His Birth and Our New Birth

’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ’God with us’ —Matthew 1:23

Oswald Chambers – My Utmost For His Highest

His Birth in History. “. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God ( Luke 1:35 ). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19 ). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” ( John 3:7 ). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

Filed under: Advent, Christmas, Conversion, Evangelical, Jesus Christ, New Birth, Oswald Chambers, Regeneration, Salvation, The Gospel, The word of God, Virgin birth

The Real Christmas Story – John MacArthur

Filed under: Advent, Christmas, Doctrine, Eternal Punishment, Forgiveness, God's grace, God's holiness, God's justice, God's mercy, Jesus Christ, Penal substitution, Salvation, Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Cross, The Gospel, The Incarnation, The word of God

That’s life – you’ll always find it cheaper!

In my opinion, Matt continues to be the most consistently funny cartoonist in the UK.  My thanks to The Daily Telegraph for this seasonal quip.

Filed under: Christmas, Humour

Disturbing Christmas – by CJ Mahaney

From CJ’s blog:

The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.

During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death.

Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God.

Several years ago WORLD Magazine published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is disturbing: Any real understanding of the Christmas messages will disturb anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).

In part, Smith wrote:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.

Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.

Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.

Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.

What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.

That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.

Don’t get me wrong—Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights.

The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.

Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.

As Smith so fitly concludes his column:

Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.

Amen and Merry Christmas!

Filed under: Advent, CJ Mahaney, Christ our Mediator, Christmas, Evangelical, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God

Is the Celebration of Christmas a Pagan Ritual?

I think it’s common sense really, but here’s a good article posted by Tim Challies.

Is the Celebration of Christmas a Pagan Ritual?

by R.C. Sproul

That question comes up every year at Christmastime. In the first place, there’s no direct biblical commandment to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. There’s nothing in the Bible that would even indicate that Jesus was born on December 25. In fact, there’s much in the New Testament narratives that would indicate that it didn’t occur during that time of year. It just so happens that on the twenty-fifth of December in the Roman Empire there was a pagan holiday that was linked to mystery religions; the pagans celebrated their festival on December 25. The Christians didn’t want to participate in that, and so they said, “While everybody else is celebrating this pagan thing, we’re going to have our own celebration. We’re going to celebrate the thing that’s most important in our lives, the incarnation of God, the birth of Jesus Christ. So this is going to be a time of joyous festivities, of celebration and worship of our God and King.”

I can’t think of anything more pleasing to Christ than the church celebrating his birthday every year. Keep in mind that the whole principle of annual festival and celebration is deeply rooted in ancient Jewish tradition. In the Old Testament, for example, there were times when God emphatically commanded the people to remember certain events with annual celebrations. While the New Testament doesn’t require that we celebrate Christmas every year, I certainly see nothing wrong with the church’s entering into this joyous time of celebrating the Incarnation, which is the dividing point of all human history. Originally, it was intended to honor, not Mithras or any of the other mystery religion cults, but the birth of our King.

Incidentally, Easter can be traced to Ishtar in the ancient world. But the Christian church coming together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus is hardly something I think would provoke the wrath of God. I wish we had more annual festivals. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, celebrates with great joy the Feast of the Ascension every year. Some Protestant bodies do, but most do not. I wish we would celebrate that great event in the life of Christ when he was raised up into heaven to be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. We celebrate his birth; we celebrate his death. I wish we would also celebrate his coronation.

Taken from Now, That’s a Good Question!
©1996 by R.C. Sproul.

Filed under: Advent, Christmas, Doctrine, Evangelical, Jesus Christ, RC Sproul, The Incarnation

That’s Christmas

This well made video, from St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, is an excellent outreach resource.

Filed under: Advent, Christmas, Evangelical, Evangelism, Jesus Christ, The Gospel

The Inkeeper, by Jonh Piper

Filed under: Advent, Christmas, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Salvation, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Cross, The Gospel, The Incarnation, Worship

Highly Favoured!

