" IN CHRIST GOD HAS WORKED SALVATION FOR PEOPLE DEAD IN SIN ."

Scripture Reading:
I Corinthians 1:18-2:10a
Luke 1:26-38

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 98:1,2
Psalm 25:5,6
Psalm 22:10,11
Hymn 20
Hymn 16

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Especially at this time of year our world is busy, so very busy, with things of this world. Christmas shopping demands one’s attention fully; one must, must, get a present for Tom, and for Dick, and for Harry – and for Sue and Janice too. But what shall I buy?! And I’ve got only 7 shopping days left….

And Christmas day itself? First there’s the excitement of opening the gifts. Then the pleasure of enjoying this gift and that one. Or maybe there’s the whisper of dissatisfaction; why did Molly buy me that – what does she think I am…. Or: why didn’t Geoff buy me anything; doesn’t he like me?

What it all is, congregation? The evil one wishes nothing more than to distract the attention of God’s people, yes, of all the world, to get people’s attention away from the glorious work of God that’s highlighted so wonderfully in the Bible’s message of Christmas. As long as people’s attention is distracted, that message won’t be heard. And where it’s not heard, or where it’s drowned out by other excitement, faith will not grow. That is precisely what the evil one wants.

Satan does not pass the church by, seeks also to distract you and me. In the midst of his effort, the Lord God pulls us this morning out of the busyness of this world (with its rush to finish Christmas preparations) and brings us to church. Here the Lord would speak to us of His work, of what He has done to work salvation for sinners as we are. He wants us to know the gospel, and grow in the faith.

Following Lord’s Day 6, I preach to you this morning the gospel of Christmas, under this theme:

1. God’s plan of salvation
2. God’s work of salvation

God’s plan of salvation

Lord’s Days 2-5, brothers and sisters, had focused our attention on this earth. The Lord God required of us that we love Him with heart and soul, but –try though we might- we are not able to produce the service to God that He requires; that’s what we confessed in Lord’s Day 2. The cause of the problem is not in heaven, though, for the God who created us fashioned us without a flaw, perfectly able to obey every command of His. The cause of our inability to obey God’s law lies instead with ourselves, for we transgressed the command of God in the beginning and so became depraved. That was Lord’s Day 3. And Lord’s Day 4 echoed the response of God to our self-imposed depravity; "God is terribly displeased with our original as well as our actual sins, and will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally." See there how great our sin and misery is!

Last week, with Lord’s Day 5, we confessed that there is a way for people on earth to be reconciled to God. That way is called Justice Road; for people to escape God’s punishment and be reconciled to God, God’s justice must in some way be satisfied. But we can’t satisfy that justice; we daily increase our debt with God. Nor can we line up a kookaburra to pay for us…. Result: we on this earth are hopelessly lost. The God who created us is terribly displeased with us, and there is no way in all the world that we are able to get out from under His eternal wrath. Lost we are, hopelessly lost….

In the face of this total lostness on our part, we read in the Word of God that God was busy. I read in I Cor 1:30, for example, that Christ "became for us wisdom from God." The point of the phrase "became for us" is that God prepared Christ for us and sent Him to us – that through Him we might receive righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In Lord’s Day 6 we quote precisely this text in order to draw out to people on earth –lost and hopeless as we made our condition- that elsewhere in the universe help was being prepared for us. What, now, is this help?

The apostle Paul speaks a number of times about a ‘mystery’. I read, for example, in I Cor 2 these words:

"…we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory" (vs 7).

And in Rom 16 he writes about "the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest" (Rom 16:25f). This ‘mystery’ does not refer to a thriller, complete with thefts, suspense and detectives. The ‘mystery’ of which Paul speaks is God’s plan of salvation – kept secret ever since Paradise but now revealed.

What this plan of salvation is? In the face of man’s hopelessness and lostness on earth, triune God in heaven above took counsel within Himself to determine a way to save His lost covenant partner on earth. The result of that counsel-within-Himself is known as this ‘mystery’. To the Ephesians Paul writes that the content of this mystery is "Christ" (2:4). To Timothy he fleshes it out in more detail, like this: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." Then he sets out to explain what this "mystery of godliness" is. Says Paul:

"God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory" (I Tim 3:16).

