Happy New Year!

“The Promise of God Making All Things New!”

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 & Revelation 21:1-8 (NAS95)

In Luke 1:30-33, a messenger from Heaven announced a kingdom that will have no end:

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

This will be the kingdom of the Messiah and the angel is referencing the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 9:6-7:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of these promises of Christmas during some of the darkest days of world history when a tyrannical empire was attempting to destroy all that was good upon the earth:

The authority of this poor child will grow (Isa. 9:7). It will encompass all the earth, and knowingly or unknowingly, all human generations until the end of the ages will have to serve it. It will be an authority over the hearts of people, but thrones and great kingdoms will also grow strong or fall apart with this power. The mysterious, invisible authority of the divine child over human hearts is more solidly grounded than the visible and resplendent power of earthly rulers. Ultimately all authority on earth must serve only the authority of Jesus Christ over humankind. With the birth of Jesus, the great kingdom of peace has begun. Is it not a miracle that where Jesus has really become Lord over people, peace reigns? That there is one Christendom on the whole earth, in which there is peace in the midst of the world? Only where Jesus is not allowed to reign—where human stubbornness, defiance, hate, and avarice are allowed to live on unbroken—can there be no peace. Jesus does not want to set up his kingdom of peace by force, but where people willingly submit themselves to him and let him rule over them, he will give them his wonderful peace.^[1]

“every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess…” .

Through Christmas, God promises to make all things new, but as Bonhoeffer noted, this something new actively opposes the old order of things—diametrically opposed to human stubbornness, defiance, hate, and avarice, which is greed and covetousness. This new thing that God promises will require each person to choose for themselves if they want Jesus’ kingdom of peace to be birthed in them.

One of the great promises of Christmas is that Jesus came to bring something new to the world—in us and then through us. Listen to Paul explain this in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21,

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. [emphasis added] Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This morning, as we prepare to enter into the New Year of 2021, I invite you to find your peace, hope, love, and joy by becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus and then learning to live in union with Him as a new creation. No longer entrust your peace or hope, your love or joy in the counterfeit promises of the world. After the chaos and emptiness of 2020, do not expect anything but Jesus to bring order to and fill 2021. If there is anything we should have learned in 2020 is that there is only One who can give us peace and hope.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

To be born again means we must be converted, through faith and repentance, into something different than we were—born into something new, something other than we were. Paul teaches us in Titus 3:3-7,

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (cf. Ephesians 2:1-10).

It is good news to know that we can have a new beginning when we come to Jesus Christ and are filled with His Holy Spirit—the presence of God in us, eternal life, here and now. Being born again is just the beginning of this new life, which is eternal life—Jesus Christ is the “doorway to all the promises and blessings of God.”^[2] We are now called to live in them as citizens of a new kingdom. We are to repent and believe. 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus ushered in something new—the fulfillment of God’s promises. Paul explained Jesus’ words in Galatians 4:4-7,

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Jesus knew that His coming, the first Christmas, was the ushering in of the fullness of time when the Old Covenant would be fulfilled with the institution of the New Covenant between God and humanity.

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (cf. Jeremiah 31:33–34; Ezekiel 11:19–20; 18:31–32).

“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Acts 3:18-21 recorded this as the message of the early New Testament church:

“But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time (cf. Acts 10:38-44).

“If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

It is God on His throne in Heaven who has given us these magnificent and precious promises of His fulfilled kingdom in Revelation 21:3-8:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Footnotes:

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas, ed. Jana Riess, trans. O. C. Dean Jr., First edition. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 68.

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The 4^th Sunday of Advent

“The Promise of Peace!”

Philippians 4:9, Isaiah 9:6 & Luke 2:8-14 (NAS95)

Let us start with the Christmas story as told by the angels to the shepherds in Luke 2:8-14,

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

This morning, we will be learning together about this promised peace that the heavenly host praising God proclaimed to those first shepherds and then came to us through the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

The angles emphasized in their proclamation: “With whom He is pleased.” God makes the peace with us; we don’t make the peace with Him! Peace is not man-made; it is from God! It is a gift (all of grace!) that we can even have and experience peace with God because peace was sent to us in the person of Jesus Christ! This is why He came on that first Christmas and why He died on the Cross of Calvary.