Praise God that Christians are ‘highly favoured’ in Christ. This is an encouraging piece from John Fonville:

If someone were to ask you, “Is God pleased with you?,” how would you respond?

The joyful, astounding truth of the Christmas message is this:

God is pleased with you!

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased,” (Lk. 2:14)!

Note carefully. God the Father is pleased with you not because of you. He is pleased with you because you are united to His Son! And this is what He says about His Son, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” (Matt. 3:17).

Through the gospel and faith, the Holy Spirit brings a sinner into union with Christ. Once a man is united to Christ, whatever God the Father says about His Son, He also says about His adopted son! God the Father has blessed us in the Beloved (i.e., His Son; Eph. 1:6).

Regrettably, many believers think that God is displeased with them. They think they are unworthy to be in such a privileged status (i.e., of God the Father being pleased with them and of being united to Christ).

“Is God pleased with you?”

Many, through unbelief think consciously or unconsciously thoughts like, “Such an announcement is just too good to be true. I mean, how could God be pleased with me? Look at me! I am a wreck!”

However, consider carefully the following counsel by Walter Marshall,

“Now, you might think that you are unworthy to have such a great gift as union with Christ. Remember, however, Christ shed his precious blood to redeem you. That precious blood will enable you to miraculously advance in holiness through your union with Christ. Union with Christ is not a privilege you earn by your sincere obedience, or by your own attempts at holiness. Your union with Christ is not a reward of your own good works. Rather, union with Christ is a privilege that God gives to every Christian when they first become a Christian! Right when you enter into the kingdom of God, you also enter into union with Christ! This union with Christ is the foundation for all of your obedience to God. All of your good works as a Christian flow out of your union with Christ. All of your sincere obedience to the law is the fruit of your union with Christ,” (Gospel Mystery, p. 41).

This is indeed Good News!

The Good News of Christmas is that your privileged, favored, status with God (i.e., justification, adoption, union with Christ, etc…) is not dependent on your sanctification. Your status as a fully, beloved son with whom God is well pleased is not dependent upon your performance. Rather, it is solely dependent upon God’s promise to you through His Son!

The angels’ announcement to the shepherds speaks of the source of peace and blessing that is ours, namely that God has been pleased to bestow His undeserved favor upon men with whom He was formerly in deadly opposition. Peace, favor, justification, adoption, union with Christ, and all spiritual blessings that are ours flow from the divine favor of God.

God loves us more than we love ourselves. What an overwhelming joy it is to know that God’s favor rests upon me, an unworthy sinner!

Do you believe God is pleased with you?

The good news of great joy announced by the angel to the shepherds is that because a Savior, Christ the Lord has been born, a holy and righteous God is now pleased with you.

Glory to God in the highest! Rejoice!

Filed under: Advent, Christ our Mediator, Christ our righteousness, Christmas, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God's grace, Salvation, Sanctification, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, Union with Christ, Walter Marshall

Virgin Birth

“So do not let it surprise you, unbelieving soul, whoever you are, do not let it strike you as impossible that a virgin should give birth, and in giving birth remain a virgin. Realize that it was God who was born, and you will not be surprised at a virgin giving birth.”

- Augustine, Sermon 370.3

(HT: Tony Reinke)

Filed under: Advent, Attributes of God, Augustine, Christmas, Evangelical, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, The Incarnation, The word of God

Obedient Son, Ultimate Purifier, All-Providing Bridegroom

This week’s sermon from John Piper: “Obedient Son, Ultimate Purifier, All-Providing Bridegroom“

Mary had no inside track with her son. Jesus’ highest allegiance was to his divine Father, not to any human.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was careful to clarify that physical relation to him did not translate into any spiritual advantage. All saving connections to Jesus are through faith, not family.

Jesus’ ultimate obedience was to his heavenly Father, not his earthly mother. This is one glory on display in John 2 at the wedding feast at Cana.

Jesus also is the ultimate Purifier. The hour of his death had not yet come, but in calling for the use of Jewish purification jars, he anticipates the decisive purification for sins he will make at the cross. This is another glory.

