A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS TO YOU
2017-LUMglobal-Christmas-Letter-Card.pdfPosted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
It is Christmas Eve as I send this Christmas greeting to you, and Jo Ann and I have just concluded the worship service at Chapel de Oro in the Fortuna de Oro retirement RV park in Yuma, AZ. As we look back, we think this is probably the 19th city in which we have celebrated Christmas over the fifty-eight years of our marriage.
Please find our Christmas greeting to you attached with a little "card" we put together. Be sure to click on the attachment. It reflects the seven points of the sermon I preached today at the Chapel. When the Savior of the world came as a newborn infant, there were many things that happened, but few people understand. I touched on four of them this morning.
The normal traditional view of the Incarnation of Christ is often fraught with two problems . . . . First, familiarity. “Familiarity breeds contempt” We become so familiar with the story, that we no longer recognize or ponder the deep things of its message.
Second, a superficial understanding of what actually happened. We see the occasion as the time when Jesus, the Savior of the world, came into the world as God's sacrifice to redeem man to Himself. But, we miss the deeper message. It wasn't just a human baby that was born, nor was it an infant Savior with no well-planned and well-focused strategy in mind. This was, instead, a God thing from the very beginning, and involved a number of mind-boggling factors at its very heart.
Neither of these two problems is intended, but both steal our awe and wonder over what actually took place the instant that the virgin Mary delivered Jesus into the world of humanity.
The Prophet Isaiah predicted it like this ---- “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace.” (See Isa 9:6)
Luke described the event like this ---- “Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a [d]manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:4-7)
The Apostle Paul encapsulated the story ---- “. . . we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” (Gal 4:3-5)
The beloved John penned it this way ---- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. . . . There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-5, 9-14)
SO . . . . What REALLY took place that night?
1. Deity invaded humanity -- God became man.
The Godhead left the throne of heaven and thrust itself into the world of human beings where it could be seen, heard, touched, known. The God with whom man had walked in fellowship in the Garden took the initiative to invade the alienated world of man. Isaiah 9:6 tells us "a child is born" and "a Son is given". Mary delivered a male child as part of a lineage, but God intentionally bestowed a progenitor of a people who would be redeemed to Himself. Mary voluntarily gave birth, but God appointed and sent His Son.
Think about this ---- • The God of all creation, of all things, all time, and all places, Who in His Supreme Deity is everywhere all the time, knows everything about all things, is all powerful, and rules and reigns as supreme Creator over all things, expressed such a measureless and unconditional love for the one part of His creation that rebelled against Him that He sent a Redeemer. Instead of demanding that man take the initiative to come back to Him and try to reach Him, He took upon Himself the image and likeness of the very one that had rebelled, and humbled Himself to the point of a bond-slave fit only for execution, and paid the full penalty for the very sins that were affronted against Him.
2. Eternity Encompassed time -- God came to man's world.
We live in a time spectrum; God lives outside of time. The Creator cannot be contained by what He created, and He is the One that created time (Gen 1:3-5). He, Who lives in an eternal "now", where a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day, chose to confine Himself to the specified boundaries of a period of 33 ½ years of time so man, imprisoned by time, could see Him and discover that he was created, not for time constraints, but for eternity. While man lives on a linear plane between the past and the future, moving backward and forward in his mind between the two and at the same time trying to cope with the present, God remains "the same, yesterday, today, and forever", unrestricted by time.
Eternity has no beginning and has no end. Time . . . ALL of time, whether it is thousands or billions of years, is caught as a miniscule speck in the spectrum of eternity. Because Christ came, man no longer has to face eternity after physical death forever alienated and separated from the God who created him and loves him with an unconditional love. Rather, man can enter into eternal Life through faith in the One who came into the time spectrum as an infant, stayed a momentary thirty-three years, and then left time behind, yet not without the way for us to enter into eternal life in God's presence.
3. Truth destroyed the lie -- the father of lies was exposed and truth absolutely decimated his lies.
The lie of Genesis three that man could be "like God" but without God was exposed by "the Way, the Truth, and the Life". It is utterly impossible to understand the event in Ephratha's Bethlehem apart from the backdrop of Eden's Garden. It was in Eden that the perfect First Adam was created, lived, prospered, and then tragically walked away from his loving Creator. It was in Bethlehem that the Perfect Last Adam entered, lived, amazed, and journeyed to the Cross to complete the necessary process of redemption and reconciliation.