“For He Himself is our peace.”

Jesus came as the One to fulfill God’s covenant promises to His people. As one scholar stated, “A major feature of the Gospel record is the way it draws the reader’s attention to the fact that Jesus Christ’s earthly life fulfilled a veritable plethora of Old Testament prophecies, some momentous, others seemingly minute.”^[1]

One of those “veritable plethora of Old Testament prophecies” is Jesus’ birth found in Micah 5:2-5,

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has borne a child. Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel. And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace.

“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

Peace is not just a theological construct that speaks to the mystery of your justification by grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus has made peace between you and God so that you can, one day in some distant future, rest in peace. Heaven is a glorious truth that gives us hope, but if your only view of God’s peace is being in Heaven one day, then you have an insufficient view of God’s peace.

“‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

Paul built upon Jesus’ teaching of this experiential truth in Philippians 4:6-9,

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

God’s peace guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and, listen closely, “the God of peace will be with you”: He establishes His government in you, which is the Kingdom of God. Listen to another one of those “veritable plethora of Old Testament prophecies” of Jesus’ birth, a very familiar one, found in Isaiah 9:6-7:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

You have heard this prophecy every Christmas for years, but did you hear the connection of His government and peace. The Prince of Peace is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and there will be no end to His government or His peace. That’s a promise! It is His zeal that accomplishes this in and through us!

God grows peace in our lives because His peace in us and His government over us are defining characteristics of our new life in Christ as the adopted children of the King; the citizens of Heaven.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”

Peace is a ruling reality of the government of God in your life and the more you submit to God’s sovereign rule over you, the more of His peace you will experience. Peace is a “fruit” of the indwelling Holy Spirit and we all know that fruit is only produced because the branch is connected to the life-giving source of all fruit. Abiding in the vine is submission to His government—it’s absolute dependence on Him!

Listen to Paul explain this to you in Galatians 5:18-25:

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Fruit is designed to grow, to mature, to ripen and that happens in three ways in the Christian life:

1. Peace grows as you learn to trust (put your faith in) God:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (NIV).

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.”

2. Peace grows as you learn to love God’s Word:

“Those who love Your law have great peace, And nothing causes them to stumble.”

“If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea” (NIV).

3.  Peace grows as you learn to walk in the Spirit:

“And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.”

“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

We are to mature in Christ and that means that we are to not only have peace with God, but grow in God’s peace and the peace of God will be with us. Once again, we see that the promises of God come with a praxis—a way of experiencing the fulfillment of promise as a part of our everyday lives.

A leader in our church testified to me about peace: “The peace that comes from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can possibly be identified as the ‘thing’ that sets followers of Christ apart. You often hear conversion stories where the new follower says they met someone who was just ‘different.’ I think it’s this ‘peace that passes understanding’ (Philippians 4:7) that sets us apart and makes us stand out as different from the world.”

Footnotes:

[1] M. S. Mills, The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record (Dallas, TX: 3E Ministries, 1999).

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“The Promise of Love!”

Galatians 4:4-7 & 1 John 3:1-3 (NAS95)

Christmas is the true story of the first royal visitation of Jesus Christ!

I want you to think about how upside down the story of Jesus’ birth really is, especially, when you think about who Jesus is and claimed to be. Jesus claimed to be, and is, in fact, nothing less than the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the incarnate God, the Savior of the World.

That alone, the fact that this person came to earth for a royal visitation, is enough to shake the foundations of the world, but the Christmas story is not only miraculous—for the incarnation and the Virgin birth are supernatural in and of themselves are enough to stop the presses and cause a collective sigh throughout all of history—but the Christmas story is also upside down because of the scandal of who God chose to be the main players of this story:

Does this sound like what the royal visitation of God should be like? Really!?!

