Month: December 2020

Advent 08 – The Image of God

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”  Colossians 1:15-20 ESV

For the most part, my memories of Christmas are tied to music.  I have shared with you before that George Fredrick Handel’s majestic oratorio, “The Messiah” filled our home as I grew up during Christmas and Easter seasons.  My Dad especially loved this music, and he had actually sung it in so many local churches and community chorales that he had memorized most of it!

Hearing that musical floods my soul with memories.  But so do many of the other carols we sing at Christmas.  Most Christmas music is rich in theological insight (well, maybe not “All I Want for Christmas is You”).  But you know what I mean.

Carols emphasize parts of the Biblical narratives of the birth and nature of Jesus that we otherwise may not think enough about.  No doubt, you have your favorites, as I do.  But some of the most important statements about the person and work of Jesus Christ were also hymns being sung by the early church

One such hymn is found in the Book of Colossians, Chapter 1.  It is theologically rich and meaningful as we peel back the layers of this text.  While the ESV does not, several translations set these six verses apart to emphasize it is being quoted from another source.  Paul was inspired to use hymns in what he was writing in the same way some preachers quote hymns or choruses today.

So, over the next few days as we continue our journey through Advent, why don’t you take some time to read and re-read these verses as an act of worship.  Think deeply about the words that describe Christ’s person (“the image of God,” “firstborn of all creation,” “creator of all things”) but also think about words that tell us what He did (“created all things,” “holds all things together,” “reconciler of all things”).

He is your Savior.  Your Sovereign.  Your Creator.  The head of the church.  The redeemer.

No wonder the carol asks,

What Child is This?

Advent Day 07 – The Mission of the Messiah

“When the fullness of time was fulfilled, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law that He might redeem those who are under the Law….” Galatians 4:4-5a

Jesus was sent on a mission. God did not randomly send His Son to earth to do good things and to help hurting people, though surely, He did those things. No, in His own words, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those Who were lost.”

 Jesus was sent on a mission. His mission was unlike any other mission ever attempted before or sense. It involved the One Who was creator of all things to become One of those He had created as the crowning point of creation. To live in their skin, experience their limitations, endure their worst suffering, and to fulfill the demands of God placed on humanity by the Law.

Jesus was sent on a mission. The mission would involve not only becoming incarnate (enfleshed) in humanity, not only perfectly fulfilling the Law’s demands, but ultimately incurring the penalty of the Law we each were living under. The penalty of death.

Jesus was sent on a mission. The mission began, to our eyes, on Christmas in a rough wooden manger at Bethlehem. It ended thirty-three years later on a rough wooden cross outside of Jerusalem. He was both born, and crucified, “outside of the camp.” And ultimately, He emerged from a borrowed tomb on Easter morning, still fully human; still fully God, but now “the first fruits of those who would rise from the dead.”

Jesus was sent on a mission. A mission to redeem. A mission targeted…at you. His redemptive mission comes one step closer to fulfillment each time a lost life, a lost soul, turns to find life in Jesus Christ. By faith, His fulfillment of the Law is counted as yours. By faith, His death is considered your payment for the death penalty. By faith, His resurrection becomes yours as well.

Jesus was sent on a mission. A mission to bring a gift. The gift of eternal life. Have you met the Savior? Have you received His gift?


Prayer: Our God and Creator of the Heavens, and the Earth I come to you today with no gift in my hands. There is nothing I can bring to impress You, nothing I can give to purchase my own salvation. So, I come asking to receive the gift You gave as You sent Jesus on this Diving rescue mission. I receive Your gift, Your Son, Your Lamb as my substitute and my sacrifice. I have nothing to bring to receive this awesome gift so today, here in this Christmas season, I give you my heart. I turn from my own sin and unrighteousness to receive Your gift of eternal life. And I will continually bring You the gift of a thankful heart and a grateful obedience. Til He comes again for Me.

