THE INCARNATION OF JESUS
John Betjeman wrote some memorable lines on the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ: ‘And is it true this most tremendous tale of all, / The Maker of the stars and sea / Became a child on earth for me?’ It is true, we believe, but it isn’t quite the whole truth: for the whole truth is that the Maker became a man and was thus uniquely qualified to be man’s redeemer. I came across a classic quotation which complements the truth revealed by the apostle John in the opening chapter of his Gospel: ‘If Jesus had not been man, He could not have redeemed men. If He had not been a righteous man, He could not have redeemed unrighteous men. And if He had not been God’s Son, He could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.’
Let me remind you of John’s declaration of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ: ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the Only Begotten Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14). That’s a wonderful statement but let me put it in down to earth terms of flesh and blood. A little boy was trying to get to sleep but was frightened. He shouted down from the bedroom, ‘Dad, it’s dark up here and I’m scared.’ His father shouted back, ‘Don’t be afraid. God is with you.’ After a few second’s pause, the boy yelled again: ‘Get up here, Dad - I need somebody with skin on!’ This is the reality of the Incarnation.
God’s moment had arrived. The prophecy unfolded over the centuries by the Hebrew prophets had to be fulfilled - and it was. The angel announced to the amazed shepherds, ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord’ (Luke 2:11). He was born in Bethlehem because he was of David’s royal line. And yet in David’s city, the heir of the House of David found no room, even in the inn. So the baby was born in a place where cattle were kept. How wonderful that our Saviour should begin His earthly life in this way.
Jesus wasn’t merely a helpless baby in the manger. He was the Living Word, and He was the Light of the World. Jesus came to bring to us eternal life, He came to bring grace; He came to bring us truth. That is what Christmas is all about. When you see it in that light, what a reason to rejoice and be thankful that Jesus came as God in the flesh – Emmanuel, God with us.
The birth of a baby in a stable was unusual, but no doubt it had happened before and will happen again among the extremely poor and underprivileged. There are millions even today who are living in refugee camps and in shantytowns surrounding the world’s big cities. The wonder in the situation arises when we consider Who the baby was. This was the Son of God. This wasn’t the beginning of His life. He had lived from all eternity in heaven. His hands made the universe. Why did He come into our world? St Paul makes it clear: ‘though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich’ (2 Cor 8:9). It was all for our sake, that He might be our Saviour.
Terry Waite, who was a hostage in Lebanon for five long years, tells in his autobiography, how for month after month he was kept chained hand and foot. Most of his clothes were taken from him, his shoes and even his watch. For hours at a time he could only curl up as a baby and he says he felt just as helpless. As Christmas time came round he thought, ‘Well, that’s how Jesus must have been - utterly vulnerable and dependent on others. He had left the presence of His Father, left the glories of heaven to take on human form, as a helpless baby.’
The stupendous fact is that here we have the wonder of the universe. Charles Wesley’s hymn tells us that in the Incarnation we see, ‘Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man!’ The philosopher Pascal wrote, ‘Say what you will, there is something in the Christian religion that is astonishing.’ Dorothy Sayers said what happened at Bethlehem is nothing less than "the personal irruption of God into human history.’ Or to put it in Bible language, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’ God and man were united in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t just appear as a man; He became one. He didn’t cease to be God. The babe in the manger isn’t only Mary’s child, He is God’s Son. Bethlehem is the meeting point of Heaven and Earth, of eternity and time, of deity and humanity. Let’s see:
WHAT GOD HAS DONE: HE MET OUR GREATEST NEED IN JESUS
This is the way in which Jesus came to us. He came disguised as a lowly man, but brought us so much. He met our every need. It’s been summarized like this:
‘If our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure,
God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness,
So God sent us a Saviour!
Jesus came to the Earth in the Incarnation and brought to us just what we needed!’
This is what God has done in Jesus Christ. He reached down to us, to be with us. He became one of us. He became the least among us, a tiny, poor, helpless infant. We did nothing to bring Christ from heaven. He came without our invitation, without our decision, without our welcome. He was sent by the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of Mary. And all this He did for us, without our help. This is entirely God’s doing, that the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
Rev Sandy Millar, the former Rector of Holy Trinity, Brompton, London, tells of how he visited a young woman in Holloway Prison. There was only one card pinned up in her cell. He noticed the words: ‘Happy Birthday’ was the printed message and underneath was written, ‘We wish things could have worked out differently but all our love. Mum and Dad.’ Sandy Millar comments, ‘God could have written that about our world.’
Here is the plan made by the Holy Trinity - Father Son and Holy Spirit - for the purpose of bringing you and me into the glory that Jesus had in heaven. He said, ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world’ (John 17:24). He wants us to be with Him. It is a plan that was conceived before the creation of the world. The apostle Peter explains it like this: ‘For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake’ (1 Peter 1:18-20). Let’s go on to think of:
HOW GOD DID IT: JESUS CAME FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH
Our text tells us that Jesus ‘came from the Father, full of grace and truth’. The word ‘grace’ trips off the tongue easily and pleasantly. I think it’s one of the most beautiful words in the language. Over the years it’s been chosen by many a parent as the Christian name of a daughter, no doubt in the hope that she’ll grow up to live up to her name!
