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State of the Church 2024 – On Hard Work & Holy Ambition (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

In our day, it is commonplace to hear messages on the need for work/life balance, the need for “me time,” and the dangers of workaholics, ambition, and stress. And I am convinced that 99% of it is a siren song for laziness, apathy, selfishness, and cowardice. 

The Lord created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, and our Lord Jesus remade the world in three days and rested on the first day, re-affirming the Sabbath principle and transforming the first day into the Christian Sabbath (cf. Heb. 4:9-10). But the Kingdom of God is taken by a kind of holy violence, that is, great struggle and ambition (Mt. 11:12). 

The Text: “Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom…” (Mt. 20:20-28).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

One time Mrs. Zebedee and her two sons came to worship Christ, and she asked for her sons to be given places of honor at His right and left hand (Mt. 20:20-21). Jesus gently corrected her, insisting that she didn’t quite know what she was asking for (Mt. 20:22), but His question in return did not utterly reject the request. He asked whether James and John would be able to endure the suffering that would be required for that kind of glory and authority (Mt. 20:22). When they replied in the affirmative, Jesus granted at least that – they would drink His cup and endure His baptism, but those places of authority were prepared by His Father (Mt. 20:22-23). 

While the other ten were upset with James and John for even making the request (probably envious that they had not asked first), Jesus did not rebuke the brothers but exhorted them all to give up every semblance of Gentile power-grabbing (Mt. 20:24-25). Instead, His disciples must be committed to the greatness that comes through long service and suffering (Mt. 20:26-27). This greatness is principally illustrated and accomplished by the suffering service of Christ Himself, who gave His life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). 

HOLY AMBITION

Jesus does not say that desiring greatness and authority is wrong or foolish. Instead, He simply insists on two things: first, the only path to greatness is faithful suffering, and second, the results are in God’s hands. But if Jesus is the prime example, this does not mean that Christians should hope for minimal earthly impact or influence. Rather, if Jesus has been given the name that is above all other names through His obedient suffering, all Christians should seek to emulate that obedience to gain greatness under His name. For example, Paul says that he outpaced all the other apostles in his zeal for the kingdom, but it was God’s grace that enabled him (1 Cor. 15:10). It’s true that we ought rather be janitors in the Kingdom of God than dwell in tents of wickedness (Ps. 84:10), but that doesn’t mean our goal should be mediocre. Our goal should be to work hard for the King, enduring all trouble and difficulty gladly for His sake, and let Him use us where He will.   

FAITHFUL WITH LITTLE

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the talents, praising the servants who invested what was given to them and doubled the master’s money: “well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Mt. 25:21, 23). But the servant who buried his talent in the ground and merely returned what was given is called wicked and slothful, his one talent is stripped from him, and he is cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt. 25:26-30). And his most heinous sin is his view of the master as a hard and greedy man, which is why he is cast into Hell. But God is not hard and greedy; He is generous and bountiful. 

APPLICATIONS

We need Christians who know that their Father is a generous God who will give abundantly more than we ask or think – because He has already given us His son – and therefore, they study, work, and build with a holy ambition and deep, joyful expectation. 

The way God made the world requires the necessity of study and service first. There is a caricature of some of the younger generations (e.g. “Gen Z”) of a sort of entitlement mentality, insisting on easy, high paying jobs without proving your wisdom or worth. These are people who quit jobs after a few days or weeks because they are “hard” and they don’t feel very “appreciated.” This should be a completely foreign notion for Christians. We need young men hungry for vocations of leadership in politics and the corporate world. This is call for Daniels and Josephs, which is to say, these are paths of suffering, persecution, hardship, often with real leadership and authority, though only rarely with much temporal glory. 

This is why we have put such a premium on Christian education. But it is not enough to merely remove our kids from the public schools. We really do want our sons and daughters to be full of knowledge and wisdom, and this requires wisdom to know how to raise the bar while remember their frame. Related, while our sons and daughters are called to different vocations, this does not mean that our daughters need be less educated. Let us have wives and daughters as ambitious as Mrs. Zebedee and sons like her sons. 

