God With Us and For Us
God is with us. It’s a truth that has sustained the people of God for millennia. Through seasons of darkness, and despair. Amidst disaster and defeat. In the face of danger and death.
“God with us” has often been the promise undergirding God’s people and spurring onward in emboldened faith.
But what makes this phrase to be such a potent force for encouragement? After all, when we hear it, especially around Christmastime, we tend to think of it as mainly in terms of a location. God the Son, who was in heaven, is now here with us. God with us — it’s a locational statement. And while that’s not wrong, neither is it the main point.
Rather, biblically speaking, “God with us” is primarily a statement about God’s disposition toward us. God is with us in that He is for us. For our life, for our joy, for our good.
For example, when Moses, paralyzed by fear and overwhelmed by his own inadequacy, said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” God comforted by saying, “But I will be with you” (Ex. 3:12). Not, as in, “I’m simply going to be there while you try and talk with Pharaoh.” But “I’m going to be working through you as you do.”
When Joshua was about to take the lead over Israel and head into enemy-occupied Canaan, God assured him, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Josh. 1:5). Again, not merely, “I’m going to be next to you like I was next to Moses.” But “I’m going to empower you, and guard you, and guide you, just as I empowered, guarded, and guided Moses.”
When Israel was under siege and had foes approaching from all sides, God, through the prophet Isaiah, promised, “Fear not, for I am with you;” (Isa. 41:10). Far more than just, “I’m in the area, but I’m on your team. I’m committed to you.”
See, God’s promise to be with you, is his promise to be for you. And in this Christmas season especially, we celebrate the fact that “God with us” is no longer just a promise, but a person. That Jesus, who is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, is also Immanuel — God with us. And God for us, and God so for us that he…
Willingly left heaven, to come to earth, and take on flesh, and be humbled in death, even death on a cross, for rebels and sinners like you and me. Jesus is, my brothers and sisters, the living, breathing, dying, rising, “even when we’re at our worst”, proof-positive that God is actually not against us. Actually not disinterested in us. Actually not wanting to avoid us. But he is actually for us, and he’s proved it in the flesh. Jesus is God’s “for us-ness” embodied.
And though, in the face of Jesus, that fact is undeniable. Yet, deny it we often have. We have distrusted God’s promise to us. Doubted his dedication to us. Called his “being for us” into question. Often gotten no further than, “God might be for us…maybe.” And it is this failure to receive, in faith, God’s promise to us, that reminds us of our need, this morning, to confess our sins.
Father, forgive us for looking to the cross and yet maintaining doubts as to your feelings about us, your people. Forgive us for being slow to take you at your word. Forgive us for not wholeheartedly grasping the reality of Immanuel – God with us. And Father, as we come before you now, forgive us also for all the other ways we have sinned this week. We confess these all to you now in this moment of silent confession.
Father, we take heart from your words to us in Romans 8: “That If God is for us (and he is), who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Father, we gladly receive the gift of your son to us. We thank you for him. And it is through him we say, Amen.
