Those who believe in God normally have some idea of what God is like. Though many imagine nice aspects of God and his character, it must be emphasised that God is not just a human idea. He is objectively there. He acts. He is capable of speaking. He loves. So we should expect to see some of his interventions and deeds, and hear or read some of his words. Otherwise he would be the God of deists who think God created the world, set it going, then vanished over the horizon never to be seen again (though somehow he maintains everything in existence.)

Against such feeble beliefs, the Christian Scriptures relate three overwhelming things that God has actually done (among many others). God has accomplished in our world, in history, these three mind-boggling deeds that are guaranteed to shake up anyone’s feeble and unclear ideas of the divine.
The first is the incarnation of God the Son. Luke, one of the best historians of his age, recounts the whole back-story of Jesus’ mother, Mary, being informed she would become pregnant and give birth to one who will be called the Son of God. Luke recounts how Mary checked out the truth of this divine message, and how she acquiesced to fulfilling this extraordinary project, having this unique baby without any sexual intercourse. Joseph, her fiancé, was informed and acted as a good father to the young Jesus. Their baby grew up to be the powerful preacher, miracle-worker, the greatest moral teacher of all time, the sinless man who gave his life for the salvation of men and women.

This leads us to the second astounding thing that God did: God the Son incarnate refused to use his miraculous powers or even to claim his human rights to obtain deliverance from death; he saw his mission as giving himself up to death on the cross – the most vile, shameful, humiliating, and painful death imposed upon him by those who thought they were acting according to law. Unknown to them, they were acting according to prophecy given centuries before, notably in the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah which deserves close attention if you are not familiar with it. It explains that the coming Servant of God – Jesus Christ – would bear the sins of others, would be afflicted by God on their behalf, would intercede for them and obtain their justification, their forgiveness by his atoning death in their place. The fact that God, coming into the world, should suffer such agony in order to save us from the agony of hell is totally amazing and a demonstration of divine love.

The third thing is even more mind-boggling: God raised Jesus from the dead. Again the faithful historian Luke recounts how this took place and the apostle Paul recorded various encounters people had with the risen Christ. Despite the efforts of antagonistic non-believers to explain away Christ’s resurrection, it remains the major event which alone can explain both the extraordinary courage of the apostles who announced it as having been eye-witnesses, and the equally extraordinary expansion of the Christian faith as thousands right there in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, came to believe he was the risen Saviour and Lord.

Three outstanding accomplishments of what God alone can do: Incarnation, Atonement, Resurrection. Three pillars of the Christian faith. Three demonstrations of the fact that God intervenes in the world. Anyone wanting to prove that it’s true can entrust themselves to the risen Saviour; they will find in their experience that God’s power still works to transform sinners into saints.

Clive Every-Clayton