Track 10: Beyond the Manger →
Silence. Godly silence. For 400 years…and then a baby.
“When the love and kindness of God appeared, He saved us. Not because of righteous things we’ve done, but because of His great mercy.”
The love and kindness of God came as a baby. A mystery hidden through the ages, prophesied and longed for, came at the time of God's own choosing. God's plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him.
Christ was the mystery revealed. The Word full of grace and truth became flesh and dwelt among us. God who stands outside of time and eternity. Mercifully and humbly, He stepped down into our humanity without voiding His deity.
Paris Reidhead spoke of John 3:17 that "Jesus did not come to condemn the world, because the world was already condemned." The human race need not offend God one more time, not one more lie or lust. The outstanding debt of our sin against God was enough for him to condemn us for all time and eternity.
But then came light into the darkness. The creator into creation. Grace and truth. Grace did not begin with Christ. It has eternally existed in the infinite depth of God's nature. We are saved by Grace. No one has ever been saved or will be saved any other way. I was sitting with Etta in the hospital doing our Bible study and explaining to her that the grace that is sufficient for her was sufficient for me, sufficient for Peter, Moses, Abraham and Job. God's Grace for all eternity.
The lamb slain from the foundation of the world! Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world! God looks at us through Christ sacrificed on the cross. In grace, by mercy, He’s extending our days until the revelation of His Son as Salvation. One sacrifice and one salvation for all.
“All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
Elmer Murdoch teaches that God's grace is sufficient for all, but it's not effective for all. There will be many on whom God's wrath will remain. Many who will scoff at bowing the knee to the narrow path. Many will neglect so great a salvation.
God will not meet us on the demands of how we want Him, who we want Him to be or how we want Him to be glorified! The clay does not order the potter. God chose how He was going to do it. He decided how He would be glorified. He doesn't take requests for how we want to be saved — He laid out His plan of salvation.
Etta has helped open our eyes deeper into the wealth of God's riches. A baby. That's how God came into the world. The God that hates and refuses the proud, but cannot resist the humble, modeled the utmost of humility by coming in the weakest form — as a baby!
Jesus. The baby Jesus.
We're pretty baby crazy right now, and I’m able to understand the picture of the baby Jesus clearer now after becoming a parent. The cutesy Christmases have always bothered me. More so now. There's such beauty to the birth of God The Son as a baby.
But we never take Christmas beyond that. At least I've rarely seen it. There is a spiritual hunger that wells up during this time of year and we try to foolishly fill ourselves with what cannot satisfy our heart's desire. We have the fleeting satisfaction that flickers and fades in the moments when the noise and lights subside for long enough to leave us alone with ourselves. We want the cute angels, children dressed as shepherds, tinsel and warm glowing nativities. They've become an opiate to cover over the hard swallow of guilt. There is a bone-crushing conviction of seeing a baby born to die my death. There’s a breaking of my heart when exposed to my ownership in the offending and death of the Lamb of God. I can't let it go.
Tozer puts in better than I could: “I have discovered that truly repentant men never quite get over it, for repentance is not a state of mind and spirit that takes its leave as soon as God has given forgiveness and as soon as cleansing is realized. That painful and acute conviction that accompanies repentance may well subside and a sense of peace and cleansing come, but even the holiest of justified men will think back over his part in the wounding and the chastisement of the Lamb of God. A sense of shock will still come over him. A sense of wonder will remain — wonder that the Lamb that was wounded should turn His wounds into the cleansing and forgiveness of one who wounded Him.”
Never let anything cloud your heart and mind from the wonder of what our Savior has done. Celebrate the Savior. Celebrate the undeserved gift of God’s son. Marvel at how He came to redeem a world that profanes His name.
Celebrate Christ coming, but don't stop at the manger or you'll settle for a gospel lacking in power. Continue on to the cross, continue on to the resurrection, continue on to Christ at the right hand of the Father mediating for us. For sinners.
Rejoice that this baby is here, but weep because he had to come.
The Savior is the Lamb of God.