So, if you try to fathom the majesty and magnitude of what happened when Christ became flesh without seeing it against the chaotic and tragic backdrop of Eden, you will likely miss the entire point of the Incarnation, and you will most certainly settle for a potentially superficial understanding of the birth of our Savior. He will probably, for the most part, remain the cuddly infant lying on His back, smiling, flailing his chubby legs and grasping Mary's finger in his hand. If all you see in Bethlehem is the baby, you haven't seen the real Jesus Christ. Don't settle for the miracle and miss the majesty.
As long as you keep Him in your mind as the "infant child, meek and lowly", . . . and even if you recognize Him as God, . . . you will still overlook just Who He really was and is, and you will still miss the majesty and miracle of what was accomplished the moment Mary's labor pressed the God of heaven into the world of fallen humanity. John 1:14 tells us that Christ was, “full of grace and truth” even before He came into the human plane, and that "grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." And in that reality, the lie was forever exposed for what it was . . . a huge lie of deception and destruction. Jesus reminds us that “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32), and then goes on to say, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life…” (John 14:6).
4. Light Banished Darkness -- in the presence of light, darkness cannot exist. Darkness can never extinguish light, but light causes darkness to disappear. It is not insignificant that the first recorded command we have of God creating the heavens and the earth, was "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3) It is made all the more profound when you read it against the dark and dismal backdrop of verse two ---- "And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; . . ." (Gen 1:2a). One seldom comprehends the beauty of light without seeing it against the dreariness and dankness of darkness. On multiple times the prophet Isaiah talks about people walking in darkness, and how they have seen a great light. This is the promise of Christ's coming.
It is not accidental that even at night time and during a time of enormous spiritual darkness, the presence of light is found on several occasions ---- the light of the shepherds' campfire, the light of the angel choir glorifying God, the light of the star pointing the way for the Magi. But more significant examples preceded that day ---- ". . . I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them, and rugged places into plains. These are things I will do, and I will not leave them undone." (Isa 42:16). And, ". . . It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will Also make You a Light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." (Isa 49:6).
Christ's whole purpose was to come into a black world with His presence to do two things ---- expose darkness on the one hand, and reveal truth on the other. He identified Himself as "The Light of the world", and then identifies the role of those of us who claim Him as also being "the lights of the world". When He came, darkness fled like a terrified coward.
5. Royalty became poverty -- God became the suffering servant.
Royalty has its privileges . . . Rank, Realm, Resources, and Rule. In rank, Jesus is called "King of all kings", "Lord over all other lords", "Captain", "Commander" . . . In realm, he is king of a vast eternal kingdom bigger than the universe that incorporates all the kingdoms of this world. In resources, He owns the cattle on the thousand hills, the silver and gold, and everything that has ever been created. in rule, he has both authority and power at His disposal ---- he has the Right (authority) to do anything He chooses, and the Ability (power) to do it. When you realize that the sovereign king of all creation voluntarily left all his rights and privileges of authority and power that was judicially His to come as a tiny baby born into a poor family consisting of an unwed teen-aged mother and a common carpenter in order to "be like us", it is in incomprehensible act. And yet, that's exactly what Jesus did the day he encased Himself in human flesh.
Children's fairy tales abound with stories of kings and princes entering into the world of the peasants to rule them, care for them, or rescue them. But, you seldom see a story where the prince actually relinquishes his royalty and wealth in the process. Throughout his venture into the world of the poor, he remains a prince, he remains royalty, and he still has access at his bidding to all his resources of money and military might. Through it all, he never loses his role as prince or king. He may act like a pauper, but he remains a wealthy king. While he may look like and act like them, He does not come to become "one of them", even though he may come to bless them or even rescue them.
