December 13, 2007

• John MacArthur - the Incarnation

  The Incarnation of the Triune God

  Philippians 2:6‑11

  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death -  even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

  The Lord Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position. The word "being" denotes that which a person is in his nature, that which is true of a person that cannot be changed or removed. It says of Christ that He is in the being of God. He is then unalterably and unchangeably God in His essence.  In John 8:58, Jesus said, "Before Abraham was I am." See also John 1, Hebrews 1, I Timothy 3:16 and Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God."

  "He did not think it was something to be grasped to be equal with God.  "Satan originally an angel created by God who although was inferior to God thought that the position of God was something at which to grasp.  Jesus didn't because He was already equal to God. There was nothing for Him to seek.  The verb that is used there means to snatch or to grasp tightly. Jesus didn't hang onto this thing fearing He would lose it, because He was essentially God and could never cease being God. So it wasn't something He had to snatch to get and it wasn't something He had to hang onto to keep. When Christ became a man, He emptied Himself. The verb means to pour out everything until it's all gone. He poured out Himself. He emptied Himself. He divested Himself. He rendered up.

  Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position.  He did not give up His deity. He did not give up His divine attributes. He abandoned the position. He could never give those things up, they were His essential being. He gave up His glory. (John 17:5) He gave up His honor (Isaiah 53).  He gave up His riches (II Corinthians 8:9).  He gave up His favorable relation to the Father. And He did that only in a moment of time when He died on the cross and said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"  He also gave up His independent exercise of authority. He said, "I will do only that which the Father shows Me."  He emptied all of those things out and yet He continued to be God. It wasn't that He lost any of His divine attributes, it is that He gave up the privilege of using them. When He became a man He didn't become a king as a man, or a great ruler, or great leader, or great master, He became a servant.  (Luke 22:27,  Mark 10:45, John 13) The ultimate act of service when He died on a cross to save sinners. His Father invited Him to come into the world as a servant to work out the plan of redemption, and He willingly became that servant. Abandoning a sovereign position and accepting a servant's place meant approaching a sinful people.

  He was fully God, but He had the essential attributes of humanness. He wasn't just God in a shell, He was a genuine man with real humanity. He had everything that all men have except for sin.  He didn't drop like some visitor from outer space.  By personal experience, He adapted to the outer manifestation of the time in which He lived. He was man at the deepest part of His nature. And He adapted to man in that climate and that culture and that time and experienced all of their experiences, fully God, fully man. The mystery of the incarnation and sinless all the while.

  He adopted a selfless posture. "He humbled Himself."  Humility is the theme of Christmas. Jesus became obedient unto death. The greatest act of obedience to the Father was in dying, that was God's will. And even in the garden when He said, "O Father, let this cup pass from Me," the humanness was crying out against dying, the deity was crying out against sin bearing and yet He said, "Not My will but Thine be done." He was obedient to death. He didn't just become mortal, He died.  The ancient writers used to say that to die on a cross is to die a thousand times before you take your last breath. The pain is excruciating, unimagineable. The suffocation of the organs when the body is suspended by four great wounds is more than you can believe. The pain, the fiery pain pulsing through the body is more than we can conceive. It was a painful, shameful, lonely death.  There was no companionship, even God was gone.

  But there's one more thought.  He ascended a supreme prince.  Luke 14:11 says, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." When we humble ourselves, God will lift us up and exalt us.  God exalted Christ and gave Him a name above every name "In order that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow."  Every knee will bow, if not in adoration, in judgment, If not in worship, in condemnation.  Every living thing, every living creature in this world will confess Jesus Christ as Lord. If you wait until the judgment, it's too late.  But if now you confess Jesus as Lord, you enter in to His Kingdom, His salvation.

  Romans 10:9, 10 says, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, believe in your heart God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."  Jesus Christ is Lord. He is God of very God with all the attributes of God, come into the world with all the fullness of humanness. He became the servant. He humbled Himself. He died, even dying on a cross. And in the midst of that death, purchasing our salvation. God approved and God lifted Him back up and exalted Him. And then God calls to all the created universe and says, "Bow the knee and confess His Lordship."  You can bow the knee now in adoration and love. You can confess Him as Lord now and enter into the joy of salvation forever. Or you can resist and say no and someday you'll bow the knee because you'll be forced and you have no choice and you'll be condemned. Our prayer is that you'll confess Jesus as Lord and receive eternal life.  What greater Christmas gift than that?

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