ChristmasReading2022A - Flipbook - Page 24
DAY Eleven: December 08 - Thursday
The Great Mystery of
Christmas
…although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emp ed Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:6-7
(NASB1995)
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had
equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had
to cling to the advantages of that status no ma er what. Not at all.
When the me came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on
the status of a slave, became human! Philippians 2:6 (Message)
The great mystery of the Bible is how God and man came together in
the human body of a li le baby boy who grew up and lived most of His
life in a li le Galilean village called Nazareth. That is the meaning of
the word incarna on: to become esh. The transcendent God wrapped
Himself in a body like ours. He is Immanuel! How can this be?
The “how” is sparsely explained by the angel to young Mary who will
carry God in her womb for nine months and raise Him to adulthood:
“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of
God.” Luke 1:35
Even while the church is making its way through the rst century
world, there is a problem with God-the-Son having a body. The
“doce sts” (the original “an christs”) rolled their eyes and said, “Jesus
only seemed to have a body.” The early church o ered rebu al (see: 2
John 1:7). It’s not only the cross that makes the “foolish” list, but also
the incarna on. In niteness conjoined to niteness; it is an in nite
mismatch. Go gure!!
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Frankly, there are not a lot of “nuts and bolts” given to Mary, and yet,
she believed what the angel told her. And yet, we too believe the
mystery despite the lack of the details and the “nuts and bolts” of it all.
The incarnate One would say to His closest friends one day (in another
context): ““With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are
possible with God” Mark 10:27).