Luke 1:30-31 ESV
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
Advent is a time when we anticipate and celebrate the incarnation of Jesus. John said in his gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus clothed himself in our humanity so that humanity and God will never be separated for those who believe – they are one in Christ. That is the heart of the Christian faith and our salvation. The word “mediator” in the original Greek language literally means “middle,” and the incarnational Christ clothed in our humanity stands in the middle between God and our fallen false self that we might live in unbroken fellowship with God because we are in Christ. Jesus is the union of God and man in his own person. This is what redeemed humanity looks like and lives like – God in man in union. This is the new creation. Humanity and deity in union – God clothed in human flesh. Jesus clothed himself in our humanity that we might clothe ourselves in his deity. We live our Christian lives from our union with the resurrected humanity of Christ, and we sit in intimate fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit because Jesus clothed in our humanity forever participates in the fellowship of the burning heart of the triune God. Jesus is in the “middle,” and it is only through and in him that we walk in the “nearness of God.” This is why we keep saying that Christianity is not living for Christ; it is living from Christ, in Christ, through Christ.