We understand: Paul is speaking about the work of Jesus Christ. "God," he says, "was manifested in the flesh," and that’s obviously a reference to Christmas, to the coming of the Son of God as a man on this earth. That, brothers and sisters, is the mystery of God, the plan determined by triune God already before the fall into sin occurred. You see: our fall into sin did not catch God by surprise –are not all things in this world in His hands?- and already before it had happened God determined within Himself a plan to save the people who plunged themselves into misery and hopelessness. See there what kind of God this is!

True, the Lord did not straightaway tell the fallen human race the details of His saving plan. After the fall into sin He spoke to the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve, and declared:

"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel" (Gen 3:15).

Here was a declaration of intent; God would somehow crush Satan through the Seed given to the woman. How? The details are not yet revealed. That is why Paul in the New Testament calls this plan of salvation a ‘mystery’ and then explains what he means with that term; he speaks in I Cor 2 about the "hidden wisdom from God" and in Rom 16 about "the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest." Think of a rose bud. That hard green bud has a surprise tucked away inside of it; the bud itself is a promise that next week a lovely flower will bloom. Already that bud is complete, has all the parts of the flower tucked away inside it. But for now it remains hidden, a mystery. Slowly, gradually the bud opens, and in the process more and more of the flower appears until its full glory is displayed for all the world to see.

So it is with God’s plan of salvation. Those words spoken in Paradise about crushing the serpent were the bud of the flower that came to full bloom with the coming of Jesus Christ. In Paradise that bud was still small, it’s wonderful color and aroma still tucked away inside its shell, kept secret from the eyes of men. In the course of years the Lord revealed its glorious secrets slowly but surely. What was first revealed in Paradise was afterward "proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law." That the people of Israel in the face of sin had to sacrifice an animal (instead of themselves perishing under God’s wrath against their sin) foreshadowed the gospel of Jesus Christ in a fuller way than the words God spoke in Paradise to the serpent. Slowly, gradually, resolutely, the mystery of God was revealed; slowly, gradually, resolutely His plan of salvation made known to lost sinners. Finally, when the Son of God entered this world as a man, the full glory of the plan of salvation was made manifest; its wonderful color and aroma was now evident for all the world to enjoy – or reject. Then was made obvious what Paul quoted from the Old Testament:

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (I Cor 2:9, quoting is 64:4).

How marvelous the mystery of God, the secret of salvation for creatures lost in sin! His answer: that one Person of the holy Trinity should leave the company of the other two and enter the world of man, yes, become a man. O the wisdom and the glory of God!

No wonder Paul sets before the Corinthians the work of God in terms of wisdom. Who in all the earth would have thought of this answer? That God would come to earth after earth rejected God? That God would travel to us when we couldn’t travel to Him? That He would send His only Son to become our righteousness and sanctification and redemption? Truly, the wisdom of God is beyond our comprehension, beyond our wildest imagination! But this is the gospel, the way of salvation, so that "he who glories, let him glory in the Lord" (I Cor 1:31).

We move on to our second point:

God’s work of salvation.

Such was the plan of God for our salvation. And see, when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son (cf Gal 4:4). I read in the gospel of Luke that the angel came to Mary in Nazareth and announced to her that she would

"conceive in [her] womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David" (Lu 1:31f).

Mary questioned how in the world this might be, since she wasn’t married. To which the angel gave this answer:

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (vs 35).

The angel Gabriel impressed it on Mary; this Child would be her Son, "born of woman" (Gal 4:4). That is to say: this infant would be as human as any other child. That’s how it turned out. Luke 2 records that Mary "brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger" (vs 7). The point is that this Child needed the same care as any other child ever born; this Child too was helpless, needed warmth supplied by another, needed a place to sleep – like every newborn does. So it is too that Mary and her husband had their hands as full with their newborn as any parents do; the Child cried, needed a feed and a wash, needed to be taught this and that and so much more. Please, beloved, do not see the infant born on that Christmas day so long ago as different from the children born today; He had the same needs simply because He was as human as the rest of us.

