Christmas in Eternity
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Introductory Thoughts
What is Christmas all about? For most of the western world, Christmas is an end-of-the-year holiday marked by big meals and the giving of presents, especially to children.
For Christians, Christmas is specifically the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. We recognize this as a historical event that took place in a tiny village called Bethlehem, in the nation Israel, about 2,022 years ago.
The two primary images of Christmas are the baby in the manger – the center of every nativity set – and the Christmas tree, something we easily recognize just by its silhouette. And that’s where we find the danger of shallow observation without meaningful reflection.
Christmas is all about the “Silent Night” when, “While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night,” “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” that “Angels We Have Heard On High” told them “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and see “Away In A Manger” in “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” the “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.” They went to the stable and said, “What Child Is This?” Mary and Joseph said, “Um, what are you doing here?”, and they said, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and told us tonight is “The First Noel,” and we thought to ourselves, “O Come, Let Us Adore Him.” Mary said, what do you mean, “What Child Is This?” He is “Emmanuel!” And they said, don’t get on your high horse, “Mary, Did YOU Know?”
Thanks - I’m here all week.
Even among self-identified Christians, Christmas, more than any other holiday, can be almost completely secularized.
The Lord said of Israel,
13 … this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote ()
Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,
We do want to truly reverence the Lord for His works, including the birth of Jesus, and not simply repeat words we have learned by tradition, without engaging our hearts and our minds.
We do want to truly reverence the Lord for His works, including the birth of Jesus, and not simply repeat words we have learned by tradition, without engaging our hearts and our minds.
So this morning and next we are going to talk about the birth of Jesus Christ, but seek to keep our thoughts rooted in the Scriptures and the purposes of God for the birth of Jesus.
One thought about thinking well about Christmas, and everything else around us. Our intellects are not mistakes, but part of being created in God’s image. While we are warned against worldly philosophies (thinking that is governed by the rebellious world), we are also commanded to exercise our brains throughout the Scriptures. This is especially important when we come to issues and events where thinking seems to be turned off.
So let’s think together about Christmas in eternity.
Where Does Christmas Begin?
Where Does Christmas Begin?
The thing is, if we begin with the Christ-child in the manger, we’re starting too far along in the story. We can’t understand the significance of Jesus’ birth if we start with Jesus’ birth. We have to go back before the trip to Bethlehem, or Gabriel’s visit to Mary. We have to go back before Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin would bear a son, or God’s promise to Moses to raise up a prophet like Moses. We even have to go back before God’s promise in that Eve’s seed would crush the serpent’s head.
We have to go all the way back to .
Yes, Romans comes very late in the Scriptures. The books of the Bible were written over a 1,500 year span of time, from Genesis around 1,450 B.C., to Revelation written around 95 A.D. Romans was written around 56 A.D., very close to the end of God’s revelatory work. If we think about all of the Scriptures being written in a single year, with Genesis being written on January 1st, Romans would be written December 17th – tomorrow.
But nevertheless, reaches back to eternity prior to creation, and looks forward to eternity after the judgment.
Since we live and exist within time, it’s very hard for us to imagine there being no such thing as time. We generally look at our own existence as the main thing, and eternity “past” and eternity “future” as being vague and shapeless. We might even put mental parentheses around eternity, as though in eternity past everything was on hold, and eternity future is really just endless time.
But there isn’t a “past” eternity and “future” eternity. There is just one eternity, and, being eternal, it simply is. It didn’t being. It cannot end. Eternity is defined by the existence of God Himself, and so eternity never changes and never ends. In fact, prior to creation, there was nothing other than God. The name of God, the Bible tells us, is Yahweh, which is the Hebrew word for I AM.
So it’s really time that is the parentheses; it’s time that is odd and unusual. Eternity exists because God exists. Time exists because God created a universe and creatures that change, and that change is called “time.” Time had a beginning, as tells us. Time will have an end, as the book of Revelation tells us.
What’s the purpose of time, then? To bring about God’s decree. Let’s look at :
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son ()
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
God foreknew His people before creation. How do we know? Because tells us that the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
God foreknew His people before creation. How do we know? Because tells us that the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
The word “foreknew” is not a noun, but a verb. It is not information that God has about His people – a passive awareness of His people – but something God does regarding His people – He has an active relationship with them. God foreknew His people before creation itself. That doesn’t mean, as the Mormon’s teach, that every human being pre-existed. It means that God, being eternal, is unconstrained by the limits of time. Are you a Christian? Then God has already foreknown you as His child for all of eternity. Have you known Him that way? No, not at all; you are constrained by time. You and I must wait for time to unfold before we will know God in glory and perfection. But God isn’t constrained by time, and already knows us that way.
