humans can only partially comprehend. This is why St. Paul exclaims that God “gave Him the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). There is no other name that compares to the One who saves and is with us, Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel.

What can we learn from His revelation? Through His descent, we are able to return back to the image of God. Jesus showed us Himself how to overcome shortcomings and become perfect. He did not write the formulas in a law book or proclaim it through prophets. It’s been done before with little success. The Old Testament ends and the New Testament begins with God coming down Himself to show that perfection is possible. Jesus took on the qualities of being human and proclaimed through His actions that we are to aim for this perfection. St. Paul instructs us in his letter to the Hebrews, “we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (4:15). He was tempted like all human beings, but did not fall. 

There exists a false saying that it’s human nature to fall, for Christ showed that it’s human beings that fall, not our nature. Gregory of Nyssa writes, “Sin is a miscarriage of human nature” (Letter XVII). With Christ, he recalls genuine humanity; He is the new Adam. He was made what we are so that we can be what He is. There’s another popular saying, “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do). The idea behind this popular, yet hardly practiced motto refers to the concept of returning back to God’s image. We were originally created in His image but with sin, the image became disfigured. Christ’s birth allows us to be reborn to that original image. For Christ declares, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). This rebirth is not a one time process but continual. We are to renew ourselves towards perfection as we look towards and believe in the One Perfecter. Why look elsewhere for the perfect role model? “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). This is the message that our Emmanuel gives us through His incarnation. 

As we begin the 25-Day Lent, the Church has instituted steps that we can take in achieving this perfection: Prayer, Confession, Fasting, Holy Eucharist, etc. It rests upon us to utilize these sacraments in the proper manner for our salvation. But this is only possible through the grace and mercy of the incarnate Jesus, who saves. His descent can bring about our ascent.