The Real Gift

I love Christmas movies! Especially the ones that feature bright decorations, lots of snow, and of course, Santa Claus. However, I must admit that there is one that bothers me a lot. There is a particular scene in the 1985 blockbuster, “One Magic Christmas,” where a Dad, down on his luck, shows up at a gas station to try to sell his old car, or even his camp stove, anything, in order to get some money so he can buy Christmas presents for his son. After being unsuccessful and seeing his son’s despondency, the dad decides to rob the local bank to get the funds needed and ends up killing a key character in the process. Of course, after Ginny (who was woefully lacking in Christmas spirit) has a supernatural conversion experience, time is turned back so she can give the poor man the money needed to buy gifts for his son and, as a result, not rob the bank and kill Ginny’s husband. As I watch this I inevitably say, “Wait a minute. Isn’t the original problem the fact that this poor man and his son place such a high value on Christmas gifts that he is willing to rob and kill to get it?” I mean, come on! What’s wrong with this picture?

This month we’ve been reexamining the meaning of Christmas – of the “Advent”/Coming of the Christ – and that meaning does not include giving nice presents to every boy and girl in the world, no matter what the cost to the family budget. Christmas does, in fact, involve the giving of gifts, and in particular, one gift. You and I are recipients of this, the “real gift.”

Jesus revealed the Father as a Giver. The heart of God is governed by generosity. Even the most generous person gives superficially and with some level of self-centered motivation when compared to God. When teaching about the generosity of God Jesus stated, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:11). God knows how to give “good gifts,” gifts that will have the best benefits for the ones receiving his gifts. It’s interesting how the Gospel of Luke records this saying of Jesus: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). Ultimately, the very best gift God can give anyone is the gift of the inner presence and working of God’s Spirit. That was probably what Jesus was referring to when he told the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). While everyone occasionally thirsts for water, all people have a deep, fundamental thirst for the living water only God can give, for the deep, inner moving of the Spirit of the Living God. While we may have a certain temporary item in mind to give (or receive) as a gift this Christmas, God alone can give us what we really need.

Christmas clearly reveals God’s real gift: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). GOD GAVE HIS SON!! What else is there? What else could we ever really need or want? During his life and ministry Jesus was very aware that he was God’s gift to humanity. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus came to give his life, to pay the price needed to restore humankind back to the Father. One time Jesus was teaching the crowd about himself, showing that he was God’s Living Bread sent to satisfy the deepest needs of the human heart. Jesus told them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). Every gift but one is temporary, and will eventually wear out and “spoil.” Only the gift of eternal life given by God when he gave his Son will endure. Nothing else can really satisfy for very long. “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:32-33).

I love what Jesus told the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). Do we really understand the gift God has given us? Are we asking for, are we receiving that gift? Do we really know that there is only one source of living water?

And are we offering that gift to others this Christmas? No matter what has happened in our lives this year we are truly blessed. God has given us his Son. God has given us eternal life. Jesus is with us. God’s Spirit is in us. God has provided us with living water. Now, “Freely you have received; freely give” (Matthew 10:8). May we rejoice in the real gift this Christmas, and may we freely offer it to those who are in need. Nothing else will satisfy. 

A Life Poured Out

When you consider the statement, “God is love,” what do you think it means? Verses like 1 John 4:16 don’t just say that “God is loving,” they define God as “love.” The problem for us is our misuse and often cheapening of this powerful word. When I say, “I love popcorn,” I’m not saying very much (except that I rarely turn down an opportunity to enjoy that particular snack). When God tells us he loves us, God means something profoundly important. For God to define himself as “love,” when God says that the essence of his life and character is summarized as “love,” it lifts our understanding up to a whole new level.

First of all, let’s take time to reflect on biblical definitions of God’s love. Jesus commanded his apprentices to “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). Human love is usually a response to someone else’s loving, encouraging, giving. To love an enemy who is only working to harm you is divine. God set the standard when he demonstrated his love for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). Even when it comes to our neighbors Jesus instructed us to love them “as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), to put others alongside of our self rather than seeing everyone with our self at the center. “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). The “Law of Love” teaches us that, if God’s love is ruling in our hearts and lives, we would never do anything that might injure the faith of a brother or sister. “If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died” (Romans 14:15). Even when we know we are “right,” when we have more knowledge about some area of truth, we can never forget that “knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Paul went so far as to say that in the end only three qualities will abide, and that “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Christ-followers must “do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14), for, “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6).

When celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples Jesus began by washing their feet. Before telling them he was about to give his life, Jesus gave them this command: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). Loving one another was not, in fact, a new command; loving one another “as I have loved you” was new. Jesus was not just asking for a high degree of normal, human love, he was looking for a divine quality of love, a self-giving, self-sacrificing kind of love. In fact, Jesus went on to say, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). God’s love is a life poured out. God’s love can also be seen in a “perfect unity.” “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22-23). When God’s love is ruling, human hearts and minds are united together around God’s throne, without division and diversion.

God’s love is so powerful nothing will ever be able to separate us from God’s love. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

This divine quality of love is the ultimate mark of a Christians. The same love Jesus demonstrated in his life and death is now to be demonstrated in our lives. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). And this love is actually very practical. “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17).

Frankly, this kind of love is not humanly possible. But with God, all things are possible. In fact, Paul taught that when God sent his Holy Spirit to abide in our human hearts, with the Spirit God sent his love as well. “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). Our challenge is to allow God’s love to rule in our hearts more and more.

God’s love is infinite, voluntary, and unconditional. God’s love is expressed as a continuous, sacrificial self-giving. While we can try to define the nature and quality of God’s love, it’s best to contemplate pictures of divine love. Put simply, the love of God is best seen in Jesus – in every aspect of the life and ministry of Jesus – from the cradle to the cross. When we celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas day we see God’s love being shouted from the hills surrounding Bethlehem. At the same time, we remember that Jesus came to die for all humankind. Jesus was God’s life poured out, the final word about God and God’s love for humanity. This is what we are celebrating and proclaiming. “God so loved the world that he gave!”

Incarnation Nation

Have you noticed how Christian theologians love big words? Justification. Redemption. Sanctification. Propitiation (my personal favorite). And a special one for Calvinists (who are the intellectuals of Protestantism), Supralapsarianism. And of course our Christmas term, Incarnation. So what is “incarnation”? Is it a certain type of flower? A certain kind of soup (con carne)? The word literally means “enfleshed,” and refers to something or someone taking on human flesh. “Incarnation” refers to God coming into history as a human being – one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith – the mystery we celebrate at Christmas.

I find it interesting that the prominent philosophies taught in the first century tended to believe that anything physical – flesh and blood – was inherently inferior (if not evil). The very thought of God taking on human flesh was unacceptable. And yet, that is the story of Christmas. The apostle John famously wrote, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The Eternal Word (Logos) of God, the Word that was with God in the beginning and was God, became flesh. I love how the Message paraphrases this verse: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”

One of the earliest hymns of the church was composed by the apostle Paul to celebrate the incarnation:

“Who, being in very nature God,
     did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own             advantage;
    rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8).

Jesus did not need to strive for divinity (unlike our original parents in the Garden) because he was God. Beyond that, Jesus did not seek to hang on to his divine rights, power and authority. Instead, “he made himself nothing,” literally, “he emptied himself.” As God, Jesus considered himself to be nothing, he poured himself out, pouring himself into humanity, God becoming “enfleshed.” In doing so, Jesus could have come into the world as a king or a famous philosopher. Instead, he “took the form of a servant.” Jesus came into the world to serve the Father, but also to serve humanity. Jesus came as a Servant-King, intentionally choosing a humble birth and a humble lifestyle. In the end, Jesus went even further, humbling himself by dying in the place of us all.

The mystery of the incarnation communicates several very important ideas:

1.     It tells us something about God. When we think of the fact that “God is love,” we see God taking extreme measures to have a free, love relationship with his creatures. God took the initiative to restore humanity back into a full relationship with him. Nothing is more important to our Father than our freely-chosen, freely-expressed love relationship with him.

2.     It tells us something about humanity. When God initiated salvation, God did so by entering into human history, becoming a human being. God’s “Plan A” involves an intimate partnership with humans, the pinnacle of God’s creation. Not only did God not give up on us, God became one of us in order to draw us back to himself. In fact, Jesus came as a perfect, sinless human being, and in doing so, not only perfectly represents God, Jesus perfectly represents human beings as God originally designed them (us) to be. Jesus came to restore our relationship with God; Jesus also came to restore our full, human potential.

