December 25, 2009

• Christmas Day: why Christians should "Sing the Incarnation"

  We're celebrating Christmas today...Do you know why God became man? Do you know why the Word become flesh and dwell among us? Do you know why God sent forth His Son born of a woman? Some say we make too much of Christmas, and I have to agree with that to a point, but let's remember that without the incarnation there would be no salvation...

  From Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' "Triumphant Christianity":

  Why did He have to be truly man? Why the incarnation? Why the God-man? Why was that babe of Bethlehem ever born? It was essential, but why? The answer is this: He is to be our representative. Just as when Moses stood on that mount he was representing the nation, so our Saviour is our representative. We are all sinners–the law has established that. We are face to face with God, and we need someone who can represent us before Him. And the person who represents us, who stands in our place, must be like us. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it like this: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same" (2:14). He was not representing angels or animals or gods. We are human beings, and therefore our representative had to be a man.
  
  There is a another argument. Why do we face so many troubles in the world, including the last enemy, death? Where did death come from? The apostle Paul answers the question in the great fifteenth chapter of I Corinthians. He says, "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead" (v. 21). It is man who brought death into the universe. Man was not made to die. It is man's rebellion against God, it is man's sin, that has introduced death and all miseries, all the war and blood shed and unhappiness and heartache–man has produced it all. So "since by man came death"––and all the accompanying problems––by man also must come the deliverance.
  
  But, finally, there is another argument as to why He had to be a man––it was in order that he might represent us sympathetically. Now this is a great mystery, that one who is God but not man could not save us. We need one who understands us and who can sympathize with us. Our Savior had to be  a man. The great message of that mighty Epistle to the Hebrews is that he knows our frailties and our weaknesses.
  
  

  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. . . . For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: 2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. Heb. 4:15; 5:1-2.

  
  We are infirm, we are ignorant, and we are subject to temptations; and we need one who knows that, who can sympathize with us. Listen again to the great argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews. "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted" (2:18).
  
  Though not the only ones, those are the main reasons why our deliverer had to be a man. He had to be born of a woman, for all of us are; He had to be born "under the law,' for we are all under the law. That is the great proclamation of the Christian Gospel: "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" (Gal. 4:4).
  
  

  

  Christians, Sing the Incarnation

  (Ernest Dugmore, ca. 1870)

  Christians, sing the incarnation
  Of th’eternal Son of God,
  Who, to save us, took our nature,
  Soul and body, flesh and blood;
  God, He saw man’s cruel bondage,
  Who in death’s dark dungeon lay;
  Man, He came to fight man’s battle,
  And for man He won the day.
  Alleluia, Alleluia
  To th’incarnate Son of God,
  Who for man as Man hath conquered
  In our own true flesh and blood.

  King of kings and Lord of angels,
  He put off His glory-crown,
  Had a stable-cave for palace,
  And a manger for His throne;
  Helpless lay, to Whom creation
  All its life and being owed,
  And the lowly Hebrew maiden
  Was the mother of her God.
  Alleluia, Alleluia
  To th’incarnate Son of God,
  Who concealed His dazzling Godhead
  ’Neath the veil of flesh and blood.

  Through a life of lowly labor
  He on earth was pleased to dwell,
  All our want and sorrow sharing;
  God with us, Emmanuel:
  Yet, a dearer, closer union
  Jesus in His love would frame;
  He, the Passover fulfilling,
  Gave Himself as paschal Lamb.
  Alleluia, Alleluia
  To th’incarnate Son of God,
  Who the heav’nly gifts bequeathed us
  Of His own true flesh and blood.

  Then, by man refused and hated,
  God for man vouchsafed to die,
  Love divine its depth revealing
  On the heights of Calvary;
  Through His dying the dominion
  From the tyrant death was torn,
  When its Victim rose its Victor
  On the resurrection morn.
  Alleluia, Alleluia
  To th’incarnate Son of God,
  Who through His eternal Spirit
  Offers His own flesh and blood.

  Forty days of mystic converse
  Lived on earth the Risen One,
  Speaking of His earthly kingdom,
  Ere He sought His heav’nly throne:
  Then, His latest words a blessing,
  He ascended up on high,
  And through rank on rank of angels
  Captive led captivity.
  Alleluia, Alleluia
  To th’incarnate Son of God,
  Who the holiest place hath entered
  In our flesh and by His blood.

  Now upon the golden altar,
  In the midst before the throne,
  Incense of His intercession
  He is offering for His own.
  And on earth at all His altars
  His true presence we adore,
  And His sacrifice is pleaded,
  Yea, till time shall be no more.
  Alleluia, Alleluia
  To th’incarnate Son of God,
  Who, abiding Priest forever,
  Still imparts His flesh and blood.

  Then, adored in highest Heaven,
  We shall see the virgin’s Son,
  All creation bowed before Him,
  Man upon th’eternal throne:
  Where, like sound of many waters
  In one ever rising flood,
  Myriad voices hymn His triumph,
  Victim, Priest, incarnate God.
  Worthy He all praise and blessing
  Who, by dying, death o’ercame;
  Glory be to God forever!
  Alleluia to the Lamb!

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