The Embrace of Christ

Sometimes you just want a hug. I say this as someone who generally does not spread his arms open upon meeting a friend—not for a bro-hug, a side-hug, or any other type of hug. But there are times when even the least huggy of us wants an embrace. The hug I’ll never forget took place minutes after arriving home in Hawaii from Iraq. I stepped off that plane, locked eyes with my fiancée, and we hugged as tears rolled down our cheeks. I’d made it home—with all my limbs—and in two months we’d be married. I was finally united with this girl I’d missed so much. 

There are times when we all long for that kind of human contact: to cradle a once-lost child now firmly in your arms, or to hug your dying mother as you say goodbye. We long for embrace, to know we are not alone. Even if nothing changes, a hug helps you feel like you’ll make it through.

But when we think of what it means to be a Christian, we often think of it in terms of sin and grace, or law and punishment. Even when we do think of love, it is more an idea of love than something so real as the embrace of love. And yet the heart of Christianity is that we are embraced by Christ. How much stronger would we feel; how much less lonely would we feel if we believed that? Christ holds us, he hugs us, he will not let us go.

We sometimes call this our union with Christ, and theologians point out that when Paul says “in Christ,” this is what he has in mind. But this is so much more than just a concept; it is the foundation of our life and hope. Where we couldn’t even attempt to live a perfect life, Christ did it for us; where we couldn’t hope for anything but death, he died instead. It is only because of this that we have hope. And it is not an uncertain hope. As Herman Bavinck writes, “[our salvation] is fixed and established solely in the compassion of God. People can become unfaithful, but God does not forget His promise. He cannot and may not break His covenant; He has committed Himself to maintaining it with a freely given and precious oath: His name, His honor, and His reputation depends on it. It is for His own sake that He obliterates the transgressions of His people and remembers their sins no more.” 

The only way this can happen is if Christ holds us so that God sees the beauty of Jesus when he looks at us. All our hope lies in this embrace. This is why Bavinck also writes, “Christ is Himself Christianity. He stands not outside, but inside of it. In one word, Christ is not the one who points the way to Christianity, but the way itself. He is the only, true, and perfect Mediator between God and men.” And as Michael Reeves says of Jesus, “the Bridegroom has made himself one with his dear bride. Because of what the Son of God has done, I can now say that I am flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. All he is he has given to us, so that all he has he can share with us.” What a glorious truth! We are fully and forever embraced by Christ. 

In Chris,
Pastor Jon