Grace Made Flesh, Isaiah 7:14, Mathew 1:23
Introduction
“I tell you Jesus Christ is a myth,” shouted an atheistic lecturer as he concluded his talk in which he ridiculed the Bible and denied the existence of God. A miner, who had come to the meeting in his grimy clothes, stood up and said, “I am only a working man. I don’t know what you mean by the word ‘myth.’ But, can you explain to me? Three years ago I had a miserable home. I neglected my wife and children. I cursed and swore. I drank up all my wages. Then someone came along and told me of the love of God and of deliverance from the shackles of sin by turning to Christ. Now all is different! We have a happy home. I feel better every way. A new power has taken possession of me since Christ came into my life! Sir, can you explain to me?”
You will never be able to explain or to understand the miracle of the incarnation of God until God is made a reality in your heart through Christ who came into the world to bring God to human hearts.
Transition
This morning we will discuss the reality of the Christ; the divine nature, character, person of God descending into human flesh. The Logos, the divine Logos, the thought and expression of God, the Word of God made flesh who dwelt among us; the divine mystery of the hypostasis; the reality that Jesus was both fully God and fully Man; that is, the incarnation of God in Christ.
This is the last Sunday prior to the start of the Advent Season. This is the culmination of a year’s worth of worship, teaching, and prayer, according to the liturgical calendar which steers our worship. It is my purpose today to speak of what is perhaps the most pivotal of all biblical doctrines as we make the transition in Church life from all of the subjects that we have discussed, sang about, and prayed about this year unto the great object of it all; Immanuel, God with us.
Exposition
The doctrine or teaching of the incarnation of Christ, the indwelling of the divine nature, character, and power of God in Jesus is a subject which one could easily study and meditate upon for entire lifetime and not exhaust caveats and nuance and areas of study. This is a subject rampant with philosophical shades and tones.
This is a subject wrought with great theological debate and discussion. But at the end of the day, all of the details point us to glorious truth which is contained in John’s Gospel, 1:14-17, where it says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, ’He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’" From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (NIV)
The word of truth assumed flesh and dwelt among us; God’s grace came unto His own cloaked in human flesh; grace was made flesh for the divine purpose of the redemption of humanity. God’s grace was and is no longer an abstract concept.
It is not a theological mystery; here it is, in flesh, touch, behold, listen, and receive Him in the sacrifice of the Cross; connect to God through the indwelling of His grace in Christ which draws us even now to receive the love of God!
Illustration
Diogenes the Cynic was a Greek philosopher; a disciple of Antisthenes, the former pupil of Socrates. Diogenes, a beggar who made his home in the streets of Athens, made a virtue of extreme poverty. He is said to have lived in a large tub, rather than a house, and to have walked through the streets carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man.
When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes the cynic, he asked what he could do for him. The cynic answered that there was only one thing which Alexander could do for Diogenes, and that was to abstain from standing between him and the sun.
There are many great and mighty people who like to stand between God and man, but they only obscure man’s vision of God. Only Jesus Christ, God incarnate, can bring God as the regenerating and transforming Spirit into our experience.
In Isaiah 7:14 the prophet foretells of the coming of Messiah, Immanuel God with us. In Mathew 1:23 the Angel tells Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, that the child which Mary carried was indeed from the Lord, that he should not fear to be wed to her, and that the child shall be called Immanuel; God with us.
The very name of Jesus, in fact, carries with it the purpose for His coming into this world. Yeshua, the name of Christ, is a Hebrew name which has been transliterated into Greek as Iesous (pronounced "ee-ay-SUS"). The English "Jesus" comes from the Latin transliteration of the Greek name into the Latin Iesus.
It is most proper to call Him Yeshua. It was his proper name, given to him by his parents, and only in Hebrew does this name have any meaning. In Hebrew Yeshua means both "Salvation," and the longer form, Yahoshua, "Lord who is Salvation."
