D.C. Collier: God with Skin on Him

A little girl scraped her knee, and her mother said, “I’m too busy right now, sweetie, pray that God will give you comfort.”

The little girl, sobbing, blurted out, “Right now, mommy, I need God with skin on him!” 

How true for all of us. Often, in times of trial or suffering we need God to draw near and “touch us” with his presence and comfort.

To many, God seems remote and invisible, more a concept than a living reality. 

This brings us to one of the most defining characteristics of the Christian faith — a personal God who reaches out and touches our infirmities.

He is not merely a “force,” or a “power,” or an invisible “influence.” Rather than remaining elusive and out of sight, the God of the Bible wrapped Himself in skin, broke into history and paid mankind a personal visit 2,000 years ago. No other religion on the planet can claim that distinction.

The Apostle John wrote, in 1 John 1:1-3: 

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life (Jesus) —and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us — what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

In Philippians 2:6-8, God entered the realm of time and space in His only begotten Son Jesus, “… who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bondservant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.”

Yes, in the above passage we are told that Jesus ventured out from the comparative comfort and safety of Heaven into a hostile world, knowing it would end in a grisly death on a cross.

All this, to settle our self-induced sin problem, and all the while making Himself available to us to see, hear, touch and love.

Jesus Touched Us All

As written in Matthew 23:37-38, we were saddened as Jesus wept over Israel’s capital city, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!”

Our hearts were warmed when He tenderly said, in Luke 12:32, “Do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom.”

We were shocked at His righteous lambasting of the religious leaders, as explained in Matthew 23:27-28: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

This was no namby-pamby milquetoast preacher man. This was a Man possessed of Divine authority. He   got up in people’s “grills” and said it like it was.

At the same time, He couldn’t resist stooping down to hug a little child, embrace a lifelong cripple, immeasurably brighten a friend’s wedding feast, comfort a dying thief hanging on a cross next to Him.

Transforming Power

The power of touch makes a fascinating study in the life of Christ. As He moved about, He was drawn to the sick, diseased, broken people all around Him, including: Early in His ministry, a man with leprosy, Peter’s mother-in-law with a fever, a woman with a hemorrhage, two blind men in His home town, the men of Gennesaret who touched His cloak, two blind people in Jericho, the deaf and dumb man in Decapolis, a dead man’s coffin in Nain, the ear of the slave of the high priest, etc. 

Every one of these people experienced the touch of Jesus and were never the same again. And all this in the remarkably short span of a three-year ministry!

Body in Heaven

Jesus’ intimate connection to mankind will never end. After His death, burial and resurrection, he appeared to many of His followers in a body.

In Luke 24:38-43, we read:

“And He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why are doubts arising in your hearts? See My hands, and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you plainly see that I have.” … He said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They served Him a piece of broiled fish; and He took it and ate it in front of them.”

In this stunning passage, we have all the evidence that we need to trust that He identifies with us, feels for us, hurts with us. He “gets” us, skin and all.

Do you trust Him this way?