Such is not the case with Jesus Christ, the mighty Prince of Peace, as Isaiah described Him in Isa 9:2-7. From the throne of heaven to a feed trough in a tiny village of no more than 300 people, Royalty paid an eternal visit. The Prince of Peace about Whom Isaiah spoke abandoned everything about royalty and became all that poverty encompasses. Whether it was financial, political, mental, emotional, or spiritual poverty, the royal King of all kings entered that sphere and voluntarily restricted Himself to all the liabilities, grief, and suffering that poverty causes. Paul explained what happened in Phil 2:6-7 ---- ". . . though He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, . . ." He admonished the Corinthian believers, " For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." (II Cor 8:9).
6. Righteousness became sin -- Jesus took our sin in order for us to receive His righteousness.
Jesus' innocence was not derived because He was born as a brand new infant, but rather because He, in all His eternal presence and nature, was and is perfect and sinless righteousness personified. "Righteousness" is not only His name, but His nature. If He were anything less, He would not and could not be God, and He most certainly could not be our sacrifice for our sins to forgive them and eradicate them. God's requirement for a blood sacrifice is that it is "without spot or blemish". Twice Jeremiah calls Him, "The Lord, our Righteousness" (Jer 23:6; 33:16).
The idea that God, in His great mercy, prepared and enacted a way in which man could be reconciled back to Himself by sending His perfect, sinless, righteous Son to the cross where He would personally take upon Himself the sins of the entire world for all time in order to redeem man, reconcile him to God, and return him to that realm of perfect righteousness. Continuing our focus on the prophecies of Isaiah, consider this sobering prediction:
Isa 53:3-6 -- "He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening of our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."
Paul explained to the Roman believers in the First Century, "as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom 5:21). Peter made one of the most profound statements about what Jesus did when he wrote, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed" (I Pet 2:24). In fact, Jesus' act was even more dramatic than that. Paul declared that He "became sin" for us ---- "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor 5:21).
So, Righteousness re-enters the human race that night in Bethlehem, having in the heart of God already become sin, later to be manifested on the cross some 33 years later. Why was this the way God chose to redeem man? So that " . . . He might be Just AND the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Rom 3:26). And now, because of the finished work of Christ, Paul was able to confidently assert, " . . . having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness." (Rom 6:18). The bottom line, then, is that ". . . sin need not reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." (Rom 6:12) All of this is because ". . . Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who love believes."
7. The Creator became Creation’s Redeemer -- that which was lost can be found.
Scriptures abound in describing God as Creator and as ascribing Him more specifically as Creator of man. One can neither fully understand nor truly appreciate one's salvation apart from understanding the Genesis account of Creation and the Fall of man. That indescribable God created from virtually nothing, from no pre-existing matter of any kind, and yet giving being to something entirely new and never-before-existing, the heaven and the earth including all the numberless celestial bodies and systems.
It seems that David, the singer, had to go back to this Genesis account over and over again to try to find out what was so unique and special about man. In Psalm 8:4 he poses one of the most profound questions in all of scripture ---- "What is man that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4). And here, among many others, we have the intersection of the Creator to His most prized creation. Tragically, that creation chose to be independent from God, and this divine relationship was severed. Many was now alienated from God, his creator ---- lost and needing to be found, broken and needing to be restored, estranged and needing to be reconciled, guilty and needing to be forgiven, depraved and needing to be cleansed.
Then came the Jesus Christ, the Last Adam . . . the Redeemer! (See I Cor 15:45). After centuries of denying the Creator and unsuccessfully trying to make himself to be the creator of all things, man cannot get away from the fact that The One Who created the universes, the world, and all that is in it then became the Redeemer of His own creation. On that barren Bethlehem plain the shepherds were the first to hear such "good tidings of great joy". ". . . there has been born for YOU . . . a Savior" (Lk 2:11). What the first Adam had lost, the Last Adam brought back with Him that night. It was contained in the body of a little baby, when "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14).
And yet there are other things that happened that night. It is our hope that you will stand in total awe over what really took place that night in Bethlehem's stable. It was more, so much more, than an innocent lovable baby boy being born after having been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit. It wasn't the conception that was so miraculous, though it was ---- rather, it was what all happened in God's plan the instant "The Word became flesh."
Our prayer is that you will, for the rest of your life, never get over "The Majesty and Magnificance of the Miracle" in Bethlehem.
In Christ's Bond, By His Grace, and For His Kingdom,
Bob and Jo Ann
The Tollivers
LUMglobal
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