God Was In Christ: The Doctrine of the Incarnation Part VII

I want to continue with the next part of God was in Christ. We have walked through the Old Testament and where Christ, the preexistent Second Person of the Godhead, made many appearances. We also saw the Old Testament prophets their prophecies concerning the Incarnation of Christ. Let us look now to the New Testament to see what Jesus Himself and that He claimed to be God.  

Jesus presents Himself through the Gospels not only as a prophet but as the object of prophecy. Jesus acknowledged that He was the Messiah on oath at His trial.[1] His ministry, however, is meaningless unless He firmly believed that He was God’s chosen One to redeem His people. In fact, no sense can be made of Jesus Himself “unless we are prepared to acknowledge that Jesus saw in Himself the culmination of Israel’s law and for salvation and God.”[2]

Jesus claimed His divinity and looked to the Old Testament to substantiate this truth, “It was the Old Testament…the Hebrew Scriptures in which he found a rich tapestry of figures, historical persons, prophetic pictures and symbols of worship. And in this tapestry, where others saw only a fragmented collection of various figures and hopes, Jesus saw His own face.”[3] Christ repeatedly stated to the disciples, Pharisees, and others that He existed with and came from the Father.

The Word God (Theos)

The word Theos (God) refers to God the Father in the New Testament, “Nonetheless, there are several passages where it is also used to refer to Jesus Christ.”[4] One of the most well-known is, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). Another is John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” This is a direct reference to God and His essence as Spirit, “This first statement is to be connected with verse one, which also speaks of Jesus Christ in His self-existence is an eternal and infinite Spirit. Then, to show the very special relationship of the Son to the Father.”[5]

The Word Lord (Kyrios)

Grudem defines Kyrios in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) as the Hebrew word, Yahweh. Yahweh is translated “LORD,” or “Jehovah.” It is used to translate the name of the Lord 6, 814 times in the Greek Old Testament, “Therefore, any Greek-speaking reader at the time of the New Testament who had any knowledge at all of the Septuagint would have recognized that, in contexts where it was appropriate, the word “Lord” was the name of the one who was the Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth, the omnipotent God.”[6]

In the New Testament, there are many instances where ‘Lord’ is used of Christ, “In what can only be understood as…Yahweh or God himself.”[7] These names of God refer not only to the Father but also Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, attributing to Christ the nature and attributes of God.

The Son of Man

The Son of Man was one of the most prominent names that Jesus’ used in referring to Himself. The Gospels record seventy-eight times that Jesus used this title. The Son of Man is the name associated with the eschatological prophecy in Daniel 7:13. The title is connected to the earthly life of Jesus. He refers to Himself as the Son of Man in the healing of the paralytic, which we see in Mark 9:6. He also referred to Himself as the Son of Man as the Lord of the Sabbath (Mk. 2:28); with His suffering (Mk. 8:31); and concerning His future death and resurrection: “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (KJV). The Son of Man is a title that was used exclusively by Jesus—His disciples did not address Him as such. Jesus uses this title when referring to His humanity, but also as a designation of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God.

Son Of God

One important aspect of His nature that Scripture claims, and vital to His pre-existence, is that He is the Son of God. The term “Son of God” is used to refer to Israel; a man created by God; or a redeemed man in general. Some even assert that the Sons of God in Genesis chapter 6 and Job 1:6; 2:1 refer to angels. However, “There are nevertheless instances in which the phrase “Son of God” refers to Jesus as the heavenly, eternal Son who is equal to God Himself (see Matt. 11: 25-30; 17:5; 1 Cor. 15:28; Heb. 1:1-3, 5, 8).”[8] Christ is referred to as the “Son of God” in a more unique sense than the created, the redeemed, and the celestial creation.

When an individual comes to faith in Jesus Christ, they become a son of God, “But as many as received him, to them gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Jn. 1:12 KJV). But only Jesus is the Only-begotten of the Father, “And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him” (Heb. 1:6 KJV). The author of Hebrews is drawing from the only Old Testament reference to the “Only-begotten,” as Psalm 2:7 reads, “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’” This designation is only attributed to Christ by the Father.

