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In the name of Jesus, Amen. The first is that we want to remember that our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is eternal. That he was begotten of the Father before all worlds. In that eternal day, like we chanted in Psalm 2, today I have begotten you. We heard it confessed by John in the very first verse of his chapter, of his gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There was nothing created that was not made through Him. The second person of the Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, is God eternal. Eternal. There was never a time when he was not. In fact, time itself exists through him.
And I think the simplest way that we confess this is if you just draw a line, and on one side you put creation, and on the other side you put creator. And you say, what side of that line is Jesus? And the answer is, he is on the creator’s side. He is not created, but begotten of the Father. Which means his incarnation was a coming forth, was a coming down. One of the paintings that was in the bulletin last night, and this is a reflection of an old medieval tradition, it had a little baby flying through the sky. That’s the picture of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary on March 25th and announced to her that she would be pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
And when the old painters would paint that picture, they would have this little baby flying from heaven. Amen. Because Jesus did not begin in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He, in fact, did not begin at all. And this is how to unravel all of those great riddles that we had in the prophetic text from last night. Like we had in Isaiah, How can you have a birthday and be everlasting? Or the Micah text, From you will come forth one whose going forth is from of old. Well, how can you be born and be from of old? Well, the answer is that our Lord Jesus Christ always was. He was with the Father in the beginning. There is nothing that is before him. He is eternal.
But Jesus is also man. He has a birthday. December 25th, 2 BC. That’s our best guess. 2,026 years ago. I love to repeat that number because it puts it right there on the timeline. That there was something certain that happened. That there really was Mary. There really was Joseph. They really were traveling to Bethlehem. She really was giving birth. And there really was a baby. And that if you would have been there that night, and you would have looked at that baby, you would have said, that baby is very normal.
All the pictures that we have show this radiating glory. And I think that’s right theologically, but not historically, that this child was unrecognizable as the Son of God. He had to be preached. He had to be known by the angels giving their sermon to the shepherds. And even as Jesus grew up, even as Jesus walked the earth, even as people were interacting with him, he did not appear to be the Son of God. In fact, when he said it to the Pharisees, they didn’t believe him, even though they were watching these miracles take place. That he came in deep and profound humility so that he was a man just like we are. He has our flesh and blood. The immortal shares our mortality so that Jesus is hungry and thirsty and tired and tempted and suffering.
He’s able to suffer pain, in fact, profoundly. He’s able to die and be laid in a tomb. He is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. True man. This is what we confess about our Lord Jesus, true God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary.
But here’s the third point, and the great mystery of the Christian faith, is that these two natures, divine and human, are united in the single person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what John confesses in this text, John chapter 1, most especially verse 14. There’s a lot of verses to underline in John chapter 1: verse 1, verse 2, begotten, not of the will of man, verse 18, verse 17, we received grace upon grace, the law came through Moses. There’s a lot of text that we should have memorized from that first chapter, but I think that the premier text after verse 1 is verse 14, which says… The word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The word dwelt among us is this Greek word skene. It maybe would be literally translated tabernacled among us or tented among us. It’s a throwback to the tabernacle that the Lord instituted with Moses. And remember the purpose of the tabernacle. So that the glory of God could dwell in the midst of his people without destroying them.
I was thinking about how to illustrate this with some kind of Christmas illustrations, and I came up with two bad illustrations and not a good one. So I’ll give you the two bad ones, which hopefully illustrate the point. It’s not like wrapping paper. Ha! You know, when you wrap your gifts, you are wrapping them up so you can’t see what’s in them. You want to keep them a secret until the day that it’s revealed. But then, once a secret is revealed, then it’s not a secret anymore. When we’re talking about the Incarnation, we’re not talking about a secret. We’re talking about a mystery.
And what’s the difference between a secret and a mystery? Well, a secret is no longer a secret as soon as it’s revealed. But a mystery remains a mystery. In fact, the more you think about it, the more mysterious it becomes. Jesus puts himself in our flesh not to hide himself from us so that we don’t know who he is, but in fact to reveal himself to us. So that it’s less like wrapping a gift and it’s more like using an oven mitt. Although it’s not like that either. This is another bad illustration. But you use an oven mitt. Why? Because if you’re not hiding your hand in an oven mitt, then you grab onto the pot or whatever, and it burns you. So you need something covering it to keep you safe.
But… This is the opposite. It’s like an anti-oven mitt because God’s glory is the dangerous thing. It’s like having, instead of wrapping your hand in an oven mitt, it’s like wrapping the oven in an oven mitt so that it won’t destroy you. God’s glory is hidden in the flesh of Christ so that it doesn’t destroy us. His holiness is hidden in His flesh so it doesn’t consume us and overwhelm us. That was what was happening in the Old Testament in the tabernacle, and it’s what’s happening in the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of these two natures united in the person of Christ, we can say all sorts of things that just don’t seem right, but are true and wonderful for us. We can, for example, speak of the birthday of God, or the suffering of God, or the temptation of God, or the death of God and the burial of God. This is the mystery that Christmas sets before us.
I was reading this morning from Hippolytus against one Noatis the heretic. I think we probably all were. This is a pretty nerdy thing. Sorry. But now I’m going to read it to you so later you can tell your friends, hey, we were reading Hippolytus this morning from… Listen to how he speaks of the Incarnation here. He had the heavenly nature of the Father as the Word, and the earthly nature as taking to himself the flesh from the old Adam by the medium of the Virgin. He now coming forth into the world was manifested as God in a body, coming forth too as a perfect man. For it was not in mere appearance or by conversion, but in truth that he became man. Amen.
Thus then too, though demonstrated as God, he does not refuse the conditions proper to him as a man, since he hungers and toils and thirsts and weariness and flees and prays in trouble. And he who as God has a sleepless nature slumbers on a pillow. And he who for this end came into the world begs off the cup of suffering. Lord, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me. And in an agony he sweats blood and is strengthened by an angel who himself is the one who strengthens those who believe in him and taught men to despise death by his work. And he who knew what matter of man Judas was, was betrayed by Judas.
And he who formerly was honored by him as God is condemned by Caiaphas. And he has said it not by Herod, who himself is to judge the whole earth. He is scourged by Pilate, who took upon himself our infirmities. He is mocked by the soldiers, at whose behest stand thousands and thousands and myriads and myriads of angels and archangels and all the heavenly hosts. And he who fixed the heavens like a vault is himself fastened to the cross. He who is inseparable from the Father cries out to the Father, and he commends himself to him his spirit, and bowing his head, and gives up the ghost. He who gives life bountifully to all has his side pierced with a spear, and he who raises the dead is wrapped in linen and laid in a sepulcher.
For all these things he has finished for us, who for our sakes was made as we are. And this, dear saints, is the fourth point. That Jesus Christ, eternal God, begotten of the Father before all world and true man, born of the Virgin Mary, united in the singular person of Christ, did all of this for you. So that he could take your sins and carry your sorrows and be with you to save you and deliver you and to forgive all your sins.
It’s not an accident that this human nature that Jesus assumed himself into himself so many thousands of years ago is exactly what he offers you today in his meal and at his altar, his body and his blood, because this here and now and always is given for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins. So let us rejoice that the eternal God has a birthday, so that he can also have a death day and a burial day and a resurrection day and a day to celebrate all of this today.
With you, his dear saints, the day we call Christmas. May God grant us this joy for the sake of Christ. Amen. And the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