“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:1-5 NIV)
This is the prayer of Jesus to His Father, the prayer of God the Son, the divine eternal Word of God, to God the Father which he prays just prior to His arrest, trials, and crucifixion. I have previously examined this text several times in study.
I have even attempted to glean principals for the daily prayer life of believers from the example of Christ in this prayer to the Father, but not until this week, as I prepare this message did I ever notice the level of tenderness contained in the words of Christ as He pray.
Illustration
When my now 20 month old son, Ephram, was born it was as time great joy for my family. We had only recently relocated to serve First Congregational Church of Peru, Illinois. We were pleased with the move and sensed the Lord’s direction in it, even given the fact that we moved while Christina was 8 months pregnant!
We were able to get set up with a fine midwife for the delivery and everything fell very much into place. Like a good preacher’s kid, Ephram was even born on Sunday morning. Our great joy, however, was turned for a time to great anxiety and even grave concern. While only a week old Ephram began to run a very high fever and he spent 2 of the first 4 weeks of his young life hospitalized.
He had an IV inserted for antibiotics and to maintain proper hydration. The tests for the cause of his fever were inconclusive and while we hoped for the best, our hearts did at times fear that perhaps we would suffer that most tragic of fates which befalls parents from time to time, of returning home with a babies blanket which was meant to caress and warm the child who did not return home.
There is a kind of prayer which was prayed by us and has been prayed by many in those times which contains an element of that tenderness and earnestness which characterizes Jesus prayer for us as He prepare for His impending persecution.
As Jesus pray on the eve of the crucifixion He did not prayer merely from memory, He did not recite prose which were written from pen of a mighty poet, He did not retell stories of God’s former glories; He prayed earnestly from the depth of His divine being; “Father grant that your children may know you, the One True God and the redemption which I have brought to them!”
Wrapped up in the incarnation are many deep mysteries upon which one might meditate for a lifetime and not have spent that lifetime in vain! Contained in the incarnation of God’s grace in the swaddling clothes of a little baby in a manger is all of the glories, wonders, and majesty of the God of all creation, and yet we shall never know of or experience those wonders by intellectual assent alone.
Our finite minds are not capable of fully or even partially grasping the depths of the wonder of Immanuel through knowledge about God, knowledge about the theology of God, or even great knowledge about His Son through this word.
In order to be affected by, to be transformed by, to be indwelt and enraptured by the mystery of the incarnation it is not knowledge about but knowledge of which we need. In order to be transformed by this truth, we must let go of this world and cling to Christ! We must allow the radical grace of God to consume us daily until the furious love of Christ has taken such hold of our hearts, our minds, and our lives that we can declare as did the Apostle Paul:
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
All of my vain ambitions, all of my hubris, that is my self-exaltation, all of my pride, all of my self-directed, self-motivated goals were crucified on the Cross which Christ. When grace took on human flesh it did so that it might take upon its shoulders the burden of my sin that I might be made free in Christ!
The Apostle is not saying that I no longer have a personality or goals, but that now that personality is an instrument in the hands of Christ, that those goals are no longer driven form vain ambition or ego or vanity but by the love of Christ; Immanuel, God with us, the Holy One, the Bread of Life, the Word made flesh!
Conclusion
William Gurnall, the author of the classic work, “The Christian In Complete Armor”, wrote, “We stand at better advantage to find truth, and keep it also, when devoutly praying for it, than fiercely wrangling and contending about it."
As was well illustrated by the simple man in the story I shared with you at the opening of this message, who could not and need not expound the weightier matters of history, theology, or philosophy, but could and indeed did live a life which was completely and radically transformed by the power of the incarnate Christ dwelling within his transformed soul, no man or woman who seeks to understand the great mystery of God’s Grace made flesh will ever do so apart from opening his or her heart to transformative power of that mystery.
In other words, the glory of the incarnation is not in the complexities of theological and philosophical endeavor which surround it, but in the beauty of its reality made known within the life of the believer! Amen.
