One of the great turning point days in the history of the Western
world was June 18, 1815. Napoleon and Wellington faced each
other on the battlefield for the first and last time. The history of
Europe, and possibility the whole world, hung in the balance. The
weight began to shift in Napoleon's favor as many of Wellington's
European troops deserted before the hardest fighting began.
Toward the close of the day Wellington was seriously outnumbered.
He looked at his watch and muttered, "Would to God that night or
Bleucher would come." To his delight Bleucher did arrive with his
troops, and his coming through the balance in Wellington's favor,
and Napoleon was defeated. Historians ever since have speculated
on what would have happened if Bleucher had not come.
This same speculation surrounds the coming of Jesus into the
battlefield of history. What if He had never come? It would mean
that we would live in a world with no Christmas, no cross, and no
resurrection. It would be a world with no Savior. It would still be a
pre-Christmas world if Jesus had not come. That was not a hopeless
world, for people still had God's promise, but it was a dark world
with no symbol of ultimate victory. We have this symbol and
assurance of victory because we live in a post-Christmas world. We
live in a world with a cross and a Savior. Without Christmas there
would be no cross, for Jesus had to be born before He could die. It
is because of Christmas that we have the cross and all that it means.
As birth precedes death, so Christmas must precede the cross
and be the basis for it. One of the greatest gifts that comes to us
from Christmas is the cross, and all of its benefits for time and
eternity. Christmas marks His coming, and the cross marks His
conquering. The two are so linked together that I will not be
surprised if we learn in heaven that the timbers for the cross came
from the very barn or cave where Jesus was born. The two timbers
that formed the cross are themselves symbolic of these two great
events in God's plan. The long timber plunged into the earth, yet
pointing to heaven, represents the incarnation of the Son of God
plunging from heaven's glory into earth's gloom to dwell with man.
The cross bar pointing in both directions represents the death of
Jesus for the sins for the whole world. The birth and death;
Christmas and the cross are as linked together as the two timbers
that formed the cross. Both of these eternal events that transpired
in time are needed to fulfill each other.
Christmas without the cross would not exist, for the birth of
Jesus would not likely ever be thought of had He not died for the sin
of the world. The cross, on the other hand, would just be another
case of capital punishment had the one who died there not been the
virgin born Son of God. Christmas and the cross need each other.
The cross is the final proof of the reality of the incarnation. God
really did become a man, and not just a fake or phantom man. He
came all the way into manhood, even to the point where He could
die. Only the creature dies and not the Creator, but the cross
reveals that the Creator really did become a creature and experience
death. The cross confirms the message of Christmas that God really
did become a man. In doing so He became the hero that arrived on
the battlefield just in time to save man and establish a kingdom of
liberty that will have no end. Paul in Gal. 4 reveals some of the basic
strategy that links Christmas and the cross in His plan of
redemption, and makes them both days of victory. The first thing
we see is-
I. THE TIMING OF HIS COMING. v. 4
In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son. When the time
was ripe and just right God started the first Christmas. Jesus
learned well from His father, for His strategy was the same with the
cross. He could have let Himself be crucified at any time, but He
kept saying His time was not yet come. Only when He could say that
His time had come did He permit the crucifixion to take place.
Christmas and the cross have this in common: They both took place
at just the right time because timing is the key to victory. Almost
everything you see to convey the joy of victory over evil follows this
pattern of right timing.
1. The cavalry comes just in time to save the wagon train or
besieged fort.
2. The hero arrived just in time to save the damsel in distress.
3. Reinforcements come just in time to drive back and defeat the
enemy.
4. It is always just in time that the good guy foils the bad guys fool
proof plan.
Almost all of the victories of good over evil have to do with
timing. God's providence in history is a matter of timing. Mrs.
Willard Lovell of Berkeley, California accidentally locked herself
out of her house, and she was very frustrated wondering how she
could get in without breaking a window. Just then the mailman
came with a letter for her. It was from her brother in Seattle who
had stayed with her the previous week. In the letter he was
returning the spare key she had let him use while staying there. In
the fullness of time God sent what she needed.
Corrie Ten Boom in The Hiding Place tells of the night she was
awakened by the German bombers. She heard her sister Betsie
down in the kitchen. She got up and went down to have a cup of tea
with her. They visited as they heard explosions near by, and when it
finally became quiet they returned back to their bedroom. Corrie
went to pat her pillow and let out a scream. Something shape had
cut her hand. Betsie came running and they took her back to the
kitchen to bandage her hand. They also took the large ten-inch
piece of jagged shrapnel from her pillow. Had Corrie not been
awakened when she was, and had she not heard her sister and gone
downstairs, the world would never had heard of her, and it would
have lost one of its greatest female saints. At just the right time God
came into her life.
Christmas and the cross represent the precise planning of God.