We need young men hungry for pastoral ministry and missionary work. Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Mt. 9:37-38). It has always been the case, since at least the time of Jesus, that unbelievers are more eager to come into the kingdom than believers are to welcome them in. But there is a particular glory in the sacrifices of those who give their lives to proclaim the gospel because it imitates the life of the One who has received all glory and honor.

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Christmas & the Outer Darkness – Christmas Eve 2023 (Toby Sumpter)

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If there is one thing our land lacks, it is the fear of God. Romans 3 says there’s none righteous, none seeks after God, all are unprofitable, our mouths are like open graves, our tongues are full of poisonous venom, full of cursing and lies and bitterness, shedding innocent blood, destruction and misery fill our days, there’s no knowledge of peace, and the final summary of it all is: there is no fear of God before their eyes. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then the refusal to fear God is the beginning of all kinds of destructive insanity.

Even in the Christian Church, you do not hear messages on the fear of God, the wrath of God, the justice of God – even at Christmas, maybe especially at Christmas. But Christmas is all about the justice of God: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Is. 9:7). Christmas is all about the zealous justice of God, which ought to make everyone tremble: “Let all mortal flesh keep silence // And with fear and trembling stand… Christ our God to earth descendeth // Our full homage to demand.”

But Christians rush to the verses about perfect love casting out fear, and remember: the angels told Mary and Joseph and the shepherds to “fear not.” Of course there is a kind of fear that Christ came to take away: the fear of death, the fear of torment. But there is also a kind of godly fear that Christ came to restore: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28). “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). And Jesus Himself said, “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Lk. 12:4-5).

So what is this godly fear? It is an acknowledgement of God’s utter immensity and power and perfection and justice. It is an acknowledgement of your own frailty and weakness and utter dependence and deficiencies. All things exist and hold together by the power of God’s omnipotent Word, and therefore we are all walking and living every moment on the high wire of God’s kindness, suspended over absolute eternity. Your heart trembles to see madmen walk across wires suspended between skyscrapers. Maybe you get sick at the thought of being in outer space or sky diving. But we are all constantly walking the high wire of existence, a hairsbreadth between us and forever. We all live in outer space. It is only God’s merciful will that keeps us from flying off this globe into the darkness.

But then add to this reality the fact that we have all repudiated, cursed, and defied the One who holds us at every moment. He holds us, giving us every breath, every heartbeat, and we demand our own way. He gives us life and health and every good thing, and we are full of bitterness and complaining. We are held up by His almighty power, and we struggle and kick and curse. In our sinful folly, we demand to be left alone. We try to run away from Him – which means, in our sinful insanity, we are trying to destroy ourselves. Like foolish toddlers on a balcony without a railing, we scream and kick and insist that God let us toddle around by ourselves. God is light, and He is the light of men, the light of all existence. Without Him there is only darkness, complete and absolute darkness.

It’s often been said that the night before the birth of Christ was the darkest night in the history of the world. And there’s something profoundly true about that. But it’s also true that wherever Christ has not yet come or wherever Christ has been rejected, wherever people insist on continuing in their sins, insist on going their own way, in that place there is still great darkness. Of course, so many people, even Christians, don’t want to talk about the darkness. They only want to talk about the light: grace, love, and joy. Isn’t that what Christmas is about?

But Jesus Christ, the One whose birth we are celebrating, is the One who came speaking, perhaps more than anyone else in the Bible, about the darkness, about judgment, about Hell. Jesus said the tares are the children of the Wicked One growing in His Kingdom that will be gathered up and thrown into a furnace of fire. Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a great net cast into the sea, and when it is pulled up to the shore, the bad and wicked are separated from the good and cast into a furnace of fire, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus repeatedly warned cities of their reception of Him, saying that their judgment would be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus said that those without a wedding garment will be cast out of the Marriage Feast, into outer darkness. He said that the one who buries his talent in the ground will have his talent taken away and be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said those who refuse to cut off hands and pluck out eyes that cause offense will be cast into hell, into fire that is never quenched, where the worm never dies.

