FreeTruth

“Holy God, in love, became
Perfect man to bear my blame
On the cross He took my sin
By His death I live again.”

“For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never
end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.”

In this translation, the word “will” is mentioned eight times. For years I have read these verses of Scripture and it wasn’t until now that I even noticed it.

Holy God, Perfect Man, willed.
To bear our blame, He willed to be for us, what we could never be for ourselves.
On the cross, He, Holy, Holy, Holy God willed to be given for us.
He willed to bear our sin so that by His death we’d share eternity with Him.

The Great Jehovah, Mighty God, Abba Father willed to become a man who would be the Lamb of God. The living Word, the infallible source of guidance and inexhaustible wisdom, was born to die, to triumph over death, hell and the grave.

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction!…”

Sisters and brothers, may we purpose to pause, ponder and worship the One who, by His divine will, came to earth. His will in heaven became His will on earth. Let’s give to Him the glory, honor, and praise due His name. As difficult as it may be to fathom this truth, we can by faith accept the incomprehensible and choose, because of it, to never grow weary or faint.

Stephanie Paul

In Hebrews 2:14-18 we learn that the only means for man’s deliverance required Jesus to become a real man. In that sense only, He “partook of the same.” “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

Herein we see the love of Christ in that when He knew what He must suffer in our nature, and how He must die, He readily took our nature upon Him. God could never accept the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings to take away sin, and so He sent a substitute.

Jesus did not come to be the Savior of fallen angels but of man. Only the great mission of mercy to mankind caused Christ to leave His exalted place in heaven and become a man. Sometimes I think we don’t really appreciate the uniqueness of God’s love and mercy to mankind. We were equally guilty of rebellion against God as the angels were, but God left heaven to rescue us, not them. God chose to have mercy on man and graciously lead him to repentance.

The incarnation of Christ was required to accomplish our salvation. He became a real man and dwelled among us as “a merciful and faithful high priest.” He can be faithful to God and merciful to man. In “things pertaining to God,” to His justice, and to His honor, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to reconcile God to man. So Christ’s substitutionary death satisfies God’s righteous nature. There was no higher or lower nature than man that could suffer for the sin of man and satisfy the justice of God. Christ became man that He might die; because as God He could not die.

Oh, what a blessed Savior we have, Jesus the divine Mediator between a holy God and guilty man! What indescribable love He displayed in taking on flesh and blood; what kind condescension, what wondrous depths of unspeakable grace! He loved us sufficiently to lay down his life for us. Did not Christ for our sakes endure the agony of the cross, the turning away of the Father’s face, the burden of sin, and the pangs of hell?

He has renewed our lives, made us feel our sin, taught us to seek for mercy, raised up a hope in our hearts, applied a promise to our souls, given us a testimony. And it is only to make a further way for his grace; to open up more of his willingness and ability to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. It is only to make Himself in the end more precious to us; to show us more of his finished work, more of his dying love and atoning blood, and more of what He is able to do in delivering us from all our fears.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55) Amen.

Sesky Paul

In Matthew 1:21 we read: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Is this possible? If this is true, what is the significance of it all? Surely God does not perform such a miracle for any small purpose. These kinds of thoughts must have been racing through Joseph’s mind. The answer to these questions came in the same message, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” What a purpose!

But did Joseph fully understand what this meant? I think probably not. How often we fail to see the full significance of this name even after we’ve experienced the grace from the hand of the One bearing the name. However, two things could have come instantly into Joseph’s mind when he heard the name with which he was to call this baby boy.

Two other men of the Old Testament bore this name. The Hebrew form of the name is Joshua: “Yahweh Saves.” There was Joshua the captain of the army of Israel that led God’s people out from the punishment for their sins (the wilderness wanderings) and into the Promised Land. Then there was Joshua the High Priest after Israel’s captivity to Persia, of whom it was said, “the counsel of peace shall be between them” (Zech. 6:13); and of whom it was also said, “he shall build the temple of the Lord.”

One Joshua led Israel into salvation and blessing, and the other Joshua led them into peaceful relationship with God in his presence. “Christ is our Joshua; both the Captain of our salvation, and the High Priest of our profession, and, in both, our Savior” (Matthew Henry).

One Joshua led Israel out of their wanderings in the wilderness; Jesus leads us out of our hopeless pursuit of sin. Joshua led Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey; Jesus leads us into every blessing that our heavenly Father could possibly bestow on us.

The other Joshua represented the people before God in the temple; Jesus represents us by being our Great High Priest that places that temple in our hearts and by tearing the curtain to the Holy of Holies so that we can forever, in peace, come boldly to the throne of grace. Jesus leads us out of the bondage of our sin and into “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3). While it was said that “the counsel of peace shall be between them,” referring to Joshua the High Priest; it has also been said of Jesus, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.”

What amazing truth is wrapped up in just our Savior’s name: Jesus.

Elliot Shorey

In Matthew 4:16 we read: “…the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

There is a piece of war history that stirs me deeply whenever I hear the story. The year was 1914. World War I was under way. There on the western front, the darkness of war was deep. Young British and German soldiers were being slaughtered by each other in Belgium.

But then, in the very cold December air of this first winter of the war, something wonderful happened. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, silence replaced the sound of artillery and gunfire. Peering out across the battle zone, the British observed the Germans decorating their trenches with candles. Then came music as the German soldiers began to sing “Stille Nacht” (Silent Night). The British answered with Christmas carols of their own. Christmas greetings where then shouted across the field.