Jesus should have been born to an important family in an important location. There should have been no scandal around his parentage or birth location, and the first witnesses should have at least been a class of people who could testify in court (side note: isn’t it interesting how shepherds were God’s chosen first witnesses to Jesus’ birth and women were God’s chosen first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection?).

You couldn’t make up a story as ridiculous and as unbelievable as this one. If this was a religious conspiracy to take over the world, then it is a horrible one! Amazingly, this IS the story of the royal visitation of God to His creation! I would have made it a big deal, filled it with pomp and circumstances, with important people in important places, and notable eyewitnesses.

The miracle of Jesus’ birth is not only found in the incarnation and virgin birth, but also in its scandal to the power structures of those God came to save and redeem. The fact that it happened in a way that no powerful person would want the story of his or her birth to be told is evidence unto itself! Let’s be honest, Christmas is a scandal of epic proportions to the powers and principalities of this world! Christmas was very different on purpose!

That’s because Christmas was not a power play, like Caesar’s census. Caesar wanted to show the world how powerful he was by counting how many people were under his authority. Rather, Christmas is a love story where God entered into His creation, compelled by love, to become one of His people in order to save and redeem His people back to Himself.

Paul explains this in Galatians 4:4-7,

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

The unbelievable reality of the first royal visitation of God is that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:16-17).

Christmas is about God’s love and the promise of His adoption into His family! The Father sent His Son into the world so that we can share with Jesus in having God as our “Abba! Father!”.

Love compelled God that first Christmas! John declares in 1 John 3:1-3,

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Love still compels God and His love compels us to live according to the promise of Christmas, the promise of Immanuel, God is with us—the Love of God has come to redeem us! Listen to this powerful explanation:

In like manner, we should be compelled by the love of Christ. If our reading of Scripture, as illumined and applied by the Spirit, does not release the compelling love of Christ in us and through us, then our hearts are not right with God, and our service constitutes nothing more than ashes upon a rusty altar! For it is not our love to Christ that is in view here, but rather it is the love of Christ working in us—mastering, driving, and compelling us. It is the love of God “poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). Such compelling love never flags, never falters, never fails. It is “the expulsive power of a new affection.”^[1]

We learn that the promise of love, like all of God’s promises, comes with the praxis to love in 1 John 4:7-21:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

These are the promises of Christmas—that we would walk in the same love of God’s first royal visitation. Every promise of God comes with a praxis—a lifestyle that was modeled by Jesus Christ for us to walk in. Jesus is the greatest example of love this world has ever been given. We should do likewise!

Paul teaches us about Jesus’ example of surrendering all for love in Philippians 2:5-11:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus emptied Himself by coming from Heaven to earth to show us the only way to the Father for He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). This is the promise of the first royal visitation and we are still awaiting its completion when Jesus will return. Until that Day, we are to empty ourselves so that His love can fill us.

Jesus taught us love by intentionally turning the world upside down with the love of God and introducing His Kingdom—the upside-down Kingdom where the conquering King comes through the virgin womb of a teenage bride.

Jesus invites us to turn the world upside down by loving and living like Jesus did—as witnesses of the upside-down Kingdom; the same way that the conquering King defeated the principalities and powers of this world, by allowing them to crucify Him upon that rugged old cross. Jesus was compelled by love to pay the price for our redemption—He gave us His all—He surrendered all so that what had been turned upside down could now be filled with a new life, a new love!

The key to understanding Jesus’ first royal visitation was that from the beginning to the end, it was intended to turn you upside down so that you could be emptied of your pride; so that, you can be filled with love!

We are still waiting for Jesus’ second royal visitation. Until that Day, we are called to love one another on earth as it is in Heaven—to continue the work of the upside down Kingdom, the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as misunderstood and opposed as it is by the powers and principalities of this world.

We are invited to turn the world upside down through His revolutionary love of Jesus Christ that came to earth in the womb of a poor rural teenage girl named Mary who risked everything with these faithful words of full surrender: “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Footnotes:

[1] Stephen F. Olford and David L. Olford, Anointed Expository Preaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 301.

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1^st Sunday of Advent

“The Promise of Hope!”