When the Light of the World comes into the world, the first thing you notice is all the darkness. We cannot talk about the birth of the Light of the world, without talking about the darkness of the world, the darkness in our lives. And when we do that, it must cause us to tremble. The King has come, and we have rebelled. The Lord of Glory has appeared, and we have been plotting against Him. There is a kind of fear that He came to banish, and it is the fear that we see in our first parents in the Garden, the kind of fear that tries to hide. But you cannot hide from the Lord of all Light. In His Light everything is manifest: every thought, every word, every glance, every act. All is plain as day to Him. The kind of fear that tries to run away, tries to hide is foolish, fleshly fear of punishment. But godly fear trembles because we have offended our Father’s love. Godly fear falls to the ground in worship because we have not honored our King. Godly fear acknowledges that true justice would mean our destruction. It acknowledges that it would be good and righteous and holy if all sinners were cast into Hell for our insolence. Godly fear wants nothing but the glory of God because He is worthy, because He is the King. Godly fear does not run from the King. Godly fear stumbles toward the King, trembling and full of joy. Even if we perish, it would have been worth it to be so near the King.

John Bunyan once called godly fear a “blessed confusion.” It’s the confusion of knowing the greatness of God and the frailty of being a creature, the confusion of knowing the goodness and holiness of God and the shameful filth of our own hearts and lives. And in the midst of that confusion, hearing the words, from our Savior Himself, Come. Come and welcome. Come into the feast. Come into the light. And the fear of the Lord drives you in, trembling with joy. Because Christ has come for us. Christ was born for us. All is grace. All is gift. All is Christmas.

“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Is. 9:2).

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Have Yourself A Covenantal Christmas (Advent Grab Bag #4) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

The birth of Christ is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Adam, renewed with Noah and Abraham and David. And the overarching promise is a promise of mercy and the remission of our sins, which is like the sun coming up after a long dark night. 

The Text: “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David…” (Lk. 1:67-79).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This song of Zacharias is traditionally called the “Benedictus,” after the first word of the song: “blessed” (Lk. 1:67), and this song of praise centers on God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises to Israel (Lk. 1:68). The salvation that is coming is a direct fulfillment of promises to David (Lk. 1:69), but really all of the prophets since the beginning of the world, that we should be saved from all our enemies (Lk. 1:70-71). This was His holy covenant of mercy promised to our fathers, going back to Abraham, that we would be delivered from all our enemies and serve God in holiness and righteousness (Lk. 1:72-75). This song of praise is particularly for the birth of Zacharias’s son, John, who will be the prophet of God, to prepare the way of the Lord (Lk. 1:76). What God is ushering in is a greater knowledge of salvation through the remission of their sins, which is like the sun coming up at day break, giving light to everyone everywhere (Lk. 1:77-79). 

ONE COVENANT OF GRACE

One of the central themes of this song is covenant continuity. The birth of John and the coming Messiah are the “fulfillment” of all the covenant promises of all the prophets since the world began (Lk. 1:70-73). This began in the Garden of Eden after Adam sinned: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel… And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all the living” (Gen. 3:15, 20). This was the first covenant promise and prophecy of God’s mercy. But it was reaffirmed to Noah when God mercifully promised to never destroy the earth again and reissued the Dominion Mandate (Gen. 9:7-12). Likewise, God promised to be Abraham’s God and the God of his children after him, to bless all the families of the earth through his seed, and Abraham was justified by faith alone in these promises of God (Gen. 12, 15, 17). It was on the basis of those covenant promises to Abraham that God called Moses in His mercy to deliver Israel from Egypt and gave them His law (Ex. 3). It was the same covenant of mercy that God renewed with David, promising that he would have a son who would reign over the house of Israel forever (2 Sam. 7:12-29). 