Eventually two German soldiers came up from the trenches, laid down their weapons, and walked out into the “No Man’s Land” between the battle lines. Soon they were met by unarmed British soldiers. And there, where only hours before bullets had been flying, and men had been killed, gifts and smiles were being exchanged! This went on through the night and into Christmas Day. There was even a report of a Christmas Day soccer game between British and German forces!

What happened? Simply this… “To those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, upon them a light dawned.” It was the Light of Christmas that brought this sudden cease-fire and good will; the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace temporarily trumped the war.

One Advent Hymn my wife and I have loved though the years is “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.” The third stanza speaks beautifully of Eternal Light coming to earth, and how darkness ultimately cannot stand against Light.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

Brothers and sisters, a Son has been given to us, and the Light has long since dawned upon the world. Yet many continue to sit in darkness. Let us faithfully proclaim the Light to this dark and dying world which has mostly chosen not to behold the Light.

Let our celebration of Christmas this year be robust. Let us boldly proclaim that the Eternal Light has dawned! There is no day like Christmas Day!

Peter Cardillo

We love a good rags-to-riches story, be it the animated Cinderella, the families in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, or a man like Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was born into poverty in Scotland in 1835 and by the end of the century became the richest man in the world.

2 Corinthians 8:9 speaks to us about poverty and wealth, rags and riches. It speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as one who was rich, and the extent of his riches in eternity are beyond our ability to comprehend. Surely Christ was the richest being in the universe.

Yet this verse speaks of his grace shown to us in his decision to become poor. Packer describes this verse as the key New Testament text for interpreting the incarnation. He says this because it views the incarnation not just as a “marvel of nature, but rather as a wonder of grace!”

The text speaks of Christ’s humiliation as gracious, voluntary, selfless, and purposeful. Gracious in that Christ did not become poor for us because of our goodness or deserving. Voluntary in that the text says it is Christ’s grace, a gift of his own giving. Selfless in that it was “for your sake,” he did it for us. Purposeful in that he did it “so that;” there was a reason for it, and that reason we are told is so that we might become rich.

When we think of Christ in the manger this Christmas season, let’s remember and marvel at his poverty. He was literally wrapped in rags to keep warm in a stable. A humbler, poorer birthplace was hardly possible. Let’s remember that through the incarnation, we are rich, for Christ did not fail in his purpose.

I fear that one of my greatest shortcomings as a Christian is going through life as if I am poor. John Paul Getty, one of the first people in the world to accrue a fortune of one billion dollars, was once asked what it was like to be the richest man in the world. His response: “I don’t feel very rich”. I don’t want to be the spiritual equivalent of John Paul Getty. I want to
remember this Christmas season that because Christ became poor, I AM RICH!

These thoughts are wonderfully summed up in the following Christmas hymn:

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,
all for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
sapphire paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,
all for love’s sake becamest poor;

Thou who art God beyond all praising,
all for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising,
heavenward by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
all for love’s sake becamest man;

Thou who art love, beyond all telling,
Savior and King, we worship thee.
Emmanuel, within us dwelling,
make us what thou wouldst have us be.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Savior and King, we worship thee.

Amen.

Scott Stengele

Some 700 years before incarnate Deity walked this earth in the Person of Jesus the Messiah, an ancient Jewish prophet penned words from the Holy Spirit that foretold in precise detail who He would be as God in human flesh, and what He would do to accomplish redemption for His people. In the 53rd chapter of this great prophecy of Isaiah, we are given what John MacArthur appropriately describes as that which “contains unarguable, incontrovertible proof that God is the author of Scripture and Jesus the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Isaiah 53 presents details so minute that no human could have predicted them by accident and no imposter fulfilled them by cunning.” And so the first thing I would like us to see is this evidence of the Divine authorship of the Bible that is so clearly and powerfully demonstrated for us in this passage.

The second thing I would like us to see as we reflect on this passage is its message. In this prophecy Isaiah has given a description in advance of Jesus in His mediatorial work as the suffering Servant of the Lord, the great Lamb of God bearing the sin of God’s elect people as a substitutionary sacrifice for the forgiveness of their sins. Moreover, we find in this passage the whole saving work of Christ in summary form–His humiliation and exaltation: His substitutionary death, burial, resurrection, saving of sinners, intercession for them, and His kingdom. Matthew Henry rightly says that this chapter is so filled “with the unsearchable riches of Christ that it may be called rather the gospel of the evangelist Isaiah than the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah.”

The central concern that God through His prophet speaks to us about in this passage is our most pressing and desparate need and His gracious provision for that need. While we have many felt needs, things that we think are our most important needs, by nature we do not percieve our greatest need——the forgiveness ot our sins before a holy God and a restored relationship with Him. There is a bumper sticker that says: Jesus is the answer. One might ask—-what is the question? What is Jesus the answer for? Often it is to meet or satisfy not our greatest need, but one or more of our felt needs, to make life comfortable and happy. In response to this kind of desire, C.S. Lewis expressed it well when he said: “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
But oh how our most desperate need, our greatest need is met in the Savior! He is “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” because “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (vs. 3-4). Indeed “He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (vs. 5-6).

When He came as a baby born in Bethlehem–He came for this.

Phillip Bliss expressed it well when he wrote in his hymn drawn in part from Isaiah 53:

“Man of Sorrows! what a name
for the Son of God who came,
ruined sinners to reclaim:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!”

Bruce Bradford