C. S. Lewis offers a helpful thought in defining what grace is. During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. What about the Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. The Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. ‘What’s the rumpus about?’ he asked, and heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among the world’s religions. In his forthright manner, Lewis responded, ‘Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.’
The classical definition of ‘grace’ is ‘God’s unmerited favour’. Grace is perhaps the best one-word summary of what the Gospel is about. An expert in Greek literature says that in those old stories, grace indicated a favour done out of the generous heart of one Greek to a friend without any expectation of a favour in return, but it was never done to an enemy. Grace in the New Testament is used with a higher meaning.
The grace of God is quite different to all others. It expresses the love, the kindness, and the generosity of God toward us. It represents the attitude of the Almighty toward His wandering, rebellious creation. But it’s more than an attitude. It’s God’s love in action on our behalf. Under grace, God gives us what we don’t deserve – Heaven; and He rescues us from what we do deserve – Hell. God’s grace forgives what it can’t excuse.
Jesus Himself tells us in His words to Nicodemus what God has done in grace: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him’ (John 3:16). Grace became personalized when God clothed Himself in human form in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is Christ coming in Bethlehem to share our life and spending Himself in lowly ministry. The ultimate expression of grace is when He died in our place, bringing to the world life and hope. Grace is God showing His mercy towards sinful humanity; we who were so undeserving, so unworthy of His love. It is Jesus giving, loving, dying on the cross, and going to the utmost limit for His enemies.
The apostle Paul was utterly entranced by what God in Christ had done for him. He’d been a self-satisfied, proud Pharisee, intent on eliminating the followers of Christ, but as a result of an amazing encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he had been changed from a persecutor and a blasphemer to a believer. He never ceased to wonder at God’s grace. He classed himself as ‘the chief of sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). There was only one thing that could account for his transformation. ‘I am,’ he said, ‘what I am by the grace of God’ (1 Cor 15:10).
It was Paul’s great ambition to revel in ‘the riches of (God’s) grace’ (Eph 2:7). It’s a valid test of a person’s conversion to Christ. Does our experience make us praise God, to make us rejoice ‘with joy unspeakable and full of glory’? (1 Pet 1:8). Hymn writers have searched for language adequate to express it: John Wesley writes of ‘boundless mercy’; his brother Charles of ‘mercy all, immense and free’; and Isaac Watts was transfixed by the ‘wondrous Cross’. Are we, too, similarly taken up by ‘the riches of God’s grace’ – ‘Love so amazing, so divine’? It will have an effect on the quality of our spiritual life. We need to think and meditate on God’s grace until we find ourselves ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’ (Charles Wesley: ‘Love Divine’). It’s important that we know:
WHY WE NEED GOD’S AMAZING GRACE: WE HAVE ALL FALLEN SHORT OF GOD’S STANDARD
The late David Sheppard, before he entered the ministry and became a much-loved bishop, was a famous cricketer, who played for England. He was once stumped twice in the same Test Match. Once he was stumped by yards, and once by a few inches. He pointed out that in the newspapers next day, it didn’t say ‘stumped, but only just’. No, he was out, whether it was by yards or by an inch. He comments, ‘Some people miss the kingdom of God by miles. Some miss it by inches. But if you’re out, you’re out.’
The basic message of Scripture is that we all stand condemned but much loved by God. The good news is that He has made provision for our redemption. There’s a great hymn which tells us: ‘Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?’ (Samuel Davies: ‘Great God of Wonders’). The story of mankind’s state is of Paradise Lost, yes, but through God’s intervention for those who come to Jesus in repentance and faith, of Paradise Regained. The apostle Paul writes, ‘grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life’ (Rom 5:21). Sin did reign but God’s grace is an active and sustaining force for our salvation. The grace of God in our lives doesn’t merely start a process of salvation and then leave it to us to carry on. Grace not only starts but also completes it. That’s our assurance for the future – it’s Christmas every day of the year – Emmanuel: God with us.
Our salvation is entirely due to God’s grace. The apostle writes: ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God’ (Eph 2:8). No one can boast of his own good works. It’s all of grace, every bit of it. It’s entirely and only by grace. It’s God’s love in all circumstances.
Grace is the provision made by the Godhead for the salvation of mankind (1 Pet 1:20). This is clearly beyond human understanding but it’s God’s revelation through the Scriptures and supremely in the life of Jesus, His atoning death and His glorious resurrection. Grace is the way that God has devised of reconciling His righteousness and yet forgiving the sinner. It’s all because of what He has done in the Person of His dear Son when our sins were laid upon Him on the cross. God’s grace is really amazing! But there’s one last question to be answered:
WHAT ARE OUR OBLIGATIONS IN RESPONSE TO GRACE: IT’S LIVING IN A NEW RELATIONSHIP TO GOD
John tells us that Jesus was “full of grace and truth” and goes on to say “of his fullness we have all received and it has been grace upon grace for us” (16). It’s been put like this: as one ocean wave is followed by another wave, so believers receive successive blessings. If we have received His grace by coming to Him in repentance and faith, in other words being ‘saved’, then Jesus is to be the benchmark for our lives in all what we do. What more can we say than to join with the apostle Paul: ‘Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!’ (2 Cor 9:15) and live out His amazing grace in every part of life. If we do that the Incarnation of Jesus will not have been in vain for us.