John 1:1-14 (NAS95)

Hope is a “trustful anticipation, particularly with reference to the fulfillment of the promises of God” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised, 751).

“Hope is, therefore, not irrational, but rather is based upon God, who has proven himself faithful. Biblical hope is hope in what God will do in the future. At the heart of Christian hope is the resurrection of Jesus” (Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 997).

“If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

Christian hope is not a misplaced belief in our human ability to work for a utopian life here and now—as we are all learning, no amount of political ideology or medical science is going to save us, nor will greater education or a larger economy is not going to save us, our jobs or recreation, our families or friends, or anything else can save us. Progress is not the hope we thought it was!

God’s severe mercies have occurred throughout history, time and time again, to teach humanity that there is only One in whom we can hope. Currently, this contemporary outpouring of mercy has left many depressed and aimless as God teaches us the One object of biblical hope.

I am here to proclaim that it is for this very reason that we celebrate Christmas, year after year!  Hope in Christ is the currency of heaven that entered creation in such a novel way that we are still searching for ways to express this miracle of Christmas. It was at the first Christmas that the object of Christian hope came into focus in a way that was unlike anything that had ever a happened in history—it is the miracle of the incarnation—Emmanuel—God is with us! We celebrate His first coming and we anticipate a time in which He will come again!

The scripture passage for the first Sunday of Advent is from John 1:1-14:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This is the mystery of the incarnation—the hope of Christmas—the hope of Christianity—the hope of humanity! Christmas celebrates the coming of a living hope—the hope of Jesus Christ!

Allow me to share with you a guiding image for the incarnation:

As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a light burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the rays of God’s light and fire to a point that sets fire to the spirit of man. And this is why Christ was born and lived in the world and died and returned from death and ascended to His Father in heaven … Through the glass of His incarnation He concentrates the rays of His Divine Truth and Love upon us so that we feel the burn, and all [spiritual] experience is communicated to [people] through the Man Christ. (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 150).

The union of God and man is the focusing of God’s way, truth, and life to humanity. As Jesus explained in John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Listen to an ancient witness express the importance of this truth, writing in the voice of Christ:

Follow Me. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Without the Way, there is no going. Without the Truth, there is no knowing. Without the Life, there is no living. I am the Way which you must follow, the Truth which you must believe, the Life for which you must hope. I am the inviolable Way, the infallible Truth, the unending Life. I am the Way that is straight, the supreme Truth, the Life that is true, the blessed, the uncreated Life. If you abide in My Way you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free, and you shall attain life everlasting (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, 219).

Furthermore, Peter teaches us in 2 Peter 1:2-4 of this miracle of our union with Christ, made only possible because of God making Himself known to us in such a concentrated form as the Christ:

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature…

To fulfill His promise, God takes the miraculous step towards us and that is the miracle of Christmas—this is our hope—God is with us! He came in the flesh and for a special relationship with His people. So that, we may partake in the divine nature.

“remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

But God, being rich in mercy, proclaimed in a new way these ancient words: “I will be your God and you will be my people” (Mike Beaumont and Martin Manser, The Handbook of Bible Promises, 23–24). Jesus Christ came to unite us to God in fulfillment to His ancient covenants.

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”

“Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”

“You shall be My people, And I will be your God.”

This has always been the message of God to His people and it is the concentrated focus of why God came in human form so that we know Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

“For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’”

In fact, the Bible ends, with this subject as the focus of the Revelation 21:3-7,

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

This is the promise of God being with us! And unlike promises and contracts that mean nothing to people in today’s world, God’s promise of special relationship (covenant) has been legally ratified through a blood sacrifice—the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.

This promise was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, but then (the promises cannot be limited to Christmas alone!), Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, when He shall come to judge the living and the dead. Apart from this creed—our faith—we have no hope for the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

This is our faith and our only hope—Christ is the most clearly visible, most concentrated focus of Light that pierces our hearts with God’s love! Let us bring Him into focus for all to see this Advent season because Jesus, the Christ of Christmas, is the reason for the season.

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