Why would the Son of God want to become human? What would possess Him to leave His eternal home to enter this world plagued by pain and sorrow? Why would He give up the worship of angels to endure abuse at the hands of sinful man? Why did God become a man? Max Lucado in his book “God Came Near” wrote this, “God had come near. He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter. The hands that first held Him were unmanicured, calloused and dirty. No silk. No ivory. No hype. No party. No hoopla. Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts. Angels watched as Mary changed God’s diaper. The universe watched with wonder as The Almighty learned to walk. Children played in the street with him. And had the Synagogue leader in Nazareth known who was listening to his sermons…Jesus may have had pimples. He may have been tone deaf. Perhaps the girl down the street had a crush on him or vice-versa. It could be that his knees were bony. One thing’s for sure: He was, while completely divine, completely human.” So why did God become a man? The answer will not be found in the first Christmas Story but in the pages of the Old Testament. In fact in the Garden of Eden God revealed His plan that would rescue mankind from the mess they had made. As we see that plan unfold, we will discover exactly why God became a man.
I. Understanding the mess we have gotten ourselves into. (Genesis 3)
A. Disobedience to God always has negative consequences.
1. Eve surrendered to the temptation. She partook of the forbidden fruit and thus committed the first act of human rebellion against God. Eve immediately gave the fruit to her husband, and he, offering no resistance, joined his mate in this act of disobedience.
2. While the complete consequences of the man and woman’s sin will be displayed throughout the book of Genesis and the book of world history, the first result is the distorted way in which they begin to look at themselves and each other.
3. The realization that they were naked now brought them shame and the desire to hide it. Suddenly the focus of the man and woman is on themselves and not on the task of working and guarding the garden.
4. The man and woman’s sin is discovered and punished. We discover that one of the effects of the Fall is the tendency to be so ashamed of our behavior that we seek to shift responsibility for it to others.
5. This refusal to accept the consequences only further worsens the broken relationship with the Lord which underlies the rest of the Bible’s story.
B. Even in the midst of judgment God gives a word of hope.
1. The net result of the sin and its punishment is the distortion of every relationship between the Lord God and His creation.
2. Since man was now accountable for his sin, and since he had chosen the path of disobedience, it would have been most disastrous for him to have access to that fruit which would have imparted to him imperishable physical life.
3. Genesis 3:15 has been called the Protevangelium, the first Gospel. This first Messianic prophecy comes in a most unlikely place—in the context of a curse upon the Serpent.
4. Adam was sent from the garden into the world until another Adam (Christ) should come and obtain the right to partake of that tree.
II. Man has always had a need for God’s deliverance. (Exodus 1-12)
A. Having moved to Egypt to escape a famine four-hundred years earlier, the Israelites find themselves in slavery.
1. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. (Exodus 1:6-8—NIV)
2. As a result the Egyptians treated the Israelites ruthlessly as they placed taskmasters over them.
3. Mistreated and demoralized the Lord heard the Israelites’ cry and sent Moses and Aaron to set them free.
4. God sent a series of plagues to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, although the plagues work momentarily Pharaoh quickly returns to his defiant self setting the stage for one final plague.
B. God’s ultimate lesson here is that complete deliverance requires the blood of an unblemished lamb.
1. Before he left the presence of Pharaoh for the last time, Moses described in graphic detail the tragedy that was about to take place in the land of Egypt. Yahweh declared that he himself would pass through the land. Every firstborn in the land would die, including the firstborn of animals and even the heir to the throne. .
2. The night of deliverance was to be observed by a special celebration called “Yahweh’s Passover.” The Passover centered around the slaying and eating of a lamb; and a festival of unleavened bread.
3. A lamb without spot or blemish was to be killed and its blood was to be smeared on the top and sides of the doorframes of the house where the Passover meal was to be eaten.
4. By following these instructions the firstborn of the Israelites would be spared.
5. This method of atonement chosen by God anticipated the once-and-for-all sacrifice of the coming Lamb of God, the Messiah.
III. God’s solution announced through the prophets.
A. A prophetic look at the characteristics of the Messiah. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
1. Centuries after Moses and Aaron had led the Israelites out of Egypt, God sent Prophets such as Isaiah who foretold the characteristics of the Messiah.
2. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7—NIV)
3. The glorious day described in the opening verses of the chapter would be ushered in by the birth of a male child. Isaiah identified this child as God’s Son who had been given to all people as a deliverer.
4. Isaiah who is known as the Messianic prophet will describe in great detail how the Messiah will accomplish the deliverance of His people in chapter 53.
B. God reveals some unexpected twists in His plan.
1. One would expect that this great delivering king would be born into Jerusalem royalty.
2. However the prophet Micah reveals something quite surprising.
3. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2—NIV)
4. A humbly born king, a righteous judge, a sacrificial Lamb, these descriptions from the prophets cannot help but stir hope in the hearts of the readers.
IV. Understanding God’s solution to our problem.
A. Christ is the perfect Lamb who has shed His blood for our sins.
1. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29—NIV)
2. Everything the Passover and the prophets anticipated is fulfilled in Jesus.
3. Christ’s blood marks the door posts of our hearts causing the judgment of God to Passover us like He passed over the Israelite families in Egypt.
4. This is the great gift from God that had been anticipated since the days of Adam.
B. The Lamb of God was born to die, He was our sacrificial substitute.
1. Christ is not simply our Passover lamb, but He is our sacrificial Lamb, who on the altar of Calvary paid the penalty for our sins.
2. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:12-14—NIV)
3. Jesus did not come down from Heaven to show off His perfection or to make our lives more comfortable but to offer Himself to God as our sacrificial substitute.
4. Christ the Lamb of God has secured our deliverance and offers it to each of us as a Christmas gift, placed with love under a cross shaped tree.
One of America’s greatest poets is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The year 1860 found Longfellow happy in his life, enjoying a widening recognition, and elated over the election of Abraham Lincoln which he believed signaled the triumph of freedom and redemption for the nation. The following year the Civil War began. On July 9, 1861 Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, was near an open window sealing locks of her daughter’s hair, using hot sealing wax. Suddenly her dress caught fire and engulfed her with flames. Her husband, sleeping in the next room, was awaked by her screams. As he desperately tried to put out the fire and save his wife, he was severely burned on his face and hands. Fanny died the next day. Longfellow’s severe burns would not even allow him to attend Fanny’s funeral. His white beard, which so identified with him, was one of the results of the tragedy – the burn scars on his face made shaving almost impossible. In his diary for Christmas day 1861 he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.” In 1862 the toll of war dead began to mount and in his diary for that year Longfellow wrote of Christmas, “A merry Christmas say the children, but that is no more for me.” In 1863 his son who had run away to join the Union army was severely wounded and returned home in December. There is no entry in Longfellow’s diary for that Christmas. But on Christmas Day 1864 – at age 57 – Longfellow sat down to try to capture, if possible, the joy of the season. He began: I heard the bells on Christmas day. Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men. As he came to the third stanza, he was stopped by the thought of the condition of his beloved country. The Battle of Gettysburg was not long past. Days looked dark, and he probably asked himself the question, “How can I write about peace on earth, good will to men in this war-torn country, where brother fights against brother and father against son?” But he kept writing – and what did he write? And in despair I bowed my head: “There is no peace on earth”, I said, For hate is strong, and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men. It seems as if he could have been writing for our kind of day. Then, as all of us should do, he turned his thoughts to the One who gives true and perfect peace, and continued writing: Then peeled the bells more loud and deep; “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.” And so there came into being that marvelous Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