Finally, Jesus is the all-providing Bridegroom. When the groom fails in his responsibility to supply sufficient wine, Jesus makes provision and, in doing so, suggests that he himself is a bridegroom—the Great Bridegroom who without fail meets the true needs of his Bride.

Filed under: Advent, Christ our Mediator, Christmas, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Salvation, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God

JI Packer on the Incarnation

INCARNATION
GOD SENT HIS SON, TO SAVE US
by J.I. Packer

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. JOHN 1:14

Trinity and Incarnation belong together. The doctrine of the Trinity declares that the man Jesus is truly divine; that of the Incarnation declares that the divine Jesus is truly human. Together they proclaim the full reality of the Savior whom the New Testament sets forth, the Son who came from the Father’s side at the Father’s will to become the sinner’s substitute on the cross (Matt. 20:28; 26:36-46; John 1:29; 3:13-17; Rom. 5:8; 8:32; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; 8:9; Phil. 2:5-8).

The moment of truth regarding the doctrine of the Trinity came at the Council of Nicaea (A.D.325), when the church countered the Arian idea that Jesus was God’s first and noblest creature by affirming that he was of the same “substance” or “essence” (i.e., the same existing entity) as the Father. Thus there is one God, not two; the distinction between Father and Son is within the divine unity, and the Son is God in the same sense as the Father is. In saying that Son and Father are “of one substance,” and that the Son is “begotten” (echoing “only-begotten,” John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18, and NIV text notes) but “not made,” the Nicene Creed unequivocally recognized the deity of the man from Galilee.

A crucial event for the church’s confession of the doctrine of the Incarnation came at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D.451), when the church countered both the Nestorian idea that Jesus was two personalities—the Son of God and a man—under one skin, and the Eutychian idea that Jesus’ divinity had swallowed up his humanity. Rejecting both, the council affirmed that Jesus is one divine-human person in two natures (i.e., with two sets of capacities for experience, expression, reaction, and action); and that the two natures are united in his personal being without mixture, confusion, separation, or division; and that each nature retained its own attributes. In other words, all the qualities and powers that are in us, as well as all the qualities and powers that are in God, were, are, and ever will be really and distinguishably present in the one person of the man from Galilee. Thus the Chalcedonian formula affirms the full humanity of the Lord from heaven in categorical terms.

The Incarnation, this mysterious miracle at the heart of historic Christianity, is central in the New Testament witness. That Jews should ever have come to such a belief is amazing. Eight of the nine New Testament writers, like Jesus’ original disciples, were Jews, drilled in the Jewish axiom that there is only one God and that no human is divine. They all teach, however, that Jesus is God’s Messiah, the Spirit-anointed son of David promised in the Old Testament (e.g., Isa. 11:1-5; Christos, “Christ,” is Greek for Messiah). They all present him in a threefold role as teacher, sin-bearer, and ruler—prophet, priest, and king. And in other words, they all insist that Jesus the Messiah should be personally worshiped and trusted—which is to say that he is God no less than he is man. Observe how the four most masterful New Testament theologians (John, Paul, the writer of Hebrews, and Peter) speak to this.

John’s Gospel frames its eyewitness narratives (John 1:14; 19:35; 21:24) with the declarations of its prologue (1:1-18): that Jesus is the eternal divine Logos (Word), agent of Creation and source of all life and light (vv. 1-5, 9), who through becoming “flesh” was revealed as Son of God and source of grace and truth, indeed as “God the only begotten” (vv. 14, 18; NIV text notes). The Gospel is punctuated with “I am” statements that have special significance because I am (Greek: ego eimi) was used to render God’s name in the Greek translation of Exodus 3:14; whenever John reports Jesus as saying ego eimi, a claim to deity is implicit. Examples of this are John 8:28, 58, and the seven declarations of his grace as (a) the Bread of Life, giving spiritual food (6:35, 48, 51); (b) the Light of the World, banishing darkness (8:12; 9:5); (c) the gate for the sheep, giving access to God (10:7, 9); (d) the Good Shepherd, protecting from peril (10:11, 14); (e) the Resurrection and Life, overcoming our death (11:25); (f) the Way, Truth, and Life, guiding to fellowship with the Father (14:6); (g) the true Vine, nurturing for fruitfulness (15:1, 5). Climactically, Thomas worships Jesus as “my Lord and my God” (20:28). Jesus then pronounces a blessing on all who share Thomas’s faith and John urges his readers to join their number (20:29-31).