In the next post, we will look at more of Jesus’ claims of how He is the Incarnate Christ and other witnesses who verified His claims.

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[1] Elwell, Dictionary of Theology, 1019. 

[2] Spiros Zodhiates, ed., The Complete Word Study New Testament (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 1992), 306. 

[3] Grudem, 544. 

[4] Ibid.

[5] Grudem, 546.

[6] George L. Carey, God Incarnate (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press., 1977), 11.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Christopher J.H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through The Old Testament (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press., 1992), 108.

 

God Was In Christ: The Doctrine Of The Incarnation V

I wrote to you in an earlier post that Christ did not begin to exist at His birth in Bethlehem. He has always existed; the Godhead Trinity are co-equal, co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will; all uncreated, and all three are eternal without beginning. Jesus Himself told the Jews that “…Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” {Jn. 8:58 NASB}, and He said in John 6:62, “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” (NASB). Not only does Scripture affirm the pre-existence of Christ, but the earliest leaders of the church, from the Patristics to the Reformers, concluded that Scripture taught that Christ eternally existed with the Father (One of the greatest works being St. Athanasius’ On The Incarnation). His pre-existence is revealed throughout the Old and New Testaments, the prophets, and by Jesus Himself, which I will discuss all in later posts. Christ’s divine nature is the very same nature as the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ, according to His divine nature is immutable, impassible, and neither lessened nor weakened by the incarnation.[1]

The pre-existence of Christ is essential to the Incarnation. If Christ pre-existed eternally with the Father, He was God. If He did not pre-exist, He could not have been God. If He is God, He is to be worshiped as God, and the attributes of God should be ascribed to Him. The complete teaching of Scripture about Jesus Christ is that He was fully human and fully divine. “Although the Word does not explicitly occur in Scripture, the church has used the term Incarnation to refer to the fact that Jesus was God in human flesh. The Incarnation was the act of God the Son whereby he took to himself a human nature.”[2] Scripture implies and assumes that Jesus was God. The nature of Christ’s pre-existence deals with the nature of His deity. If Jesus’ birth was His beginning, He was not God, and it negates any idea that He is the Word in the flesh. He simply could not be God incarnate if He did not pre-exist eternally with the Father. “The world was from the beginning, but the Word was in the beginning. The Word had a being before the world had a beginning. He that was in the beginning never began, and therefore was.”[3]

Another aspect of the nature of His pre-existence is that He is the Second Person of the Trinity. The implications of this are imperative to His pre-existence. Christ was not only human, but He also claimed to be equal with God; sharing the very same essence of the Father. Jesus prayed in John 17:5, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This is a clear statement by Christ that He existed before the world. This means Jesus existed before His birth and was as God in nature and attributes.

 

There are several key events in Scripture that speak to the eternal Second Person of the Trinity. It is these events that solidify His pre-existence. We will examine these events in the next post with the appearances of Christ in the Old Testament.

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[1] Timothy Pawl, In Defense Of Conciliar Christology: A Philosophical Essay (Oxford: Oxford University Press., 2016), 16.

[2] Grudem, 543. 

[3] Leslie Church, ed., Matthew Henry’s Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1960), 1506.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

“For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” {Is. 9:6 NASB}.

God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 24

 Day 24 Luke Chapter 24

We made it through all twenty-four chapters! Thank you for walking through Luke’s wonderful Gospel with me. I pray that these little devotions blessed you and helped to make your Advent season one of reflection and dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“They said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’” (v. 32 NASB).

 This is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. I pray this prayer every day: May my heart burn within me as you open the Scriptures to me. If I had a time machine, the road to Emmaus would be my first choice so that I could eavesdrop on the Lord’s conversation with these two disciples. 