A NEW COVENANT NOT LIKE THE OLD ONE

However, Zacharias’s song also indicates that something new is happening with the birth of John: there are some significant differences between the Old Covenant with the fathers and the New Covenant in Jesus (Heb. 8:7-9). This is why we also rightly speak of two covenants (Old and New) under the Covenant of Grace. We can call them covenant administrations of the one Covenant of Grace because that is the basis of salvation for all saints in both covenants: all were/are saved by faith in God’s promise to take away our sins (Lk. 1:72-75). But there really are some striking differences. It was the same “sun,” but the Old Covenant was the “night” of the history of the world and all the sacrifices and prophecies were like the reflection of the moon (think of God’s promise to Abraham, pointing at the stars in the night sky), but when Jesus was born, the sun rose over the horizon: “the dayspring/the sunrise… to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk. 1:78-79).

Hebrews is all about the vast improvement of the New Covenant and the futility of returning to the Old. The New Covenant is better because Christ is the perfect High Priest (Heb. 7), Christ is the perfect and final sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9), and because the offer of forgiveness is clearer and more effective (Heb. 10). This means we do believe that the New Covenant is far more potent, efficacious, and expansive (Heb. 8:10-12, 10:16-17). However, even Hebrews indicates that there are some who come into “the knowledge of the truth… who trod underfoot the Son of God” (Heb. 10:26, 29), who like Esau sell their birthright (Heb. 12:15-17), and fall away (Heb. 6:4-6). And so the warning is to flee all lust, complaining, idolatry, and pride (1 Cor. 10:1-14). Flee to His mercy.

APPLICATIONS

The central question is this: does God’s covenant mercy still extend (in history) through families? The Song of Zacharias says, yes. But what if some do not believe? What if some fall away? The sun is still risen. It’s still getting lighter. And what exactly is getting more and more clear and obvious? The grace of God.   

The covenant mercy of God is extended primarily through households, and in particular, through men who take responsibility for communicating that mercy to their households. This begins with believing that this is true: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved; and thy house” (Acts 16:31). This also includes praying for your house, both confessing sin and asking for grace for them (Job 1:5, 1 Pet. 3:7). And then teaching, correcting, and leading in grace. But you can’t give what you don’t have. 

What came upon that midnight clear was the Daybreak of God’s covenant mercy, the Sunrise of His tender mercy to families; not dark clouds of covenant condemnation, not the bleakness of covenant fear and anxiety, not the harshness of covenant threatening. Yes, we are required to speak the truth, but the truth about sin is that Christ was born to take it away. Christ was born for this.

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Deck Your Idols (Advent Grab Bag #3) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

There is great confusion in the modern church over the doctrine of repentance – over the fact that the good news of the gospel includes the command to turn from sin and idols. This command, just the like the command to “believe,” is a command in which Christ gives what He commands. And what He gives is Himself. Therefore, repentance is entirely grace, but it is a potent and powerful grace because precisely because it is primarily aimed at God’s glory.

The Text: “Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting…” (Mic. 5:1-15).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In the midst of calling Israel and Judah to repentance, Micah (a contemporary of Jeremiah, cf. Jer. 26:18), foretold the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:1-2, cf. Mt. 2:5-6). Not only that, but this is one of the texts that teaches that this Christ who was born of Mary was eternally begotten of the Father, “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2). While there will be great travail in Israel, the Messiah will stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, bringing great peace and deliverance from their enemies (Mic. 5:3-6). A remnant of Jacob will be as dew and showers upon the grass and as a lion among the Gentiles, cutting off many enemies and strongholds (Mic. 5:7-11). And God will cut off all witchcrafts and graven images and idols with great vengeance (Mic. 5:12-15). 

THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF REPENTANCE

Jesus came preaching repentance (Mt. 4:17, 9:13, Mk. 1:15, 2:17, Lk. 5:32), and He continued with the same message to the churches after His ascension (Rev. 2:5, 16, 21, 22, 3:3, 19). This was also the message that the apostles preached (Mk. 6:12, Lk. 24:47, Acts 2:38, 3:19, 5:31, 17:30). Repentance means to turn around, to stop doing one thing and going in one direction, and begin doing something different and going in the other direction. Repentance means putting off childish folly and growing up into Christian maturity (Eph. 4:14-15). It means putting off the old man corrupted with deceitful lusts and putting on the new man which God is creating in us in righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22-24). 

