Christmas Day – 25 December 2015 – Year C
Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this Christmas Day meditation is
written in the 1st Chapter of the Gospel according to St John:
Verses 1 - 18
The Word
Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the
beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him,
and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In
him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose
name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about
the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was
not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to
everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the
world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He
came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to
all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about
him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks
before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For
from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For
the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No
one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Christianity
is called Christianity because it is all about Christ – who He is and what He
has done for us. All Christians know
this. The devils of hell know this as
well.
Very
often, the devil tries to deceive us by fiddling with the identity of the
Christ. He does not deny that Christ is
the centre of Christianity. Instead he
offers up a variety of false Christs to be that centre.
Two false
teachings about Christ have been particularly stubborn down through the
centuries. One false teaching tries to
portray Christ as not fully human. The
other false teaching tries to portray Christ as not fully God.
The first
of these false teachings portrays a Christ who is simply God masquerading as a
human being. There are many variations
on this false teaching that seem to fall between two extremes. At one extreme we have false teachers who
teach that Christ was never a human being at all. At the other extreme we have false teachers
who admit that Christ was human while he was here on this earth, but once he
ascended into heaven, he dropped the human appearance just the way that an
actor takes off makeup after the play is over.
The second
of these false teachings is willing to admit that Jesus might be some sort of
being that is superior to humanity. They
might even admit that Jesus had certain god-like qualities. Never the less, they refuse to believe that
Jesus is an eternal member of the Triune God Who is equal in majesty and glory
to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Last
evening, we read the Gospel account from Luke describing the human birth of the
Saviour. This account is part of the
Biblical record that teaches us that Jesus became fully human in the womb of
the Virgin Mary and that He is still human even as He reigns in eternity.
This Christmas
Day we read the Gospel account according to John the Evangelist. John is very much interested in showing us
that the baby born to the Virgin is truly God the Son, a full and equal member
of the Triune God. To do this, John does
not begin His Gospel account at the manger in Bethlehem. Instead, he takes us clear back to
creation. He proclaims Jesus as the Word
made flesh Who was intimately involved in the creation of all things.
Thus, it
is no coincidence that the Gospel according to John and the First book of Moses
both begin with the same phrase: [Gen.
1:1; John 1:1] “In the beginning …” John is taking us back to the
account of creation according to Moses.
The first
few verses of Genesis introduce us to the Triune God. Already in verse two we hear [Genesis 1:2b] “The Spirit of God
was hovering over the face of the waters.”
This verse introduces us to the Holy Spirit and teaches us that the one
and only God is a community of persons.
Then in
verse three we hear [Genesis 1:3]
“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” This verse shows us that God’s creative
activity takes place through His Word, but there is something odd about this
Word. The Bible does not tell us that
God had to create the Word before He spoke it.
The Word was already with God before creation. Before creation, there was nothing except
God. So, however strange it sounds, the
Word through which God created everything must be God. So it is that, in the creation account, Moses
speaks of God the speaker, God the Word, and God the Spirit. As time went on, God revealed Himself more
fully as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
So it is
that the Holy Spirit inspired John to begin his Gospel account with these
words: “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John directs our focus to the very Word that Moses told of in the account
of creation. He reminds us that the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Here John is already teaching us that God is
a community of persons and that the Word
is one of those persons.
The Holy
Spirit then inspired John to illustrate how the Word was intimately involved in
creation. In fact, John speaks of the
role of the Word in creation in two different ways just make sure that we get
the point. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing
made that was made. This reading
teaches us that the Word is not a created being. Instead we learn that the Word is active in
the creating process. We learn that
every person of the Triune God participates in the activities of God. And we learn that the Word is one of those
persons.
John has
made it very clear that the Word is indeed God – fully equal to the other
persons of the Godhead. He has told us
that the Word was not created, but always existed. He has told us that the Word was active in
the creation process.
Then, as
we skip down to verse fourteen, we learn an amazing thing about the Word: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of
grace and truth.” Here John is
telling us that the Word who is fully God took on human flesh and lived among
us on this earth. Furthermore, John
tells us that he and others have seen His glory.
Who is the
Word who is both God and Man? John the
Evangelist tells us that John [the
Baptist] bore witness about him.
Finally, John tells us the name of the Word: the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is the Word who
is both God and man.
So it is
that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to teach us that Jesus is a real man in real
history. He is the Son of Mary that the
shepherds found in the manger. The same
Holy Spirit also inspired John to teach us that Jesus is the Word who is God
from all eternity. He is a fully equal
person of the God head. Jesus Christ
both fully God and fully man. But why is
it so crucial that we know and believe that in the person of Jesus Christ, we
have both God and man?
God the
Father sent Jesus into this world in order to do battle for us and earn
forgiveness for all our sins. This
battle is against a supernatural foe.
Jesus must be able to stand toe-to-toe with sin, death, and the
devil. Furthermore, His sacrifice had to
be sufficient for all people. If Jesus were only human, then the forces of
evil would defeat Him, and even if
Jesus could withstand the forces of evil as a mere human being, His sacrifice
could only earn salvation for one other human being. It would not be enough for the entire
world. Thus, a Saviour who was just a
man could not earn salvation for the world.
Our Saviour must be God.
At the
same time, the battle involves suffering and death. The Saviour must be a substitute for those
whom He wishes to save. Our Saviour must
be human in order to take our place under the law and keep it perfectly. Our Saviour must be human in order to suffer
and die to take the punishment of our sin onto Himself.
The true
message of Christmas is that the warrior who will be our champion and fight for
us has entered the battle via the womb of the Virgin Mary. God has put on humanity to fight for humanity
– to save humanity from sin and its guilt.
In the one person of Jesus Christ, God and man are brought together to
live a perfect life, take our sins to the cross, and rise from the dead. On this Christmas Day we celebrate a major
milestone in Christ’s victory for us – the milestone of His human birth.
The little
baby in the manger is the Almighty God who reigns with the Father and the Holy
Spirit from all eternity. The little
baby in the manger is Christ our Saviour coming forth to conquer sin, death, and the power of the devil, not
with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent
suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom
and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as
He has risen from the dead, and lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true. Amen
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