This account is the first of three post-resurrection appearances Christ made in the New Testament. Two men are walking to Emmaus just a few days after the crucifixion of the Lord. Jesus came upon them, though they did not recognize Him through their sorrow. He came to comfort them in their grief. I love the rendering of the KJV, NKJV, and the ESV, which says that Jesus drew near to them.

Together, these three men walked, and they listened as He encouraged them that what the women reported was true. Yet another glimmer of hope that the injustice from just a few short days before could be made right. Jesus opened their spiritual eyes so they could understand all that the Scripture spoke about Christ—His sufferings, death, and resurrection. He began with the Old Testament—Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. He was exactly who He claimed to be—the Christ, the Son of God, the promised Redeemer. No one was more worthy or qualified to explain the Scripture to them than the Prince of Peace—the very Word. His words were so full of power and life that their hearts burned within them; they were like a burning fire in them like many others who came before them who heard with joy the Words of the Lord:

My heart was hot within me, While I was musing the fire burned {Ps. 39:3 NASB}. 

“But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,’ Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it’” {Jer. 20:9 NASB}.

They tasted what John the Baptist declared about Jesus, that He would baptize with fire.

I cannot escape the language of drawing near. For that is just what God did in sending His Son. He drew near to us because we could not draw near to Him. He came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. There was no way for us to draw close to Him because of our sin. But the Lord of Glory drew near and communed so that He could have a relationship with His fallen human creation. Jesus walked the road to Emmaus, and at their bidding, He broke bread with them. As soon as He blessed the bread and ate with them, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him! He vanished before them, but they were witnesses to the Eleven that what the women proclaimed—that Jesus was indeed resurrected—and their hope was revived! 

In the quiet, cold night, Christ crept into the world unnoticed, except for a few lowly shepherds. While the world slept, the long-awaited promise—the Redeemer, Deliverer, and King of Glory drew near to the world that He loved so much, in a humble stable that holy night. 

He did for us what we could not do for ourselves; we now have the privilege of drawing near to Him:

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” {Heb. 10:22 NASB}.

 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” {Jam. 4:8 NASB}

 

 

 

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God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 23

 Day 23 Luke Chapter 23

“And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong” {v.41 NASB}.

Jesus was born in a manger and died on a cross. He came to redeem mankind from our fallenness, darkness, sin, and rebellion. He was the only perfect sacrifice for sin and the only mediator we will ever need {1 Timothy 2:5-6}. He was declared innocent by seven different people that day. Seven times, Jesus was examined, judged, and found to be without sin. God is a detail-oriented God. Each sacrifice brought to the Tabernacle was to be carefully observed by the priest to ensure that the offering was without spot or blemish. Everything in the Law in Israel was observed; in Christ, they are fulfilled; in the church (believers), they are applied. Christ fulfilled every Old Testament Scripture concerning the Messiah.

Jesus’ innocence was so apparent that even a thief dying on the cross next to Him could see the truth. Though Luke’s Gospel gives the impression that one thief mocked Him and one did not, Matthew and Mark’s Gospels provide the full account. Matthew 27:44 and Mark 15:32 reveal that both criminals mocked Jesus.

Though both mocked Him, hours spent being crucified next to the King of kings taught him to think better. He began to see Jesus for who He was and put his faith and trust in the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth. The condemned thief and criminal who was a rebel against God became a child of God. What a difference one moment can make in one life. He was no longer on his way to hell but rather on his way to paradise. In a moment, he was a criminal who did not deserve mercy but was welcomed into the Lord’s bosom that very day. What mercy. What grace. What a price Christ paid to bridge that gulf between God and man, life and death.

That is what the innocent babe in the manger came for; to seek and save the lost {Lk. 19:10}. The same mercy and grace He extended to that dying, repentant thief is available to you and me. He was innocent of sin at His birth; He was innocent of sin at His death. That is what He took on His shoulders for you and me.

