GOD'S WORD IN FLESH - THE CHRISTMAS STORY
Jesus has always existed. Humankind knew Him as Jesus when He was born. That is the name Mary was instructed by the angel Gabriel to give her supernatural baby. However, He has always been and forever will be The Word of God.
Father God's Word has always been with Him.
- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." (John 1:1-2)
The Father, Word, and Spirit of God all live in harmony within the mind and heart of Father God. Anytime Father God speaks, God's Word performs Father God's thoughts perfectly as He, The Word, is uttered from Father God's lips.
- "'Let there be light' and there was light..." - Genesis 1:3
- "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:3).
The first question I come to is - Why God? Why create this grand story to begin with? The only answer I keep coming back to is His display of Love. John tells us,
- "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever would believe in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
The second question I arrive at is - God, when did you consider The Plan? And God answers in His Word - Before the creation of the Cosmos.
- 1 Peter 1:20 - "He [Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world,..."
- Revelation 13:8 - "...the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world."
- Ephesians 1:4 - "For he [Father God] chose us in him [Christ Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."
Two-thousand plus years ago, Christ Jesus is a physical miracle of Father God; the manifestation of Father God's Word in flesh for us. Jesus is God With Us - Emanuel. The apostle Paul wrote about it in Philippians 2:6 and 7, where he said, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”
JESUS HAS ETERNALLY EXISTED
"The word “being” is a translation of the Greek word huparcho, a compound of the words hupo and arche. In this case, the word hupo means from, and the word arche means the first, original, or ancient. When it becomes the word huparcho, it depicts something that has always existed.
By using this key word that means to eternally exist, Paul declares that Jesus has always existed. Philippians 2:6 could be translated, “Who, eternally existing in the form of God.…”In other words, Jesus’ human birth in Bethlehem was not His beginning, but merely His physical manifestation to man, which was actually a very brief appearance in the scope of His eternal existence.
THE TRUE STORY OF CHRISTMAS
God existed in glory more wonderful than the human mind can comprehend and more powerful than human flesh can endure. Yet He desired to come to earth to purchase redemption for man. Therefore, God had no choice but to re-clothe Himself in a manner that could be tolerated by man. This is why He “…made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” This is the true story of Christmas!
The phrase “made himself of no reputation” comes from the Greek word kenos, which means to make empty, to evacuate, to vacate, to deprive, to divest, or to relinquish. Because it was impossible for God to appear to man as God, He had to change His outward form.
The only way Jesus could make this appearance as a man was to deliberately and temporarily let go of all the attributes we usually think of when we consider the characteristics of God. For 33 years on this earth, God divested Himself of His heavenly glory and “…took upon him the form of a servant.…”
The phrase “took upon him” perfectly describes that marvelous moment when God reached out to lay hold of human flesh and take it upon Himself so that He might appear on the earth as a man. The words “took upon him” are from the Greek word lambano, which means to take, to seize, to catch, to latch on to, to clutch, or to grasp. This word lets us know that God reached out from His eternal existence, reached into the material world He had created, and took human flesh upon Himself in “the form of a servant.”
The word “form” in this phrase is exactly the same word that describes Jesus in the form of God. It is the Greek word morphe. This means that just as Jesus in His pre-existent form had all the outward appearance of God, now Jesus existed in the exact form of a man — appearing and living on this earth in exactly the same way as any other man. For a brief time in His eternal existence, Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity and literally became a man.
Then Jesus took upon Himself the form of a “servant.” This is the Greek word doulos, which refers to a slave. Paul used this word to picture the vast difference between Jesus’ pre-existent state and His earthly life. Paul went on to say that Jesus “…was made in the likeness of men.” The phrase “was made” is the Greek word ginomai, which in this context means to become, indicating that this was not Jesus’ original form, but it became His new form. This clearly describes the miracle that occurred when God became a man. Jesus had always existed in the form of God, not the form of man. But taking upon Himself human flesh, He was formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became a man.
Paul also declared that God took upon Himself the “likeness” of a man. The word “likeness” is the Greek word homoioma, which refers to a form or resemblance. This refers not only to Jesus’ being made in the visible likeness of men, but also in the human likeness of men. In other words, when Jesus appeared on this earth, He came in the actual form of a man and was just like man.
JESUS COMPLETELY UNDERSTANDS US
Jesus was so completely made in the “likeness” of men that Hebrews 4:15 declares He was even tempted in every way that men are tempted. It says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
So we see that Jesus left His heavenly home and took upon Himself human flesh. And because of this great exchange, He has stood in our place; He has felt what we feel; He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; and He intercedes for us with great compassion as our High Priest. Because He walked where we walk and lived where we live, He completely understands us.
At this time of the year, we are prone to think of Jesus as a little baby in a manger in a Bethlehem stable. Certainly this was true, but we should never forget that Bethlehem was not Jesus’ beginning. His coming to the earth as a human being was merely a brief appearance in His eternal existence.
Out of His deep love for you and me, Jesus was willing to leave His majestic realms of glory to enter the realm of humanity. Shedding all His visible attributes that were too much for man’s flesh to endure, He dressed Himself in the clothing of a human being and was manifested in the flesh. That little baby in Bethlehem was the eternal, ever-existent God Almighty, who dressed Himself in human flesh so that He could dwell among men and purchase our salvation.
God’s great love for us drove Him to come down to our level to redeem us and later become an effective High Priest on our behalf. Think how wonderful it is that God loves us to such an extent!"
(https://renner.org/the-real-christmas-story/)
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THE PLAN
"But what does it all mean?" asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.
"It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards." (From the book - The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
Father God decided long before anything that all humanity is who He loved by sending His Word in flesh, Christ Jesus, to die for our fallen/broken relationship with Himself.
- "he chose in Him [Christ Jesus] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." (Ephesians 1:4)
The Choice to accept Jesus as God's sacrificial gift of restoration was placed in our hands. However, Father God, The Word of God, and The Holy Spirit all viewed and considered the idea of Yeshua (Jesus) defeating Satan before there even was a Lucifer or at least a created world by the imagery of a slain lamb in the mind of God (Revelation 13:8).
Father God's thoughts of love and sacrifice became reality and manifested in the man Yeshua Messiah or translated for today - Jesus Christ. The Old Testament Law (Law of Moses) was created to show the severity of our condition. However, Christ came as that ultimate, perfect sacrifice which would usher all who believe in God's gift into a restored relationship by grace through faith.
Father God's thoughts of love and sacrifice became reality and manifested in the man Yeshua Messiah or translated for today - Jesus Christ. The Old Testament Law (Law of Moses) was created to show the severity of our condition. However, Christ came as that ultimate, perfect sacrifice which would usher all who believe in God's gift into a restored relationship by grace through faith.
- "For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." - Hebrews 9:24-26
You see Father God thought everything through - creation, salvation, eternity, everything. Jesus confesses to this by His teaching of the idea.
- "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:28:33
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