Repentance means putting away lying and telling the truth (Eph. 4:25). It means putting off fleshly anger and not letting the devil into your home by going to bed with a grudge or bitterness (Eph. 4:26). It means not stealing from anyone and instead working hard and paying your own bills, until you have extra to share with those in need (Eph. 4:28). It means refusing all corrupt communication, bitterness, foul language, and instead speaking what is edifying, kind, tenderhearted, and full of forgiveness (Eph. 4:29-32). The Bible describes this process as a kind of holy violence and warfare: plucking out eyes and cutting off hands to avoid Hell (Mt. 5:27-30), reckoning yourself dead to sin (Rom. 6:11), and putting to death sexual immorality and idolatry (Col. 3:5). This requires a holy hatred and vengeance against your sin and idols. 

REPENTANCE IS A GIFT

We see that repentance is a gift in the fact that ministers must patiently instruct those in disobedience with the hope that God will grant them repentance (2 Tim. 2:25). The Christians in Antioch rejoiced when they heard that God had given the Gentiles repentance (Acts 11:18). This is part of the work of the Holy Spirit of grace that allows sinners to see Christ pierced for their sins and mourn with deep bitterness for their sin, like one whose son has died (Zech. 12:10). 

One of the most remarkable things that the Bible teaches is that the gift of repentance isn’t primarily for our good, but rather it is for the benefit of others watching and the glory of God: “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways… Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord built the ruined places, and plant that which is desolate… and they shall know that I am the Lord” (Ez. 36:31-38). This may be one of the chief reasons for failure in this area: we want repentance because we want to feel better or be better, but God wants us to repent for His glory. 

APPLICATIONS

Let the violence of the Bible teach you what God wants you to do with your sin: drive a stake through its head like Jael did with Sisera (Jdg. 6:26), hack it to pieces like Samuel did to Agag (1 Sam. 15:33 ), chop off all their heads and put them in baskets at the gate of the city like the men of Samaria did with Ahab’s sons (2 Kgs. 10:8). Destroy the pagan altars, break down the images, cut down the sacred groves of trees, and burn the graven images with fire (Dt. 7:5). And of course, at the center of it all is Jesus Christ, “who bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live to righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). Don’t just say you’ll try to stop. Make real changes to your life in order to stop sinning because Christ is worthy. Plead with God to do whatever it takes and take action. 

Christ was born in Bethlehem in order to destroy all idols. You cannot celebrate Christmas and cling to any sin. Where is the altar to a false god in your life? What is that old idol you keep going back to? Worry? Envy? Lust? Anger? Bitterness? Drunkenness? Respectability? Israel was still worshipping Egyptian gods almost a hundred years after the Exodus (Josh. 24:14). Haven’t you seen the wonderful works of God? 

Our land is under a great curse because we refuse to destroy our idols. But we serve a jealous God and the more we celebrate the birth of Christ the Idol-Crusher, while continuing to serve our idols, we provoke the living God. As God judged Israel, He still judges the nations and His Church in particular (cf. Rev. 2-3). He will destroy all the idols, and the only question is whether we will be destroyed with them or whether we will turn from them and be saved. But Christ was born to save. So repent. And glory to God in the Highest. 

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A Theology of Stuff (Advent Grab Bag #2) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

One of the more puzzling lines in the Definition of Chalcedon is where it says, “as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the virgin, the God-bearer.” What does it mean to confess that Mary is the “God-bearer?” We should note that this title is carefully qualified by the phrase “as regards his manhood,” which comes immediately after in the original Greek. But there is a very important point being underlined about the personal nature of our salvation. The One born in Bethlehem is the Logos/the eternal Word of the Father who embraced His creation for us men and for our salvation. 

