The Wonder of the Incarnation

Christmas Day, 2019

Today we remember the birth of the Saviour.

Isaiah, the Old Testament Prophet, told us before His birth:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…” (Is 9:6).

The Child whose birth we celebrate today was born in that manger in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago to the Virgin Mary. A Jewish boy. A human being. He was born. “A child is born”.

Make no mistake though. This Child is no ordinary baby, for He is also the Son that is given. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, my emphasis).

He ante-dated His birth, for He is the “Mighty God, Everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6).  Matthew, the New Testament Gospel writer, quoting from Isaiah 7:14, gives us some unique insight: this Child is Immanuel, “which is, being interpreted, God with us.” (Matthew 1:23, my emphasis).

The Old Testament Prophet Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah, sheds more light on the origins of this wonderful Baby: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2, my emphasis).

John, the New Testament “Apostle of Love” brings us this wonderful revelation concerning this Child, this Son:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1, my emphasis). This Word, says John in John 1:14, “was made flesh, and tabernacled among us…”  (WesleyNT). Or, as the late Greek Scholar Kenneth Wuest puts it in his Expanded Translation: “And the Word, entering a new mode of existence, became flesh, and lived in a tent among us…” (my emphasis). He existed before His birth! This Child, this Son, is pure Deity in the flesh (Colossians 1:19; Col 2:9). In Jesus, Immortal God came clothed as mortal man, the Mighty God came as a humble human, and Divinity and humanity converged!  Oh, the wonder of the Incarnation!

He’s here because all was sin and shame. He has come as the Second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47) to take away your sin and my sin, your shame and my shame. He’s entered the fray on our side. The first man, Adam failed and led brought disaster on his descendants. It was necessary for the Second Man to be born ”fully human in every way” to rescue the humans held in the devil’s sway (see Hebrews 2:14-17). Because of this Child, this “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45) whom we celebrate today, never again will the enemy of men’s souls ride roughshod over the people that God created for His own glory, for if you fast-forward to the Book of Acts, you’ll find a summary of this God-Man’s earthly life: He “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” (Acts 10:38). He is here to show us how it is done, and ultimately to give His life that we might live, the Immortal dying, only to come back to life to help us enforce the victory He won for us. “Such a High Priest”, affirms the writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews, “Truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” (Hebrews 7:26).

As a Man, He is the perfect Mediator between sinful humanity and a Holy God (1 Timothy 2:5), for He understands human weakness like no other person (see Matt 4:1-11; Matthew 26:41; Hebrews 2:17; Heb 4:15). He understands the pressures of living a God-pleasing life, having endured “such contradiction of sinners against himself” (Hebrews 12:3; also Heb 2:18).

As God, He has power to forgive your sins, my sins (Matthew 9:6). He has the power of life and death (John 10:17-18). Crucially, He is able to guarantee victory over death for “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26). He offers you salvation full and free: “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25).

He has come as the destiny-changer. That is good news, that is glad tidings – the angels were right! (Luke 2:10-11). It calls for great rejoicing. His arrival has put laughter in our collective mouth. It is joy to the world indeed, for He has flung open the devil’s prison doors. Therefore let us lift our voice and sing:

Rejoice, rejoice; the Saviour has come

The Lord of all the earth is His name

Oh oh Rejoice rejoice until the morning come

Every tribe, nation, tongue celebrate.

Come let us sing and sing a new song

To tell the world all that the Lord has done

From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same

Jesus our Lord is to be praised

The name of Jesus our Lord is to be praised

The King, our King, is here!