Advent Day 05 – The Mystery of the Word Made Flesh – Part 2
THE MYSTERY OF THE WORD MADE FLESH (Part 2)
“…God sent forth His Son…” (Galatians 4:4)
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste to give Him praise
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
It matters that we believe correctly what the Bible teaches us about Jesus. Getting this right is incredibly important, though fully understanding it is not possible. There is a great deal of faith involved when we begin to gaze into this mystery. And questions will always linger for our human minds.
God did not “create” Jesus at Christmas. In the virgin Mary’s womb, God implanted Jesus’ body in cellular and then in embryonic form. He did so without the aid of a man. Of this, the writer of Hebrews quotes a Psalm which states “a body You have prepared for Me.” It was the birth of this Divinely orchestrated body which we celebrate as a baby at Christmas.
Yet in Heaven, the Son had eternally existed. There was never a time when the Son of God did not exist, and in fact scripture affirms that “the Lamb (Jesus) was slain before the foundation of the earth.” Jesus existed in eternity past as the Second Person of the Trinity.
Though Jesus was “sent” by God, it is not the same sense in which we would “send” a child to their room. Jesus fully entered into the plan of redemption, and His part of that plan was to come to earth and be incarnated in flesh and blood. He came willingly.
He came to “tabernacle” (to dwell, to camp, to live) among us. In fact, He picked the worst neighborhood, with the worst forms of violence, among the most oppressed of people, and “pitched His tent” right in the midst of it. The Son was sent on a rescue mission by God. It was not a vacation trip in which He expected to be coddled. It was an eternal life-and-death attempt to redeem the souls of human beings lost in sin.
He “dwelt” (camped) in the midst of us and we “beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father” John’s Gospel tells us. He was sent on mission in the same way that those who believe in Him are also “sent” on a mission: to tell the world about Him!
This, this is Christ the King… the Babe, the son of Mary.