He never jumps the gun, or goes off half-cocked as we do. We so
often wish we could speed God up and get Him to do things
according to our schedule, but God has the patience to wait and go
into action just at the right time. Martin Luther once said what
many of us have often felt: "If I were God, and the world had
treated me as it has treated Him, I would have kicked the wretched
thing to pieces long ago." Instead, after centuries of abuse and
rejection, in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son and gave us
Christmas. After a life of abuse and rejection Jesus at the right time
laid down His life and gave us the cross. Christmas and the cross
were both planned in eternity, but happened just when they did in
time for the best impact on all of history. The world into which
Jesus came was a world united as never before. The world had one
language, which was Greek, and that is why the New Testament is
written in Greek to reach the whole world. The world was under
one government, which was Rome. The result was a world where
travel was easier and safer than ever before. The Gospel could be
carried to all nations where the Jews were scattered, and where they
had established synagogues. It was just the right and best time for
Christmas and the cross.
II. THE TAILORING OF HIS CAMPAIGN. v. 4
Jesus not only came at the right time, but He came with a tailor
made campaign; one that just fit the situation. He came born of a
woman under the law. Christmas was custom made to fit man's
situation in bondage to the law. The cross was also custom made to
fit man's situation as a lost sinner with no sacrifice able to atone for
his sin. Christmas and the cross are tailor made to meet the specific
needs of man. In both cases God uses the element of surprise. He
gives us Christmas through a helpless baby, and He gives us the
cross through a helpless condemned man. These are the two roles
Jesus plays in these two major events of history. Nobody could ever
dream that God would accomplish His plan of salvation for man
with such unconventional weapons. Earthquakes, tornados, fire and
brimstone we would expect, but never a baby and a cross.
It is a good thing God does not have to get His plan confirmed
by the Pentagon or any other body, for nobody would have
considered it a wise strategy. It is alright to send spies out to
infiltrate the ranks of the enemy, but it is too radical a risk to send
the commander of the army to do so. But that was the strategy of
God's campaign to infiltrate the ranks of man. He sent His Son to be
reduced to the level of the weakness of a baby and actually become a
man. To win the battle with the forces that held man in bondage
God had to provide a sacrifice to atone for man's sin. It was the
only way man could be set free and restored to the family of God.
Only a man could offer the needed sacrifice, and so the only hope for
man was a perfect man.
Had Jesus just dropped out of heaven as a full-grown man, He
would not have been a real man. To be an authentic man in the
same condition as the men He came to save He had to be born of a
woman under the law. He had to come all the way into manhood.
He could not just get His feet wet and take on the form of a man as
He did in the Old Testament, and as angels have done in both
Testaments. He had to be a real man so that He could experience
the two universals of birth and death. Christmas and the cross are
linked together because Jesus was born to die. Christmas is tailor
made to produce a man fit to accomplish what was needed on the
cross. At just the right time-Christmas; just the right person-the
Christ child; just the right purpose-the cross. John R. Rice put it,
Jesus, baby Jesus, there's a cross along the way,
Born to die for sinners, born for crucifixion day.
Christmas was the launching of His campaign that would march
Him to the cross with the assurance that He would be an adequate
sacrifice for man's redemption.
Christmas and the cross identify Jesus with the masses of
mankind who sense their need of a Savior. He could have been born
in a palace and died in a golden bed, but such a plan would be tailor
made only for royalty, and this was not God's plan, for a whole
world of common lost sinners needed a redeemer. The campaign of
Jesus is designed to motivate the masses of the oppressed to join His
army and live in liberty and love. Christmas and the cross both
carry the message of freedom from bondage, darkness and sin.
Christmas and the cross are what they are because they are tailored
made to fit the needs of mankind as a whole.
III. THE TRANSFERRING OF HIS CONQUEST v. 5
Not everything in the movies is consistent with biblical
principles, but quit often we see the battle of good against evil.
Those with contempt for man are confronted by those with respect
for man. In the vast majority of cases the good guys win, and it is
for the benefit, not just of themselves, but for many others. What
Jesus accomplished was not just for Him self. He is already the
eternal Son of God and the commander of the host of heaven. He
cannot get a promotion and rise any higher. His whole campaign
has nothing to do with self-glory. He came to conquer evil in order
to transfer the blessings of His conquest to those who were victims of
evil.
Scripture says, "To as many as received Him to them He gave
the right to become children of God." Jesus is the only begotten Son
of God, but He transfers to us the right to be God's sons. Females
are included as God's sons just as males are included in the bride of
Christ. To be a son means that you are no longer a slave in God's
house, but you are part of the family of God. This is the great gift
God gives to us through the combined conquest of Christmas and
the cross. They both convey the common message that God cared
enough to give the very best. May God grant us the wisdom to get in
on God's very best by receiving the Son and the salvation which He
gave us on Christmas and at the cross.