And God predestined those whom He foreknew to become conformed to the image of His Son; that is, to become exactly like Jesus Christ in His glory as the Perfect Man. That won’t happen for any of us until all things have been completed, until the day of judgment has come and gone, and the eternal state commences. We must not only die in order to be freed from this body of death, we must be raised imperishable.
So the first part of – “those whom He foreknew” – reaches back to before creation, and the last part of – “He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” – reaches forward to the eternal state.
Can any of this change? Could someone have been foreknown by God in eternity past and yet fail to be conformed to the image of Christ? I hope that the answer is obvious: no! There is only one eternity, and God’s knowledge is perfect and complete. If someone is foreknown by God, it is impossible that His knowledge could wrong.
But to ease your minds, just in case you still aren’t convinced, says of the elect of Israel,
God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
says that Christians are those
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
says that Christians are those
Do you see the Trinity here? God the Father chose us; the Son justified us; the Spirit sanctified us.
Do you see the Trinity here? God the Father chose us; the Son justified us; the Spirit sanctified us.
Do you see the Trinity here? God the Father chose us; the Son justified us; the Spirit sanctified us.
God, having foreknown His people in eternity, predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. And so the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. The Son of God became Jesus of Nazareth – without ever ceasing in any sense to be the Son of God. And He did this by the power of the Holy Spirit, who caused the fertilization of an egg in the womb of a teenaged girl in the ancient near east.
And this is Christmas. Not a baby in a manger. Not a religious festival. Not a holiday. But God Himself entering into His own creation to redeem and transform those whom He had already known as His.
God did not foreknow us in some vague, generic sense, but in reality and in detail. He foreknew us as His own beloved children, who had been conformed to the image of His Son. We could not be conformed to the image of the Son as God, and so the Son of God, the Word, became flesh (). As we saw in ,
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
So what do we see in Scripture?
14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same … ()
So what do we see in Scripture?
We see that before anything had been created, God the Father foreknew His people AS His people – He knew us, and His knowledge cannot be faulty or wrong to even the smallest degree.
We see that God predestined those whom He foreknew to be conformed to the image of His Son in the culmination of time and commencement of our eternal state, and since we could never be conformed to the deity of the Son, the Son had to become like us – human.
We see that God’s purpose for creating the world was to bring about what He Himself had already experienced to the full – glorifying His own name through eternal love and intimacy with His children.
We see that from the moment creation took place, the beginning when God made the heavens and the earth, His single objective has never changed. This is why Jesus’ ancestry is traced back to Adam. There has always been just one plan.
We see that in the fullness of time, the God who exists apart from time, and created time, entered time as an infant boy, to fulfill the Law, call sinners to repentance, proclaiming everything the Father gives Him to say, and ultimately, to seek and save those who are lost.
Christmas didn’t begin 2,000 years ago in the little town of Bethlehem. It began before creation itself, in eternity, in the mind and heart and will of God, who chose to know His children in intimate relationship before their creation, who predestined them to be made exactly like His incarnated Son. says that
also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
Are you in Christ?
we were predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of HIS own will.
Are you in Christ? Then give thank to the Father who has already known you perfected in Christ.
Then give thank to the Father who has already known you perfected in Christ.
Are you outside of Christ?
Let me tell you that Christmas is not about a baby in a basket. Christmas is about the eternal plan of God to create and redeem a people for His glory, who would be called His children, and who would spend eternity with Him.
It is through Jesus Christ that salvation comes to all who are saved. He is our only hope of salvation, the Father’s only provision for our salvation.
The baby in the manger did not remain a baby, but grew to adulthood, lived a holy, sinless life, and died on the cross that by His death sinners may be forgiven.
Jesus Christ was placed in the tomb as He was placed in the manger, truly helpless, and yet the Lord of all things.
And Jesus rose in glorious victory over sin and death, that by His resurrection sinners would be declared utterly righteous in the sight of God in fact and truth.
but the tomb is as empty today as the manger. Jesus Christ rose in glorious victory over sin and death in order to justify sinners, declaring them righteous in fact and truth before God. If you long to know God, if you long for eternal life, if you long for forgiveness and the cleansing of your conscience, then believe in Jesus Christ. Come to Him and trust Him. Confess Him as Lord, and believe that God has raised Him from the dead, and in that instant you will be saved.
If you long to know God, if you long for eternal life, if you long for forgiveness and the cleansing of your conscience, then believe in Jesus Christ. Come to Him and trust Him. Confess Him as Lord, and believe that God has raised Him from the dead, and in that instant you will be saved.