The Life of All Lives - Our Saviour Jesus - 4
The Birth of Christ
In this study we shall be reflecting upon the birth of Jesus Christ.
Matthew and Luke tell us about the factual circumstances of His birth – the wise men, the shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night, how the evil plans of Herod were frustrated, the child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger because there was no room for them at the inn. The scenes are vivid and powerful, and may well be very familiar to you. However, for many people they are also overlaid with a great deal of sentimentality, and are called to mind only at a time of year when they are distracted by revelries from thinking about what it means.
John gives us none of these homely details, but goes straight to the underlying significance of it all. In chapter 1 verse 14 he puts it like this: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
This is mysterious language to us today, and whole libraries have been written in the attempt to explore its full meaning. John is referring to the Lord Jesus as ‘the Word’ and says that this Word became flesh. What is he telling us about the Person of Christ?
The Greek word ‘Logos’ for which we read ‘Word’ carries with it two main levels of meaning.
First, it relates to the powerful, creative word of God by which the heavens and the earth were brought into being. It takes us back to Genesis chapter 1 where we read: “And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and the refrain ‘And God said’ continues throughout the rest of that chapter. Again, we read in Psalm 33:6, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”
Secondly, Greek readers would think that John was talking about the rational principle of the universe, the thing that held it all together and caused it all to make sense. One of the startling things about John’s statement, therefore, is that it not only says that this principle was personalised, but that in the Person of Jesus Christ it became incarnate.
Here, John tells us something vital about this ‘Word’. He tells us that the ‘Word’ became flesh. At a specific point in time, the eternal Word became something that he had never been before, yet did not cease to be that which He had always been.
The two essential emphases of the incarnation are, first, that Christ took upon Himself a true human body; and second, that he took a reasonable human soul. Let’s briefly explore what these statements mean.
First, he took a true human body. His body was made of precisely the same stuff as yours and mine. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, ‘in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.’ Jesus was born in the normal way. Strictly speaking, it was His conception that was miraculous, not His birth. He also grew up and developed naturally. He knew what it was to be hungry and thirsty. He experienced tiredness. When cruel men abused Him, he suffered and bled, and died.
The significance of the fact that He had a fully human body is that it associates Him with the physical creation in general and with suffering humanity in particular. He is not something – or somebody – removed, different, distant. Sin apart, He became one of us.
Secondly, he took a reasonable human soul. This means that just as He had a fully human body, so He had a fully human psychological makeup. He had a human mind, with the power of perception, memory, and reason. His mind developed, as any human mind develops. He ‘grew in wisdom’. He observed, he learnt, he remembered. He was not born with an implanted body of infinite knowledge or wisdom, but acquired knowledge and wisdom by the normal processes of human development.
Now while it is right to emphasise the naturalness of His development, we must give proper weight to the passages of Scripture that indicate a supernatural element to His knowledge. The eminent scholars in the Temple were amazed at his understanding and answers when He was only 12 years old; He knew that the woman of Samaria had had 5 husbands when she had not told Him; He knew that Lazarus was dead before He reached the home in Bethany. But whilst these things are true, they must not be allowed to detract from the important fact that Jesus took upon Himself a human soul with that this means.
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews both asserts these facts and explains their significance. In chapter 2:14 he writes: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
We have already briefly explored the first part of this statement: “He…shared in their humanity.” But why did He?
The first answer is that it was in order to die. That is what the text says: “…he too shared in their humanity so that by his death…”
It is extraordinary to claim that a person was born in order to die. People are born in order to live, you may think. But Jesus was born – he shared in our humanity – in order to die.
Again, we are driven to ask: why? And again, the text answers the question. “He…shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” So his death had two purposes. First, it was to destroy; second, it was to deliver.
He died to destroy the devil. His final doom is inevitable – it is only a matter of time.
He also died to deliver us from the terrible bondage of the fear of death. Men do not like to admit they are not free, but they are not free to think about death. They will not because they dare not. The good news is that the only One who was not bound by the fear of death willingly endured its horrors so that we who face its awful inevitability may do so without fear. That is the joyous position of all who are united to Him by faith.