3.     It tells us something about the way God works. I suppose God could have waved a magic wand over creation and “fixed it.” It might have been easier for God to wipe out humanity and start over. Instead, God entered into human chaos pain and brought life out of death. All God’s goals are relational and all God’s methods are relational.

So when you see a picture of the Holy Family with shepherds and wise men gathered in a barn, you aren’t just seeing a sentimental symbol of Christmas. You are seeing one of the greatest miracles, and one of the greatest mysteries, in all of human history. Indeed, you are seeing the pinnacle of human history. Everything changed from that moment on, and you and I are invited to enter into the miracle and renew our commitment to God’s plan for our lives. Look how he loves us!

What Are the Odds?

I used to teach a freshman class at Portland Bible College called “Basic Doctrine.” While preparing to teach I came across an amazing statistic: The Old Testament contains 330 specific prophecies pertaining to the coming of the Messiah, all of them specifically fulfilled. What are the odds that any of them would actually be fulfilled? Well, the probability that any 8 of the 330 being fulfilled is 1 in 10¹⁷. This is equivalent to covering the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, randomly placing a special mark on one of the silver dollars, then picking it out the very first time. The probability of all 330 prophecies being specifically fulfilled is 1 in 10¹⁴⁷. Imagine randomly marking one of the electrons in the universe then picking that electron the very first time and you can see that it’s really impossible for all of these prophecies to be fulfilled. And yet they were. How do you account for that? It seem probable that God had something to do with it.

It is an ancient Christian tradition to prepare our hearts for the Christmas celebration with a four-week “Advent” commemoration. “Advent” simply means “coming,” so the purpose of Advent is to prayerfully reflect on Scripture in order to prepare our hearts to fully receive Christ at his coming on Christmas morning. During the first week of Advent it is customary to reflect on the Old Testament prophecies that accurately predict the coming of the Christ child.

When the prophet Isaiah announced to King Ahaz that God was going to deliver Judah from its enemies, the King was skeptical. So Isaiah said, “Ask the Lord God for a sign” (Isaiah 7:11). When Ahaz refused the prophet answered, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14; see also Matthew 1:23). The sign of God’s supernatural deliverance was the gift of a son, and not just any kind of son. This child would come into the world as a result of a young maid, a virgin, conceiving and giving birth. How is that even possible? This must be a supernatural child. And not just supernatural – he will be “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us.” How can a human child be God with us? It’s seemed unlikely that such an amazing prophecy could ever be fulfilled – until that first Christmas morning.

During that same time period Isaiah began to announce Good News to “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” (Isaiah 9:1; see also Matthew 4:15). The prophet declared that God was going to cause a special light to dawn on the people, resulting in joy and rejoicing. What was going to be so special about that light? “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders” (Isaiah 9:6). Once again, a special child, a son, would be provided by God to bring a new governance to the land. But this would not just be a normal, human ruler. “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This amazing son would be known as the Wonderful Counselor, the one bringing a full understanding of the wisdom of God. This child-ruler would be the Prince of Peace, bringing true harmony and wholeness to all who submitted to his rule. But not only that, he would also be the “Mighty God” and the “Everlasting Father.” It’s one thing to prophesy a new King provided by God, but to claim that this human child/king would also be God?! Isaiah then sang of the everlasting rule of this God-King. “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever” (Isaiah 9:7). The coming child would be the rightful King of Israel, ruling on David’s throne, but his rule would be an eternal reign of peace and justice. How is such a thing possible? Isn’t it only “pie-in-the-sky”? Maybe – until that first Christmas morning explained everything.

During this same period in Israel’s history the prophet Micah began his ministry. One day, while speaking of the enemies of Israel laying a siege against the land, the prophet made a very strange statement: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2; see also Matthew 2:6). The tiny village of Bethlehem was essentially a suburb of the might city of Jerusalem. With the city and the nation occupied by a foreign power, how could Bethlehem factor into God’s deliverance? How likely is it that a powerful ruler, a ruler who would bring ultimate deliverance to the people, one spoken of from ancient times, could be born in Bethlehem? It seemed highly improbably – until that first Christmas morning.

These are only three of the many Old Testament prophecies about the coming into the world of God’s Son, a child who would bring salvation to all mankind. As we enter into this Advent Season, may our hearts to open wide to his coming and ruling in our lives.

(I want to once again give full credit to my friend Ken Malmin, Dean of Portland Bible College and author of the "Basic Doctrine" curriculum.)