“For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Advent 06 – The Mystery of the Word Made Flesh Part 3

When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, born under the Law.” Galatians 4:4

 A six-year old boy described Jesus as “God with skin.” His definition captures a huge theological truth in very simple terms. The eternal, immortal, invisible God became an occupant of our “skin;” our humanity. All that is true of humanity apart from sin was true of Jesus. He had a country of origin, a mother and (step) father who raised Him, a house He grew up in; He had friends, and siblings, and when He fell and skinned His knee of slammed His thumb with a hammer, He bled. He had blood, and hormones, and bad days. Just like you and me.

Jesus came through the birth canal of a teenaged, Galilean mother, who was already engaged to be married to a local craftsman-a carpenter named Joseph. Their life together was preoccupied with the enormously significant task of raising… God?

He grew up, as some of us did, on “the wrong side of the tracks.” He had no social standing, or any kind of advantageous childhood. And like us all, He was “born of a woman.” While no man’s DNA was involved in His Divine birth, Mary’s was. Some older theologians, attempting to soften this reality, believed Jesus passed through Mary’s body “like water through a pipe,” with neither the water nor the pipe being changed by its passage.

But that’s not what we understand this birth to be. Did Jesus have some of Mary’s physical features? We can’t know for sure, but it wouldn’t be a real birth nor a real pregnancy she endured if it were not at least possible.

We struggle more, I think, with the full humanity of Jesus than we do with His Divinity. We want to make Him “something other” than we are, and yet the further we push that line the less possible it would be for Him to be the sacrifice for our sin. He had to be fully human, yet at the same time fully Holy. Completely God. He was both. Not part of each. Fully both.

“In Jesus, the fullness of the godhead dwelt in bodily form,” we read in Colossians 1:27. A miracle beyond compare. A mystery beyond comprehension.

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence….” the old hymn says. Now we know why.

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.

Advent Day 04 – The Mystery of the Word Made Flesh

When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, born under the Law.” (Galatians 4:4)

“King of kings yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood
Lord of Lords in human vesture…”
—Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent

Perhaps the greatest mystery in all of Scripture is the mystery of how God became flesh. Throughout the years, different theories have emerged from people wrestling with everything from the makeup of Christ’s material body to the question of how God could become man and yet remain… God? Tens of thousands of pages have been written trying to explain or understand this mystery.

But of this teaching of the Deity of Christ the Bible says little by way of explanation, though much by way of proclamation. Our text in Galatians 4:4 is one such place of proclamation. It tells us that Jesus was God’s Son SENT by Him to earth. And then, in the same sentence, it proclaims that Jesus was born of a WOMAN in the way every child is born.

One thing is clear. Jesus was the most completely unique person that ever lived. Though He took on flesh and bone and blood and skin and bore our weaknesses and our temptations, yet He lived without ever committing sin.

His Deity was not diminished in its capacity even though, as Philippians says, “He emptied Himself…” of the rights and privileges that should have been His. In that self-emptying He did not cease to be God, and in his humanity, He was fully a human being. He was always, fully, both.

The wonder of Christmas is to gaze again upon this mystery of God made flesh… this babe in a manger… this King Who caused the angels to bow…

…and worship Him.

I Understand

Do you ever have encounters that you cannot shake? You continually offer it up to the Lord, but the awkwardness of the exchange lingers, and you get stuck trying to make sense of it all.  I recently had a conversation with a youth leader that still makes my stomach turn, even months later. I had spent months wondering how my oldest son, Nolan, who struggles socially, has been adjusting to the much larger and louder culture of our church’s middle school youth group. When I had an opportunity to speak to the leader away from Nolan’s listening ears, I jumped at the chance.

I asked how he was fitting in and explained that I feared he could be easily picked on. The leader nodded agreeably and said there was no bullying in the group. In the midst of my breathing a heavy sigh of relief, he quickly followed with, “They pretty much ignore him.” It came across as though it was meant to be reassuring.

I immediately looked to the sky, to give the illusion I was in deep thought. I suppose it was not an illusion, as I did have many thoughts I desired to share. It was intentional on my part, as I feared that, even though I was literally biting my tongue, the rest of my face would convey the message I was not allowing my mouth to share. Thinking before speaking has never been a spiritual gift, so I stood there, dodging anymore eye contact.  No other words were added to the exchange, as I gathered my flock and herded them towards our passenger van. On the way home, I acknowledged that my son was not the only one awkwardly navigating interactions with the middle school leadership. It ran in the family.

