The Incarnation
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Introduction: So, at this point we know that God is great. He is so great that He has filled the earth with billions of His image bearers so that His glory could be seen and heard and communicated and loved and admired throughout the whole earth. Man however, in his sin, chooses to reject the worth of the glory of the infinitely holy God, and for this man is condemned to die an eternal death. Thankfully for us, from eternity past, God chose to glorify Himself by providing a way for us to be blameless before Him in love according to the pleasure of His will which is that we would praise the glory of His grace.
The humbling thing for us is that we so desperately need God, but we so desperately love our sin. Jesus said that this is the condemnation: men loved darkness rather than light. Man’s main problem then is deeper than his initial rejection of God. Man’s problem runs to the very core of who he is. Man’s problem is not that the light of God doesn’t exist , but his problem is that he so desperately loves darkness. As always with us, it is a heart problem, and a very deep one. John tells us that when the light (Jesus) shined in darkness that the lovers of darkness didn’t even see it. We must then be born again. We must be born of God’s Spirit so that God’s Spirit can breath life into us, and that life that the Spirit breathes into us is a desire and love for and a dependence on God. If we are to see the glory of God and be saved God must do a miracle in our blind hearts.
We continued with the question: well, how can I see when I am born blind? And like the blind man in Jesus’s day we must cry out to Him for mercy and ask for sight. We must repent of our love for darkness, and He promises to give us sight to see and love and cherish the light.
We finished with the question: When we ask to see and God opens our eyes, how can we see God in His fullness? In other words, if I don’t want to be condemned and so I turn to the glorious light and it is that light that dispels darkness and sin, how can I get as much of it as I can? How can I drink so deeply from the fountain that I not only see, but so that every day darkness is dispelled from my life?
Which brings us to God’s communication to us.
The Incarnation
The Incarnation
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The coming of Jesus put God’s glory on display like never before.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus truly communicated the Father to the world. John tells us, like the writer of Hebrews, that the light who came was the very same light that created the world. The greatest thing that ever happened was about to happen - the purging of our sins - and all the signs were in place but because men were lovers of darkness they didn’t even know Him.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
Paul also describes the incarnation this way.
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Read that again carefully and see the glory of the grace of God communicated in the face of Christ.
Christ, who is the perfect communication of God, who Himself made that clear by not considering it blasphemy to claim to be equal with God, did not seek to exploit His equality with God in order to make Himself a name. Instead, He took on Himself the perfect communication of humanity and came in the likeness of an image-bearer. When He had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming an obedient image-bearer even to the point of death on a cross. For this reason, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, so that, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow - in heaven and on earth and under the earth - and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus, who is the Creator, perfectly took on Himself the role of an image-bearer and in being totally obedient to the point of death (in the place of self-scarred image-bearers) has now been exalted by the Father and given a name to the glory of God the Father.
This passage () is all about our failure in contrast with God’s great name. We failed by attempting to make for ourselves a great name instead of glorifying the great name of God. So Jesus, being God and having a right to a great name, refused to make Himself a great name so that He could make God’s name great. Having made God’s name great, the Father has now made Jesus’ name great. All of this is for the purpose that we would see and admire and love and worship God the Father who is great!
So, we are now back to our question: How can I drink so deeply from the fountain that I not only see, but so that every day darkness is dispelled from my life? The answer is given in
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
By looking at Jesus we see the fullest and the most complete communication of God’s glory. We saw last week that it is the glory of God that changes us or re-births us or re-creates us. So, how do we get as much of it as we can? We must behold the glory of God by looking at the face of Jesus. Now, some might ask this: how can I see this full and complete expression of glory when Jesus has already ascended into heaven? In other words, Jesus isn’t here for me to behold so what do I do now?
Let’s go to
But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Conclusion: Now, of course, this raises another question: because we are guilty of demeaning the infinitely worthy glory of God and, by sinning, considered it to be worthless how then can God bless us with infinite joy in Him? Isn’t that the joy that sin rejects? The Bible tells us that those who pass over sin are accursed? Has God passed over my sin? And if He has, what does that say about the worth of God’s glory? And if God has in fact bridged this infinite gap how has He done it? Come back next week and find out!