Sunday, December 25, 2005
First Christmas Day
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . .
All our comfort and joy against sin, death, devil, hell, and despair are centered in these words: God was made flesh and dwelt among us. God came. He left heaven and came to us. The advent pleading of the Church, so conscious of the hopelessness of life without His coming, is answered beyond all expectation in the Christmas miracle of His coming.
Man had erected that insurmountable wall of sin between himself and God. All He could expect of the Holy God was judgment, sorrow, punishment, curse. Through the miserable centuries parade the wise ones with an endless variety of plans to storm that huge wall. How to reach God! How to find God! How to find peace of mind! How to call upon God's power! But all the efforts and all the wisdom only multiplied the darkness and misery; only added to the height of the wall that sealed God off from man.
But God came to man. He did not send a message to man with information on how to scale the wall. He crossed the wall. He came all the way. He came all the way to our side. He became flesh and dwelt among us. He did not come and show me how to break through the wall: He joined Himself to me, united Himself to my flesh, and then destroyed the wall of sin!
Oh, then rejoice that through His Son
God is with sinners now at one;
Made like yourselves of flesh and blood,
Your brother is th'eternal God.