Paul quotes from what seems to be a hymn that declares Jesus’ personal deity (Phil. 2:6); states that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9; cf. 1:19); hails Jesus the Son as the Father’s image and as his agent in creating and upholding everything (Col. 1:15-17); declares him to be “Lord” (a title of kingship, with divine overtones), to whom one must pray for salvation according to the injunction to call on Yahweh in Joel 2:32 (Rom. 10:9-13); calls him “God over all” (Rom. 9:5) and “God and Savior” (Titus 2:13); and prays to him personally (2 Cor. 12:8-9), looking to him as a source of divine grace (2 Cor. 13:14). The testimony is explicit: faith in Jesus’ deity is basic to Paul’s theology and religion.

The writer to the Hebrews, purporting to expound the perfection of Christ’s high priesthood, starts by declaring the full deity and consequent unique dignity of the Son of God (Heb. 1:3, 6, 8-12), whose full humanity he then celebrates in chapter 2. The perfection, and indeed the very possibility, of the high priesthood that he describes Christ as fulfilling depends on the conjunction of an endless, unfailing divine life with a full human experience of temptation, pressure, and pain (Heb. 2:14-17; 4:14-5:2; 7:13-28; 12:2-3).

Not less significant is Peter’s use of Isaiah 8:12-13 (1 Pet. 3:14). He cites the Greek (Septuagint) version, urging the churches not to fear what others fear but to set apart the Lord as holy. But where the Septuagint text of Isaiah says, “Set apart the Lord himself,” Peter writes, “Set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Pet. 3:15). Peter would give the adoring fear due to the Almighty to Jesus of Nazareth, his Master and Lord.

The New Testament forbids worship of angels (Col. 2:18; Rev. 22:8-9) but commands worship of Jesus and focuses consistently on the divine-human Savior and Lord as the proper object of faith, hope, and love here and now. Religion that lacks these emphases is not Christianity. Let there be no mistake about that!

From: Concise Theology: A Guide To Historic Christian Beliefs

(Via Monogism)

Filed under: Attributes of God, Christmas, Doctrine, Evangelical, JI Packer, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Substitutionary Atonement, The Cross, The Incarnation, The Trinity, The word of God, Theology

‘Incomprehensibly Made Man’

Paul Helm has posted an excellent piece on the incarnation here. He begins with this wonderful quote from Augustine:

Wherefore the Word of God, who is also the Son of God, co-eternal with the Father, the Power and the Wisdom of God, mightily pervading and harmoniously ordering all things, from the highest limit of the intelligent to the lowest limit of the material creation, revealed and concealed, nowhere confined, nowhere divided, nowhere distended, but without dimensions, everywhere present in His entirety, — this Word of God, I say, took to Himself, in a manner entirely different from that in which He is present to other creatures, the soul and body of a man, and made, by the union of Himself therewith, the one person Jesus Christ,
Mediator between God and men, he His Deity equal with the Father, in His flesh, i.e. in His human nature, inferior to the Father, — unchangeably immortal in respect of the divine nature, in which He is equal with the Father, and yet changeable and mortal in respect of the infirmity which was His through participation with our nature.

Augustine, Letter to Volusian, (Letter 137)

Do read the whole of Professor Helm’s article.

Filed under: Advent, Attributes of God, Christ our Mediator, Christmas, Doctrine, Humility, Jesus Christ, The Incarnation, The glory of Christ, The word of God