Full of Grace and Truth

 

You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.  Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  --Isaiah 12:1-3

Christmas has come and gone.  By now you have most likely thrown away all of the wrapping paper and ribbons, which looked so festive when they adorned the gifts under the Christmas tree.  Now they are destined for a land fill somewhere, a remnant of Christmases past.  Perhaps you are spending this weekend taking down the Christmas tree, carefully removing and boxing the surviving ornaments, storing them away for next year.

In removing all the clutter and returning the family room back to normal you may see something that gives you pause.  Something you swept up off the floor--maybe a piece of the nativity set that somehow got separated from the rest--something small, but it makes you stop and smile.  You may remember the Christmas Eve service at church, or maybe a line from an old carol you hold dear.  A Bible verse may cross your mind, something you read to the children from the gospel accounts of Luke, or maybe Matthew, where the birth of Jesus is recounted in detail.

Matthew and Luke tell us the most about the events leading up to and surrounding the birth of the Christ child.  Mark doesn't mention it at all, introducing the Savior as a full grown man.  Then there's the gospel of John.  John's account of the Nativity is summed up in the first chapter.  Verse 9 speaks of Jesus's purpose: "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world."  Verse 10 speaks of his anonymity: "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him."  Verse 11 speaks of his rejection: "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him."  Verse 12 speaks of his disciples: "But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God."

The whole of Jesus's ministry is summed up in verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."  The Word of God, whom Solomon referred to as Wisdom, the One who spoke the world into existence left the glory of heaven and walked among us.  God did not decide one day to just walk a mile in our sandals.  Rather, He became one of of us.  The creator of life spent nine months in utero.  The divine and eternal took on the flesh and blood of a mortal man.

Professor Chad Bird put it this way:

God becomes no bigger than a dot to save a cosmos. He doesn't just send a child to do a man's job. He sends an embryo to do a God's job. Jesus did not come down to earth to walk a mile in our shoes. He chose to live for the rest of eternity in our skin. The incarnation was not an internship. If there was ever any doubt about God's commitment to humanity, the incarnation removed that doubt. For the joy set before him, Jesus entered the womb, suffered through puberty, fought the good fight, endured the cross, exploded the tomb. For what joy? For the joy of calling you brother and sister, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. For the joy of your salvation. It all began inside a virgin, when God became a man forever. And thus he is our brother, our kinsman redeemer, the God who would move heaven and earth to save us.

 Jesus's incarnation is the intersection of grace and truth.  

My wife gave me a book for Christmas called Breakfast With Bonhoeffer by Jon Walker.  In it, Walker compares the marriage of grace and truth to a husband and wife who have different ways of loading a dishwasher.  His wife is a structuralist, believing there is one and only one way to properly clean the dishes.  Jon, by contrast says he is improvisation.  His approach to cleaning dishes is more free-form, "that is, if it's in the machine somewhere, somehow, then surely it will get clean."  Walker notes that this marriage of legalism and grace is fraught with potential pitfalls.

Jesus came from the Father "full of grace and truth" on his mission to bring us into the Kingdom (John 1:14 NIV).  God's truth and grace work hand-in-hand, just like a couple who are polar opposites can work together when loading the dishwasher.  The danger as we follow Jesus into the Kingdom is that we can slip off the narrow path, on one side sliding into a ditch of burdensome religion--what we commonly call legalism--and on the other side sliding into a ditch where there is a presumptive disregard for the bloody cost of God's grace, something Bonhoeffer refers to as cheap grace. (Walker, page 52)

The Christian life is often compared to walking a narrow path.  The challenge is to keep our way between the ditches.  Too many times we follow "blind guides" referred to in Luke 6:39. On the one hand are fundamentalists who fastidiously follow all the rules,  On the other hand are the hyper-grace types who have no idea of the price Jesus paid for our salvation.  Both are in danger of falling into a ditch.