And human He had to be, by God’s divine decree. For "the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin." God will not punish another creature for the sin which man has committed, and so the Savior He sent into the world could not be an Extra-Terrestrial being who happened to live in the shell of a human body. God is just; man sinned, and so many must pay for sin. So the plan Triune God ordained within Himself included that the One sent to earth had to become man. And –to our comfort and salvation- Luke insists that the Child in Bethlehem’s manger was true man.

Yet He was more than true man. For the angel of Luke 1 insisted to Mary that her Child would be "holy" (vs 35). That’s to say that He’d be separated from sin, would remain untouched by sin in His righteous soul. Though "corrupt fathers bring forth corrupt children," this Child would not be corrupted by sin, and that would be because of the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Such was God’s plan, and so it had to be "because one who is himself a sinner cannot pay for others." So God ensured that the Savior He sent was able never to sin.

What consequences that reality had for His parents in raising Him I do not know. But this I do know: the Child of Bethlehem, though as human as any of us, never sinned. Never in the course of His earthly life –be it as a child or a teenager or an adult- did He transgress any command of God. Always there was obedience, full obedience. He said it Himself; "My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me" (Jn 4:34). Holy He remained, righteous, without sin. He never attracted a debt with God, and so when the time came to suffer the wrath of God on the cross of Calvary He had sins of His own to atone for – and therefore could take upon Himself the sins of others, yours and mine. And God would accept His labor in our place.

He was more than a true and righteous man. Twice in Luke 1 the angel said to Mary that her Child would "be called the Son of God." He’d be "called the Son of God" because, said Gabriel, the father of the child will not be a man, will not be your fiancé Joseph; rather, "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you." The Holy Spirit Himself –Who hovered over the face of the waters in Gen 1- would come upon Mary so that she would become pregnant with none less than the Son of God Himself.

It’s specifically John who belabors this point. John speaks in the first chapter of his gospel of "the Word," says of Him that "the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (1:1). That Word is none other the second Person of the holy Trinity – true God. Of this Word –true God- John exalts that

"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" (Jn 1:14).

That Word –God!- "became flesh," became man, joined in the weaknesses that characterize the human race since the fall into sin. Yet He remained God, for John insists that "we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." Though true man man, the glory of God remained evident in Him – for He remained true God. That’s why Matthew could say of this Child that He is "‘Immanuel,’ which is translated, "God with us " (1:21).

"God with us." How marvelous, beloved, the thought! God from heaven on high present on this earth! The Child that needed the tender care of His mother Mary was none less than – God! How astounding the mystery of God, how delightful the work of salvation God has prepared for us! "God with us": that is why Jesus, in the course of His years upon earth, could raise the dead, could heal the sick, could forgive sins. The Child born in Bethlehem remained true God, and so on the cross of Calvary could "bear in His human nature the burden of God’s wrath" – and so "obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life." In truth, how delightful God’s work of salvation at Christmas!

We on earth were lost in our sins, hopeless in the face of the challenge of travelling that road of Justice back to God. While we were helpless, God acted! By God’s work, Christ "became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (I Cor 1:30). By His work –Christmas is Step 1 of God putting His plan into action- by His work we have life!

The time of year when the church remembers specifically this redeeming work of God in Jesus Christ is upon us. The world around us is busy, so very busy doing good to each other, buying that necessary present, preparing for the feasting. How great the temptation is that we get swept along! That’s how Satan wants it; distract people, keep them busy with the pleasures and demands of this life – that way they haven’t time to appreciate the glorious mystery of God revealed at Christmas.

You, then, what are you going to do for Christmas? Collect your family together to open gifts? Intentions aside, you will by so doing draw attention away from God’s gift of His only Son.

What to do for Christmas? Tell, tell the children, tell the family of the mystery of God. Tell those around you how Triune God in heaven above determined so long ago that One of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity should leave the glory of heaven for the crib of Bethlehem. Tell it, and retell that One of the Three Persons of the Trinity has become true man even while He remained true God. And why? "For us and our salvation!" Tell it, and let nothing you do in this season distract you from delighting in that gospel. More, let all you do in this season focus your attention –and the attention of those around you- onto this "holy gospel."

May the Lord God grant that none of us is swept along by the distractions characterizing the world around us. Instead, may we all be so filled with gratitude for the self-emptying God displayed at Christmas for our salvation that our entire conduct in the coming weeks is characterized by praise for such a God. Amen.