I ended my
recent blogpost, “Testimony: A Thanksgiving Christmas,”[1]
with the expression, “Joy to the world,
the Lord is come.”[2] As
I have continued in my consideration of how to share the good news of Jesus all
year round, making the most of the grand crescendo of the Christmas season, my
thoughts have settled on the early aspects of the gospel, the coming of Jesus Christ
into the world.
Whatever
people believe about the truthfulness or reality of what is often called “the
Christmas Story,” people understand that it is about this baby who was born in
Bethlehem, who is Christ the Lord.[3] All it takes is watching the Charlie Brown Christmas classic to get
the gist of what took place.
The
thing we are faced with is twofold: first, is this for real? Second, who is
this one who came?
There
are many good websites and ministries that show the historical evidence for the
biblical claims about Jesus’ birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection. My
aim in this post is to show that the Bible claims that the coming of Jesus Christ
is a factual, historical event. I want to show that, a glorious facet of this
diamond of good news is the wonderful picture of Jesus coming.
First
of all, we needed Jesus to come. While our present world condition shows
increasing threats from so many dangers, the worst threat of all is that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God,”[4] resulting in the inevitable indictment that, “the wages of sin is death.”[5] If all of us have sinned, and the consequence of sin is death, there
is no hope for life in the human race. Someone has to come from outside the
human race, someone who would not sin, and with the willingness to do something
for us.
Secondly,
God told us well in advance that Jesus would come. Hundreds of years prior to Jesus’
birth, God spoke through his prophet and declared, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”[6] He added, “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.”[7] There are many other prophecies surrounding the good news that show
the hand of God in everything from beginning to end.
Thirdly,
Jesus came. Jesus’ coming was foretold to Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph, who then
experienced all that God had revealed.[8] Shepherds were the first to receive the birth announcement that Jesus
had been born that very night, just as the prophets had spoken.[9] The Magi from the east began following the star that would later
bring them to Bethlehem where they worshipped the Christ who had come.[10] Simeon and Anna were specially invited to meet the Messiah they had
been waiting for.[11]
This
coming of Jesus into the world is an amazing event, even if only for the glory
of God in prophesying and preparing such a thing, and carrying it out according
to his will. However, the good news aspect of the event requires something more
than the fact that Jesus came. Since all of us have sinned, all of us have
fallen short of the glory of God, and all of us are under the just sentence of
death for our sins, it is not enough that Jesus came so up-close and personal
as to live in our dead world watching us die. Thankfully, there is more.
Fourth,
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus did not come as a spectator to
our sin and death, but as a Savior from sin and death. From Jesus’ own mouth,
he declared, “Those who are well have no
need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners.”[12]Jesus came to call sinners, because he had a gift to give sinners.
On
another occasion, Jesus answered his critics by declaring, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”[13]Jesus did not come into the world to find dying people in order to
attend their funerals. He did not come to find lost people in order to help
them know where they were as they died in their sins. He came to seek the lost,
and save the lost.
The
apostle Paul, once a strong adversary of the Lord Jesus Christ, but transformed
into an ambassador of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ, explained things
this way, “The saying is trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”[14]
Paul
wanted us to know that Jesus came to save sinners, and that he was not pointing
his finger at other people when he said that. Earlier he had been part of that
squad of religious elite who saw themselves as righteous, and the people who
came to Jesus as “sinners”.[15] Once he discovered his own sinfulness in God’s eyes, he felt like
he had been the “foremost” of all
sinners. If there was going to be a hall of fame for sinners, Paul would be the
worst of all. No wonder he would endure so much danger to tell people about
what Jesus came to do.
Fifth,
Jesus does save sinners. Jesus not only came, and he not only came with the
intention to save sinners, but he procured the solution to sin that would save
us out of sin. The wages of sin is death, so Jesus died our death for sin. God’s
word puts so beautifully when it declares, “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.”[16]
This
is the ultimate tradeoff. Jesus comes into a world of dying people, and he dies
their death for sin. Now the world is offered the righteousness of God in place
of their unrighteousness, the life of Jesus Christ in place of their death. Jesus,
“gave himself for our sins to deliver us
from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”[17]and we are now invited to come to the Father through faith in his
Son.
There
are many other Bible passages flashing into my mind, assuring me of the work Jesus
has done, and the good effect of this work on those who receive his gift. However,
it all began with Jesus’ willingness to come, his willingness to live in a
sinful world that was so degraded from the way he originally created it, and his
willingness to lay down his life for his friends.[18] He came, and people have been benefiting from his coming ever
since.
This
morning, our Canadian Parliament came under attack by a gunman who killed a
Canadian soldier on his way to entering the building. Around the world,
religious leaders are calling their followers to kill anyone who does not share
their beliefs. I much prefer Jesus’ way of coming into the world to die for his
enemies! However, death is a constant threat for us all, with the corresponding
spiritual death all the more haunting. The world has never seen anything rival
the work of Jesus Christ to save us from that death.
In
my earlier post, I misquoted the words of the song, “Joy to the World.” I
printed, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” While that is true, and the
song of joy rings from this truth, the wording of the song really states
something fuller and richer than the past tense. Isaac Watts wrote, “Joy to the
world, the Lord is come.” The “is come” reminds us of the permanency of Jesus
coming, and the “It is finished”[19] nature of his work.
In
a wonderful expression of God’s gift to the world, we read of the coming of Jesus
Christ in this way, “But when the
fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under
the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons.”[20] The fact that God wanted people to be his sons, his children, and
that the Son of God was willing to lay down his life to make it happen, calls
for much more than an annual celebration of good cheer. It calls for a life
that fully receives and experiences Jesus’ life.
While
all the material details of Jesus’ first coming happened in the past, Jesus still
“is come,” and is still calling people to come to him.[21] What was announced about his coming is still true: “In him was life, and the life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”[22]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[2]
©
Public Domain, Joy to the World,
pub.1719, Isaac Watts
[3]
Luke 2:1-20 is the historical description of Jesus’ birth, and events
surrounding this glorious event.
[4]
Romans 3:23
[5]
Romans 6:23
[6]
Isaiah 7:14
[7]
Isaiah 9:6
[8]
Luke 1:5-80; Matthew 1:18-25
[9]
Luke 2:1-20
[10]
Matthew 2:1-12
[11]
Luke 2:22-38
[12]
Mark 2:17
[13]
Luke 19:10
[14]
I Timothy 1:15
[15]
Matthew 9:10-13; Mark 2:15-16
[16]
II Corinthians 5:21
[17]
Galatians 1:4
[18]
John 15:13
[19]
John 19:30
[20]
Galatians 4:4-5
[21]
Matthew 11:28-30
[22]
John 1:4-5
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