The God Bod

12.22.24 Hebrews 10:5–10 (EHV)

5 Therefore when he entered the world, Christ said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me. 6 You were not pleased with burnt offerings and sin offerings. 7 Then I said, “Here I am. I have come to do your will, God. In the scroll of the book it is written about me.” 8 First he said: Sacrifices and offerings that were offered according to the law, both burnt offerings and sin offerings, you did not desire, and you were not pleased with them. 9 Then he said: Here I am. I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.

The God Bod

Presentation can go a long way in the sales world. Budweiser was well renowned for their commercials of horses and frogs in order to sell beer. But when they put their can in the hands of Dylan Mulvany, a trans-activist, they lost millions of dollars. A few years ago we purchased some home made dish scrubbers from a family friend, and I was amazed at how well they were presented. They had little cardboard wrappings and boxes, making them look really nice.

After we pulled the scrub pads out of the box, we still just ended up throwing the wrapping away. The wrapping did what it was supposed to do, to present the product as well as it could. After that, it had no use but to be thrown away. When we prepare for Christmas and we think about the “box” that God decided to present Himself in . . . well, it doesn’t work that way. Without the box, we can’t receive the present and He can’t give the present. Without the box there is no present. It would be like trying to give someone flour or sugar without a container. The box, as the writer to the Hebrews says, is a human body. The present is God in the flesh.

The body of Christ is more important than we can ever imagine. Without a human body, God can’t be seen. He can’t be held. Worst of all, He can’t be Savior. As we prepare for Christmas on this final Sunday of Advent, we focus on the wrapping of the gift, the importance of that wrapping, of that body. As Jesus is brought into the womb of Mary, it is like one of those Russian dolls. The gift is wrapped up in the womb of Mary. We await the birth of God’s son. She grows and grows for nine months. We eagerly await His birth. Yet even in the birth of God’s son, the gift is still wrapped in flesh. It’s the only way a holy God could come to us, in the wrapping of flesh. Were it not for that wrapping, we would instantly die from being in the presence of God’s holiness.

It’s impossible to imagine what this would have been like for Jesus, who had enjoyed full autonomy over the universe from eternity, full glory, to be placed into the womb of the virgin Mary through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t that He stopped being God. It was just that He stopped exercising His full powers as God. He chose to be placed into her womb and come into our world of flesh and bones. He wanted to do it, because that’s what the Father wanted Him to do.

I can’t imagine having such a willing spirit. I used to hate taking the dog for a walk when I was growing up. I did it, but I didn’t like it. I’m sure you have those chores you remember as well. The neat thing is that Jesus wanted to climb into the flesh of an infant. If I were to ask you, if you had a choice, knowing what you know now, how many of you would want to start life all over again as an infant right now? I know that I wouldn’t want to . . . to have to go to grade school and high school again, find a vocation again, get married again, have children again . . . I’m sure there would be some interesting things to do given a second go on life. But I’ve already lived one life. It’s been hard enough. Jesus wanted to do this, to come into a human body and live a human life. . . . to learn to eat and drink, to walk, to study the Bible, to take care of hundreds to thousands of people, to teach them on a daily basis. He knew exactly what He was going to do in the flesh. He had a plan.