Both of these ditches look a little bit like following Jesus, and so we can trudge through the mud, thinking we're still hot on the heels of Jesus.  But both these ditches carry us away from the intimate relationship God desires that we have with Jesus Christ.  Both of these paths attempt to do the impossible: the first tries to separate grace from truth and the second tries to separate truth from grace.  Either way, it only creates a monumental mess. Bonhoeffer says either extreme will leave us perpetually immature, the one following rules instead of learning to be dependent upon Jesus and the other following impulse instead of learning to be obedient to God's Word.  The idea that we can disconnect from Jesus or that some part of our life can be disconnected from Jesus is a delusion straight from the pit of hell. (Walker, page 53.)

 The prophet Micah asked God what might cover man's sin.  Did he want sacrifices? If so, what kind, and how much?  Would one bull or ram sacrifice be enough, or would it require more?  If it required more, how much more?  A hundred animals? A thousand? The sacrifice of Micah's first-born son?  God's answer is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture: "He has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness (or mercy), and to walk humbly with your God? (Michah 6:8, emphasis added).

Jesus came to speak God's truth.  God is holy.  Man is sinful, separated from God.  Jesus also came to show us what grace looks like.  God requires punishment for our sins, but Jesus was willing to take that punishment for us.  Being the recipient of God's grace through the blood of Jesus does not give us license to sin.  A total surrender to Jesus should make us want to be holy.  

While you are busy boxing and storing the Christmas decorations, do not reflect so much on the baby, who came naked into this world through Mary.  Remember that this same man died naked on the cross, bearing our sins upon him, so that we may be the recipient of God's grace. 

The "Star" of Bethlehem

 

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from old, From everlasting.  --Micah 5:2 (NKJV)

Bethlehem literally means "House of Bread."  As we wade into the Christmas season, we will be reminded often that Bethlehem was the birthplace of Jesus.  This same Jesus once called Himself the "bread of life."  In fact, at the Last Supper (the first Communion) Jesus broke bread, and told his disciples to "Take, eat, for this (bread) is My body which is broken for you."

So what do we know about the little town of Bethlehem?  Why was this village featured so prominently in the Bible? And what lessons can we learn from its most prominent residents?

The first mention of Bethlehem in Scripture is the place where Jacob, the Patriarch of Israel, buried his wife Rachel.  Rachel was the mother of Joseph, who was sold into slavery, falsely accused by the wife of Potiphar, thrown into prison, and was subsequently freed by Pharaoh when Jacob interpreted a dream.  You will recall that Jacob was then elevated to a high position in Egypt, and was instrumental in feeding thousands.  Jacob is sometimes referred to as a "type" of Christ, meaning there are parallels between his life and the life of Jesus.  Jesus was falsely accused and was taken prisoner.  Jesus was also highly exalted, and was instrumental in feeding thousands.  Just as Joseph saved his family from the famine, Jesus saves His people from their sins.

Another mention of Bethlehem in Scripture is the twelfth chapter of Judges.  A man named Ibzan from Bethlehem ruled Israel for 7 years.  Bible scholars are divided about who this man Ibzan was, and even whether it was the same Bethlehem that was called "the city of David."  Jewish tradition, however, says that it was the same village.  Moreover, Jewish tradition equates Ibzan with Boaz, another prominent resident of Bethlehem.  You will recall that Boaz was kinsman/Redeemer of Ruth.  Similarly Jesus is our kinsman/Redeemer.  Jesus paid the price for us.  We (as the Church) are His bride.

The last reference we will mention today is a combination of all the passages in Samuel and Chronicles involving David and his proximity to Bethlehem.  Before he was king, David watched his father's sheep in Bethlehem.  While he battled Saul for the kingdom, David longed for water from his hometown, so much so that three mighty men broke through the Philistine forces to get him a container of water.  David was impressed, but did not drink the water when the men brought it to him.  Instead, he poured it out on the ground as a sacrifice to God.  Jesus was broken and spilled out for us.  He poured Himself out as a sacrifice for us.

Of all the prominent sons of Bethlehem, there is none brighter than Jesus.  He is the Star of Bethlehem that shines so brightly it beckons wise men from the East, who shines so long that He calls to you and me some 2000 years after His sacrificial death and resurrection.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 

This is the preparation He made for His Advent.  He prepared a place called the House of Bread so that Mary and Joseph could travel there and give birth to the Bread of Life.  It is by this preparation that we can break bread in holy Communion, in remembrance of Him and in some way becoming a member of His body, the body that was broken for us.

