Why Was it Important That Jesus Was a Baby?
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Is God perfect in all of His ways; perfectly holy, perfectly wrathful, perfectly compassionate, perfectly patient and perfectly righteous? His laws are perfect, and His judgments are perfect, right? So if God is perfect in all of His ways then His judgment of people would have to be the same for every person, there could only be one standard. In other words God would not be perfect in His judgment if He just determined that everyone had to do the best they could and if they did then He would justify them. The best one person could do, would be different than the best another person could do so. That would be unjust. So God does have a standard and that standard is what or perhaps who? Jesus! A person has to achieve the perfection of Jesus in order to be declared justified before God. That is basically Christianity 101. But for Jesus to be the standard there has to be something that Jesus did to set the standard. What was that? For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Peter quoting said in For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; I could show you other places, and 7:26 or . But the point is Jesus experienced, in His life, everything we experience in our lives, yet He did not fall to temptation to sin. To be our standard and thus our substitute for atonement He had to be completely obedient to His Father in all things.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
Now let’s change gears. This morning we looked at the importance to us of the nativity narrative as described in Matthew and Luke. We can be assured that what our God says He will do, He will do. We can know that our Savior’s perfection is accounted to us for justification. We can know that He came for all men and women. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, educated or ignorant, it makes no difference. When God reveals the savior to you, you will seek Him out and worship Him. In the narrative of the birth of our Lord we can know that we will have tribulations but our God is greater than the trials. These are all good reasons to consider the birth of Jesus to be important but while studying for this sermon I was plagued by a question that kept coming to my mind. You may have never thought of this and it may not seem important to you but I needed to explore it. I will be honest with you in that I am not sure I have a real good answer to the question and perhaps you can help me with it. So here is the question: “Why did Jesus have to come as a baby? Why couldn’t He just have shown up as a 30 year old man, teach and preach then die on the cross and rise again? Before we go any further, have any of you ever been asked that question? Have you ever asked that question (even to yourself)? If so did you come to a conclusion and what is it because I want to know?
Let me just run through a few things and see if we can find an acceptable answer. First off God said that HE would be born as a child and that He would grow up so since God said it, it had to come about. But aside from God’s own prophecies what is the significance of His being a baby?
1. He had to be one of us. Even though the Eternal Son of God is indeed God and different or other than His creation He came into the world by ordinary means. He is one of us in every way. We saw that in our opening. He was tempted in every way that we are tempted. He got hungry, He got sleepy, He got tired. As a baby He cried when He needed nourishment and when He needed a “swaddling clothes” change. talks about how Jesus humiliated or humbled Himself, taking on the form of man even though He is God, and becoming a servant. Part of Jesus humiliation was that He was born a baby, totally dependent on his mother and earthly father for all of His sustenance and His safety. God the Father furthered His plan of redemption for His people not just through the death and resurrection of Jesus but in His life as well. Paul describes Jesus as the second Adam in . To be the second Adam and not fall to rebellion against God Jesus had to be one of us in every way. His birth as a baby proved His humanity.
But His life also proved His humanity. Look at 1Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. 2And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! 3Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” So they were offended at Him. says something similar. I know you kind of have to read between the lines but what do you see here that tells us about Jesus before He began His ministry? Nothing is said bad about Him but until He began His ministry and came back to His home town there was nothing about Him that was any different than the rest of the people; at least from their perspective. He was just like any other working man in Nazareth. He got up in the morning and went to work and come home in the evening and did what every other good Jewish man would have done. He was just like you and me in the way He lived His life or these people would not have been so surprised by His miracles and His teachings. He was one of us.
2. He had to grow up to be 30 years old or He could not have been our great High Priest. says that one had have attained to the age of 30 before he could be a priest. If Jesus had of just burst on the scene as a grown man he would have just appeared to be 30 years old and not actually be 30 so He could not have been a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. We noticed this morning that Jesus had to live His whole life under the law therefore He had to observe even this part of the law. In order to be our high priest He had to be 30 so He had to be born a baby.
3. Jesus had to mature in obedience. In towards the end of the chapter we read that Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover at the age of 12 with his family. You all know the story, He got left behind and when His mother and Joseph found Him He was teaching the teachers. Then in verses 51 and 52 we read this about Jesus: 51Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Jesus so subjected Himself to His humanity that He not only was obedient to His heavenly Father but also to his earthly parents and in being subject to them He grew in wisdom and in favor with God and men. He matured in His obedience to God by being obedient to His parents. To go along with that maturing before men we see His maturing before His Father in and 10For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings… 8though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, There is a lot more to it than just this but these verses make it clear that through His life and the suffering He experienced He proved His obedience. We see this beginning at the age of 12 then on to His ministry when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days and then through the hounding by the Jews and the attempts on His life and the accusations thrown His direction. Then we know that He did not revile those who crucified Him but instead plead for mercy on their behalf. Throughout His life at least from 12 onward He proved His obedience to His Father.
Why did Jesus come as a baby? To be our substitute, and to be the second Adam that did not fail in obedience to the Father He had to be one of us. In order to be our High Priest and represent us to His Father in heaven He had to have attained the age of 30 according to the Law of God. He was born under that law and had to maintain even that part of the law in order to be our High Priest presenting Himself as the sacrifice for our atonement, once for all time. He had to grow in obedience to His Father through experiencing all of the life of mankind. Throughout His life He proved His obedience to His Father.
Did Jesus have to be a baby? To fulfill prophecy, yes. To be our substitute and the second Adam, yes. To be our High Priest, yes. To learn obedience through suffering, bringing many sons to glory, yes. So be thankful that our Father in heaven sent His Son from heaven to take on flesh as servant to the point of death on the cross so that we could have eternal life. Let’s pray.