When God Became Man

The countdown to the Christmas celebrations is nearly at an end! Now, I know that the one thing that we may say with certainty is that the Lord Jesus was not born on Dec.25th (personally, I believe that He was born during the Feast of Tabernacles), but it is the time of year when we celebrate His birth.

The anonymous writer of the Letter to Hebrew (Jewish) disciples of Jesus, states: "Thou didst make Him for a little while lower than the angels, Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honour," ( 2:7).

We cannot even begin to comprehend what it meant for the infinite Creator God to become finite man, even coming “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), the very flesh that He had created. Nevertheless, we can, and must, believe it, for “every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. ” (I John 4:3).

 

The Scriptures have given us a glimpse of the “emptying” that His incarnation required - the setting aside of certain outward aspects of His deity. He had been “much superior to angels” (Hebrews 1:4), but He had to be “made lower than the angels, ... ... because of the suffering of death,” (Hebrews 2:9)—“put to death in the flesh” (1 Peter 3:18).

 

The eternal Word “was God” (John 1:1), but it was necessary that “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). “The world was made through Him” (John 1:10), but “the rulers of this age . . . crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).

 

He, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,” (Philippians 2:6). That is, He was not fearful of losing His deity and, therefore, did not have to cling to His divine nature and attributes as He became man. Thus, He “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:7).

 

Yet that was only the beginning. “For our sake He [God the Father] made Him [God the Son] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Corinthians 5:21; emphasis added). Note those emphasised words! For your sake, and for mine, the sinless One not only “bore our sins in His body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24). He actually became the very epitome of sin - sin in all of its blackness, and vileness, and degradation, and evil, etc., etc. Indeed, I firmly believe that it was at that moment in created time, that the Lord Jesus, hanging on the cross, uttered what has become known as 'the cry of dereliction' - “Eli, Eli, la′ma sabach-tha′ni?” that is, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt.27:46).  The Holy One, Who cannot even look upon sin, turned His face from the Son - and the Son experienced, for that moment of time, separation from the Father. He suffered hell for us, that we might enjoy heaven with Him.

 

Because He was willing to be so humiliated He will, one day - and it may be much sooner than many may think! - be crowned with glory and honour. “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9 -11).

Are you ready for that day? In all of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, let us not forget that it is only the first part of the story that leads to crucifixion, resurrection, and the glorious return of the Saviour.

Sowing seed; presenting Jesus.

This morning, I was able to tune in to the online worship service provided by the Harvest Church in Hamilton (Lanarkshire!). The pastor,Willie Watt, was speaking on the well-known parable of Jesus: The sower and the seed. His main point, if I understood him correctly, was that the responsibility of the believer to sow that seed - the Gospel message. However, it is only a work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart of the individual, that will bring about that change known as 'conversion'.

In John 7, the apostle records that Jesus had gone up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. He went to the Temple, and was teaching openly. Some of the people wondered if the authorities really knew that He was the Christ - the Messiah. The Pharisees heard these questions and, with the chief priests, sent Temple officers to arrest Jesus. These men listened to Jesus, and returned to the chief priests and the Pharisees - without Him! We read, in vs.45-46: "The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why did you not bring Him?" The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"

The testimony of the Temple police to the matchless power of Jesus' teaching is most telling! Sent to arrest Him, they were so impressed by Him that they could not do so - risking the fury of their masters! If people will take the time and trouble to really look at Jesus - not, as my former minister, the Rev. George B Duncan often said, at the church; or at Christians; or at the clergy - but at what He said, and what He did, they cannot be anything but impressed! T.R.Glover, a Cambridge University lecturer in Classical Literature, wrote: "Jesus remains the very heart and soul of the Christian movement, still controlling men, still capturing men - against their will, often - changing men's lives,and using them for ends they never dreamed of." 

The challenge of this to present-day disciples of Jesus seems to be: Be uncompromising in presenting the Lord Jesus! Or, as Pastor Watt might have put it ths morning - Be bold in sowing the seed of the Gospel! Perhaps some of us are so side-tracked into "doing good works in His Name" that we forget to mention the Name itself - sometimes because of a mistaken idea that we may embarrass people; sometimes, to our shame, to spare our own embarrassment.

It is the business of the disciple of Jesus to present Him to the world. "... Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." (Matt 28:18-20). It is the business of the disciple of Jesus to make it clear that He has a rightful claim on our lives. No amount of "do-gooding" will, by itself, achieve that. Paul wrote to the early believers in Rome: "... But how are men to call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?" (Rom 10:14).

Whilst there is no record of any of the Temple police having become followers of the Nazarene because of what they had heard, their reaction is impressive. Our own bold, and unhesitating offer of the Saviour to our contempraries might well have surprising results! And, if we are not yet, ourselves, His disciples, then looking to Him, and to Him alone, may be sufficient to lead us to full salvation.