The Text: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…” (Jn. 1:1-14)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

“In the beginning” intentionally echoes Genesis 1, but the word “arxe” also means “preeminence, first, chief, principle, power,” and it’s immediately obvious that this “arxe” refers to something even “before” the beginning of Genesis 1, when the Word was with God and the Word was God (Jn. 1:1). That Word of God was in the beginning of Creation also, and that same Word made all things (Jn. 1:2-3). He is the source of all life and light, and He is the kind of light that darkness cannot comprehend or approach at all (Jn. 1:4-5, cf. Js. 1:17, 1 Tim. 6:16). 

John was sent from God as a witness of that Light, the true Light who gives light and life to all men (Jn. 1:6-9). He was in the world and made manifest by His creation but unrecognized because of sin (Jn. 1:10, cf. Rom. 1:19-20). So He came to His own, but even His own people rejected Him (Jn. 1:11). But to those who received Him and believed in Him, He made them sons of God by the power of God (Jn. 1:12-13). And this was accomplished by the Word becoming flesh to reveal the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). 

CHRISTOLOGY AS SOTERIOLOGY

Donald Fairbairn has pointed out that in the early church the focus on the Trinity and Christology was not unrelated to soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). For example, since Christ is the “only begotten of the Father,” salvation means being born again not of blood or the will of man but by the power of God (Jn. 1:12-14). What Christ has by nature in the Godhead (Eternal Son), He has become man in order to share with us in salvation (sons by adoption). As John Piper has put it, “God is the gospel.”

And we see this particularly highlighted in John: “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (Jn. 6:57). “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:15). “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me… And will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter… the Spirit of truth… at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:11, 16-17, 20). Who was born of Mary? The Eternal Son, the Word who is God. As the hymn says, “Christ our God to earth descendeth.” Why does this matter? Because the very same life that Christ shares with the Father by nature, He came to share with His people by His Spirit. 

UNION WITH CHRIST

The Definition of Chalcedon is clear that the divine and human natures come together in Christ “without confusion,” and so the Creator-creature distinction remains fixed. But precisely because Christ holds those natures together “without division, without separation,” by the power of the Spirit, that same Spirit is able to unite us in fellowship with the Father in Christ. This is no mysticism or merging of natures; this is a true covenant union in Christ. This is the power by which mere fallen creatures, become children of God, born not of blood nor the will of man, but the will of God, which is all grace. This is why the New Testament talks so much about our salvation “in Christ” (Rom. 6, Eph. 1, Col. 2, etc.).

APPLICATIONS

The Goodness of Stuff: Christmas celebrates God’s union with His creation. The Word who made all things became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. How did we behold the glory of the Father? In the flesh of Jesus Christ, in the stuff that He made. Christ made all things and made us to make things and enjoy all things as part of our enjoyment of Him. Sin distorts this, causing us to suppress God’s glory in creation and to idolize creation, but the answer is not to disdain creation or ignore it. The answer is to see every bit of creation as a burning bush, where we may see His glory and taste and see His goodness and worship Him. 

So Christmas rightly celebrates the stuff that Christ made and the stuff He came to restore to its rightful glory. All of creation groans with the weight of our sin, but the heavens still declare the glory of God. And so we make our houses sparkle like the heavens with lights. And if Christ has given us bread and wine to remember Him and feed on Him and enjoy His life, all food has been given to enjoy as His gifts: steak and fudge and wine and eggnog and gifts. But think of all these gifts as tokens of the infinitely greater Giver.  

Fellowship with the Father: Mary was an ordinary woman of extraordinary faith, and as such, she pictures what Christ intends to do by His Spirit. He intends to live in us, to share true fellowship with us: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1 Jn. 1:3-4). This jyful fellowship is only maintained by confession of sin and the cleansing blood of Christ (1 Jn. 1:7-9). 

Christ is re-making a race of men and women, who are more masculine, more feminine, more truly human: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). The center of this glory is in the Word read and preached, but it is that same Word that created all things and shines in all He has made. So see Him there, know Him, and love Him more.

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