Wisdom Incarnate: The Gospel of Proverbs

 

If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.  --Proverbs 1:23

We are entering the Christmas season.  Having cleaned up the Thanksgiving meal, we have likely set about the setting up of the Christmas tree.  Today is the first Sunday of Advent, so no doubt in our church services we have begun singing Christmas carols and hymns.  

One such hymn was sung in our worship service this morning.  The song, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is a haunting tune expressing a longing for the Messiah to come to ransom Israel.  One of the verses in that hymn (depending on the hymnbook your church uses, or the translation that the editors chose), goes something like this:

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high
And order all things, far and nigh
To us the path of knowledge show
And cause us in her ways to go

The poetic invocation of Wisdom here is not just a plea for divine knowledge, although the dissemination of that godly knowledge was certainly the divine work of the Messiah.  I would urge you, though, to open up your mind a little bit here.  Wisdom is the personification of God.  Remembering the beginning of John's gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word, was God,"  Author Chad Bird puts it this way: 

"God has wisdom like a father has a son.  I mean that the Father begot wisdom, brought forth wisdom to be by His side, to work alongside Him in creation, to teach humanity, and eventually to Tabernacle with humanity.  Like the word of Yahweh, the wisdom of Yahweh is a person.  Using trinitarian terminology, scholars sometimes cal this the "hypostatization" of wisdom.  They mean that wisdom is a hypostasis (person) who, while essentially of God, is also distinguished from God.  I would say, more simply, that wisdom is another name for the Father's Son." (Chad Bird The Christ Key 2021, page 36).

 If we understand this concept, then we see the book of Proverbs as a Gospel message.  Proverbs 1:20-23 says,

Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.

If you can get past the fact that the word for wisdom in Hebrew is a feminine noun, then you can see how the Wisdom that Solomon speaks of in Proverbs is a foreshadowing of the Son of God.  Did not Jesus cry out in the streets and marketplaces?  Did He not promise to pour out His Spirit on all people?

A more direct image is found in Proverbs 3:19: "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth."  There are several New Testament passages that flesh out this thought.  1 Corinthians 8:6 says, "For there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."  Jon 1:3 says, "All things were made by Him (the Word), and without Him was not anything made that was made."

Looking further into the New Testament equivalency of Wisdom and the Christ, we see in Hebrews 1:2-3, "In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power."  Colossians 1:16-17 says, "For by Him (Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us Wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption."  I challenge you to read the 8th chapter of Proverbs and not see the work of Christ in almost every verse.  "For my mouth will utter truth." (verse 7).  "I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me." (verse 17).  "For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord." (verse 35).  

If you have one of those Bibles that prints the words of Jesus in red, these verses in Proverbs 8 should be red as well.  This is the speech of God's Son.  He is telling us that He is begotten of the Father.  He was "brought forth" by Him.  Moreover this was "before the beginning of the earth" (*:23); before anything was created, He was there.  But once the Father was forming seas and erecting mountains, what was the Son doing? Wisdom was the "master workman" of architect of creation, "rejoicing in His inhabited world and delighting in the children of man" (8:30-31).  (ibid Chad Bird, page 68).

Was it any accident that Joseph, the man who raised the boy Jesus on earth, was a carpenter?  Joseph, in all likelihood, trained Jesus in this trade.  Jesus probably earned His livelihood by being a carpenter up until age 30, when He began His earthly ministry.  Why is this important?  The Greek word for "beginning" is arche, from which we get our English word "architect".  A carpenter's work will not stand without an architectural drawing, and cannot be completed with a certification from an architect.  Not only is Jesus the builder of the universe, He is the architect.  He is both the founder and the foundation.  Revelation 3:14 says, "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, 'The words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of God's creation'."  John is describing Jesus here; not only is He the Amen (the end), but He is the beginning of creation.

Another favorite song of mine is the hymn Be Thou My Vision.  The second verse says this:

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Jesus was the Wisdom spoken of in Proverbs.  He is the Son of God who dwelt among us.  He bids us all to become children of God.  For this reason we sing, "Rejoice!  Rejoice!  Emmanuel has come to ransom Israel."