I know I have made much use of Bonhoeffer in my Advent musings, but he says it so eloquently:

The Great Turning Point Of All Things

What kings and leaders of nations, philosophers and artists, founders of religion and teachers of morals have tried in vain to do—that now happens through a newborn child. Putting to shame the most powerful human efforts and accomplishments, a child is placed here at the midpoint of world history—a child born of human beings, a Son given by God {Is. 9:6}. That is the mystery of the redemption of the world; everything past and everything future is encompassed here. The infinite mercy of the Almighty God comes to us, descends to us in the form of a child, his Son. That this child is born for us, this son is given to us, that this human child and Son of God belongs to me, that I know him, have him, love him, that I am his and he is mine—on this alone my life now depends. A child has our life in his hands.[1]

 

 

 

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is In The Manger (Westminster: John Knox Press., 2010), 56.

God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 22

 Day 22 Luke Chapter 22

“And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow, and said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation’” {vv.44-46 NASB}.

This verse touches me. It causes me to ponder the humanness of Jesus. He was truly God, but He was also truly man. You cannot diminish Jesus’ humanity, or you will never fully grasp the depths of Gethsemane or your own humanity when faced with trials. Jesus could have gone His own way and followed His own will. But thankfully, He chose to follow hard after God and to fulfill the will of the Father. Our salvation was on the cusp as He cried out in anguished prayer, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” {v. 42 NAS}. He obeyed the Father—sealing our salvation. The curse that came on Adam in the garden to toil by the sweat of his brow is broken by the Redeemer of the world in a garden by the blood sweat from His brow.

In His love for real human beings, Jesus becomes the one burdened by guilt – indeed, the one upon whom all human guilt ultimately falls and the one who does not turn it away but bears it humbly and in eternal love… As the human being who has entered reality, Jesus becomes guilty. But because His historical existence, His incarnation, has its sole basis in God’s love for human beings, it is the love of God that makes Jesus become guilty. Out of selfless love for human beings, Jesus leaves His state as the one without sin and enters into the guilt of human beings. He takes it upon Himself.[1]

Each of us will face our own hard trials. Though we do not bear the salvation of the world on our shoulders, we each must choose in the hard places who we will follow…our fleshly desires or the will of the Father.

Advent is about Jesus’ birth in a manger, that Holy crèche on that Holy night, but will we make room for Him? Not just as our Savior but also our Lord in the hard places—the hard choices—in this fallen world.

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is In The Manger (Westminster: John Knox Press., 2010), 34.

God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 21

 Day 21 Luke Chapter 21

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” {vv. 27-28}.

I love it when the Old Testament meets the New. Jesus speaks of yet another fulfillment of God’s Word that He poured into His prophets concerning things to come. And Jesus, the Son of Man, stands before them in fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s words given by God. Jesus came to save the world and to offer salvation to those who will receive the precious gift. Those who choose Him become citizens of the glorious, universal Kingdom of which Daniel foretold. The Jews have been harassing Jesus for a sign that He is who He says He is, and He answers their demand. 

“I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him” {Daniel 7:13 NASB}.

“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen” {Revelation 1:7 NASB}.

We must remember that though Christ came as a baby, He is a grown, real person who grew in wisdom and stature before the Lord {Lk. 2:52}. Christianity does not follow a certain set of rules but a real faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to us and now lives in us through His Spirit. He lived and died and rose again to redeem you and me. At the Second Advent, He will judge our mortal lives, our decisions, and whether or not we lived for Him. This is a time to reflect on our lives and consider whether any part of our life does not please Him. The One True God is holy and hates sin, but He loves us immensely, so much that He sent His Son to redeem the world. Because we are living for Him His Second Advent need not be a terror in the night. Only those who persist in their wickedness need fear His coming. If we submit our lives to Him now, we will be accepted when He appears on that Great Day.

His message is urgent: We believers on earth must be ready. The tribulation and tumult of the earth will not last forever. Just when it looks as though the anguish and despair can only worsen, Christ will be revealed in the heavens, and every eye shall see Him. And the old prophet Zechariah’s words concerning His appearance will come to pass, “they will say where did you get those marks in your hands? And he will say, ‘in the house of my friends’” {see Zech. 13:6}. Then, according to the Apostle Paul, the Jewish nation will be born in a day, and all of Israel will be saved.

