On Christmas Eve, some thoughts to ponder from J.I. Packer's Knowing God, on the wonder of the incarnation:
"The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary. The key text in the New Testament for interpreting the Incarnation is not, therefore, the bare statement in John 1:14. ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,’ but rather the more comprehensive statement of 2 Corinthians 8:9, ‘You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.’ Here is stated not the fact of the Incarnation only, but also its meaning; the taking of manhood by the Son is set before us in a way which shows how we should ever view it — not simply as a marvel of nature, but as a wonder of grace.” (pp.58-59)
We now see what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally a death that involved such agony – spiritual even more than physical – that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. (See Luke 12:50 and the Gethsemane story.) It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich.
The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity — hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory — because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.” (p.63)
Merry Christmas!
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