Being a special needs parent really sharpens a person’s advocacy skills. If being an advocate was equivocated to knives, we would be Ginsus. We are razor sharp. It was time to put those skills to the test. But I quickly realized that there was no easy answer to this problem. What was I going to do? Make a morning announcement while the kids were all eating donuts that my son is precious and made perfectly by God and he should be treated like the coolest kid in the bunch? Who else could tell you how many pieces are in any given Lego set? He has amazing skills. Which you would know if you ever spoke to him. On second thought, this route seems the opposite of helpful. I would probably need to send him pre-wedgied to the next gathering.

And even though I can speak of some of my thoughts with humor, my heart remained grieved as the days and weeks went on. I would be going about my day, and the statement was right there in my head again. I kept placing it in God’s hands, as I had already determined it was not my battle to fight. Still it came back, almost daily.  I knew, it was time to find the joy in this horrendous comment. I started recalling how many lives Nolan had touched and how he had helped people to see Autism differently. I thought about how he had made everyone more compassionate and understanding. How being comfortable with Autism had led us to foster care. But I found a recurring theme: he made Us better, he made Us more compassionate, he made Us more comfortable. He had bettered us, but it was not a betterment for him. Tears began to flow as I shared the conclusion with God. My son being ignored by people he considered his closest friend brings me no joy.

And God said something so beautiful to my broken heart. “I understand.”

That is true. You do understand what it feels like to have your son ignored by people he thought were friends.  God knows that on a much deeper level then I could ever begin to imagine. A solution was not the answer, but rather remembering I was not alone. Jesus experienced and witnessed more sorrow than any other man who has ever existed. There is no hurt or heart break that we cannot lift to him.

As I thanked God for this reminder, I was so grateful that I am never alone in my heartbreak, or my fear, or my anxiety, or my joy. His word does not promise us that we will not ever be ignored by people we love, but we know that we are never ignored by our Heavenly Father. He will never leave us or forsake us. This we can always rejoice in.

Amen

Advent Day 03 -The Fullness of Time Continued

Well it’s almost here! As December rolls around on our calendars, the official December countdown to Christmas has begun. There is an unusual expectancy in the air this year. My neighborhood has already gone “over the top” in decorations. The time is ripe… for something.

There was a constant sense of expectancy in Israel in the days and years before Jesus’ nativity. Messiah had to come soon. God had promised His arrival from days of old. The prophets had prophesied. The conditions were right. And, indeed, they were.

“When the fullness of time had come…” Paul writes in Galatians. Why was this time the right time? History gives us some important clues:

  1. The Romans had conquered and, for all intents and purposes, tamed the known world. The “Pax Romana” (peace of Rome) lay like a blanket over Europe and parts of Asia.
  2. A system of roadways called “the Roman road” (any one of which would literally take you to Rome) crisscrossed the previously treacherous countryside.
  3. Unemployed Roman soldiers, idle due to lack of war, were put to work keeping the peace and protecting travelers on the roads from thieves and hijacking of goods being transported.
  4. A common language was shared, uniting the Greco-Roman world with “common” Greek; the language in which our New Testament would ultimately be written.
  5. The Jews had now received favored religion status under the Roman Empire, and they began an aggressive program of building synagogues in every city.

While others could be added, these realities alone show that the stage was set for Jesus to come. The conditions of the world would allow the Gospel to begin to travel to “the uttermost parts of the earth.” Missionaries could journey safely, protected by elite Roman soldiers. The common language would allow the pages of the New Testament to be written and understood by multitudes. And the synagogues became the first places for evangelism as the first Christians entered cities unreached by the Gospel.

How wise of God! These are just a few physical things that made the timing of Christ’s birth to be, well…perfect. It is so important that we learn to trust God when He says “wait,” or when He says “go.”

He knows when the time is right. And His timing is never wrong!

 

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