Jesus will also place His precious, nail-pierced feet on the Mount of Olives. The prophet Zechariah tells us that Christ, accompanied by His raptured saints, will enter the great city of Jerusalem. The returning saints, along with believers on earth, will gather to crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords, and Christ will begin His millennial and eternal reign.

Are you ready for His return? What part of you are withholding from Him that you may offer Him as a gift this Advent season? Is there room in the inn of your heart for this precious gift of the promised Redeemer?

Let’s not deceive ourselves. “Your redemption is drawing near” {Luke 21:28}, whether we know it or not, and the only question is: are we going to let it come to us too, or are we going to resist it? Are we going to join in this movement that comes down from heaven to earth or are we going to close ourselves off? Christmas is coming—whether it is with us or without us depends on each and every one of us. Such a true event happening now creates something different from the anxious, petty, depressed, feeble Christian spirit that we see again and again, and that again and again, wants to make Christianity contemptible… Advent creates people, new people. We too are supposed to become new people in advent.[1]

 

 

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is In The Manger (Westminster: John Knox Press., 2010), 40.

God Was In Christ The Doctrine of the Incarnation An Advent Journal Part IV

The Incarnation: Necessary For Salvation

Why did Christ come to earth? Why would He leave the glory of heaven to live in human skin and suffer the things this world has to offer?


The Incarnation is essential to God’s plan of redemption. Salvation comes by believing in Him as Lord and Savior and accepting the sacrifice He made for mankind. Packer writes,

“Take the atonement, how can we believe that the death of Jesus of Nazareth—one man, expiring on a Roman gibbet— put away the world’s sins? How can that death have any bearing on God’s forgiveness of our sins today?”[1] The writer of Hebrews answers Packer’s query, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17 NASB). 

He came and died as a sacrifice for sin. We are incapable of making the sacrifice for ourselves. It is only by the sacrifice made by Christ, that we can be forgiven and reconciled to God. If Jesus were a mere human being, He would in the end amount to nothing more than a great religious teacher or spiritual guide. However, in the Incarnation, God bears the brunt of suffering and evil by subjecting Himself to the cruelty and horror of the world.[2]

Mankind was made in the glorious image of God:

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth’” (Gen. 1:26 NASB).

The Potter molding His clay; The divine Creator creating. He separates mankind from the rest of creation to be made in His holy image:

“The image of God in Genesis 1 functions as a calling for humankind: to use all their capacities, those they share with the other animals and especially those that set them apart, in establishing a community that exercises dominion over God’s world, a dominion that reflects God’s faithfulness, wisdom, benevolence, and creativity.”[3]



Satan came to the garden and broke the earthen vessels and tempted them to sin by choosing to believe his lies. They fell, damaging the beautiful image that God bestowed on them. This was too big for them to repair; they had dug a hole too big to climb out themselves. God had to cast them from His presence. He longed to restore mankind to Himself so they could once again be in His presence. 

“What was God to do? What else could He possibly do, being God, but renew His Image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know Him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very Image Himself, our Saviour Jesus Christ? Men could not have done it, for they are only made after the Image; nor could angels have done it, for they are not the image of God. The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father, Who could recreate man made after the Image…He assumed a human body in order that in it death might once for all be destroyed, and that men might be renewed according to the Image. The Image of the Father only was sufficient for this need.”[4]

That is His purpose—that we may know Him. That we have a personal relationship with Him. That He be our everything. He loves us that much.

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[1] J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press., 1973), 52.
[2] Michael Green, The Truth Of God Incarnate (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), 103.
[3] C. John Collins, Reading Genesis Well (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018), 164.
[4] Athanasius, On The Incarnation (Yonkers: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press., 2011), 41.

Sabbath Sanctuary God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 20

 Day 20 Luke Chapter 20

“How is it that they say the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms,‘The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord,’ and how is He his son?’” (vv.41-44 NASB).

