Counting the Days: December 13, 2025

The Flesh, the Hinge of Salvation

Bonnie Faust, RN, Ph.D., MBA, NEA-BC, FACHE
Assistant Professor of Health Care Administration

Read: John 1:14

“The flesh is the hinge of salvation.” – Tertullian (AD 160 – AD 240)

Listen my friends, for this truth will indeed set you free. The God who created you did not just send a message. He didn’t drop a philosophy textbook from the sky or beam down a set of moral rules. No. He showed up – in a human body, with skin that bruises, lungs that breathe, a heart that beats and breaks. This is both the scandal and the absolute wonder of Advent: The One who created you chose to become flesh. Real flesh. The same kind you’re living in right now, tired from studying for finals, hungry for meaning, maybe aching with questions you don’t know how to ask out loud.

YES. It’s true. God didn’t stay distant. He stepped into our world, into the mess and busyness, into the stress and uncertainty, and chose to dwell with us. Pause for a moment and just let that sink in. Why would God do that for us? Why? Because the flesh is the hinge of salvation. Your flesh is not a mistake. It’s not a distraction from spiritual life — it’s the very place where salvation happens.

No flesh, no birth. No cross, no resurrection. No healing, no hope.

Jesus didn’t come to rescue ideas. He came to redeem bodies. He came for you, not just your thoughts, but your whole self. In Mary’s womb, eternity touched time. In the manger, God cried real tears. In Jesus, God moved into the neighborhood not to shame us, but to restore us.

So, this Advent, you need look no further than your own precious life to find the One who loved you enough to take on skin. God walked dusty roads, laughed with friends, wept at graves, and stretched out His arms on a cross-all in a body like yours. Jesus didn’t come as an untouchable figure; He came as someone who understands exhaustion, loneliness, and the longing for purpose.

And guess what?! That means you don’t have to “get it all together” before coming to Him. He’s already here – on the walk to class, in the late-night study session, in the quiet moments when you feel unseen. This Advent, the incarnation invites us to see love not as an idea, but as a person – Jesus.- who came close enough to touch, weep, and bleed. The hinge of salvation is not a theory. It’s flesh, and in that flesh, God says: I am with you. I am for you. I will never leave you.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, who took on flesh for our salvation, help us receive Your nearness with humility and wonder. May Your presence in our very human lives remind us that we are seen, loved, and never alone—now and always.