I love this exchange between Jesus and the religious leaders. Once again, wisdom is vindicated by all her children {Luke 7:35}. This speaks to the dual nature of Jesus, which the Jewish religious leaders never understood, though the Old Testament told them to look for these signs in the Redeemer. Jesus validates this by quoting from the verse in which the Lord gives dominion to the King. He solidifies the inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures.

What they did not understand is that Jesus was telling them that this implies both the future existence of David’s throne and the authority of the Messiah over all that has been given Him by the Father, His spiritual authority as King over the nations.

The Sadducees were silenced once again by Jesus, who as fully God {the preexistent Christ} was David’s Lord, and as fully man was David’s son. This same account in Matthew’s Gospel tells us that He so confounded them that “No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question” {Matt. 22:46 NASB}. Jesus again bewildered His adversaries.

In God’s holy promise of the coming Savior into the world, it was imperative that the prophecies reveal both the true God and true man nature of the Holy Savior. The revelation of the coming Redeemer of man-kind—this holy truth—caused the Old Testament prophecies to declare of Him, “And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace,” as well as being the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief {Is. 9:6; Is. 53: 1-12}. 

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Sabbath Sanctuary God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 19

Day 19 Luke Chapter 19

“The whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’” {vv.37-38 NASB}.

In the third chapter of Luke’s wonderous gospel, we again see people crying out to God. The ten lepers, blind Bartimaeus, cry out in anguish for mercy. Now, the crying rings of anguish have become praise for the miracles they have seen, a stark contrast from the nine who went their own way. One wonders if they were in the crowd that day.

Rejoice Zion! The prophecy is fulfilled in their very presence:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey” {Zech. 9:9}.

Advent is a season in which we look for the crèche, the babe in the manger, and rightly so. But I think that when we read about Christ’s triumphal entry, we tend to lose the seriousness of what this particular day means. This entry into Jerusalem is definitely revered on Palm Sunday, but do we understand the whole meaning of this day? What are we seeing?

We have become accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God’s coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God’s coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. {Dietrch Bonhoeffer, The Coming of Jesus in our Midst}.

Reflect and prayerfully seek God about what His coming truly means for this world. He is the Light in darkness that was foretold from ages past. He is the blessed King who comes in the name of the Lord, bringing Peace for those enduring this chaotic world—this weary world rejoices…the promised King is here. Yes, He was a babe in a manger, which is what we are celebrating in this hushed season of Advent—don’t let go of that holy hush. Let us also remember that He is our King and is coming again.

 

 

 

 

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God Was In Christ: An Advent Reading Of Luke 18

Day 18 Luke Chapter 18

“‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (vv. 38-39 NASB).

These two chapters of Luke speak volumes to the pain and suffering in the world. Two accounts of hurting and sick people crying out for the mercy of God. If He does not see their pain and intervene, they have no hope.

Bartimaeus has lived in a blind existence. His world was dark and lonely. Jesus said that while He is in the world, He is the Light of the World {Jn. 4:5}. Isaiah prophesied of the coming Child that He came to give Zion a happy future;

“Say to those with anxious heart, ‘Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy’” (Is. 35:4-5 NASB).  

Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God…

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the Lamb

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
That sleeping child you're holding is the Great I Am.

(Mary Did You Know? Mark Lowery, 1984)

How often have we faced trials and circumstances that have brought us to our knees and caused us to cry out with anguished desperation, “Jesus, have mercy on me!?” The darkness, the sickness; this lost, dark, evil world gives many an opportunity. I have been brought to cry out on many occasions. 

“God doesn’t miss a single sigh that escapes our lips. But historically, God’s people most often cried out in spoken words that sprang from the depths of their being. 

Remember this Advent that He came to set the captives free—giving sight to the blind and opening deaf ears to hear the Good News of His coming Kingdom and to see Him when He arrives. Keep your eyes open. He will be arriving soon. 

 

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