Advent 2014: "And He Shall Be Called . . . Immanuel"

“For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.” This affirmation, attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the 4th Century “Cappadocian Fathers,” who articulately defended the biblical view of Christ in the face of heretical challenges, succinctly captures the fulness of the salvation that has been accomplished through the obedience of Christ. In particular, Gregory was exposing the implications of teachings offered by a man named Apollinaris of Laodicea, who claimed that the Son of God could not have assumed a human mind when he assumed our existence. 

The historic teaching of the two natures of Christ, the coexistence of the divine nature and the human nature in the one person, admits that it is a mystery, but the fact of it cannot be yielded. For, as Gregory teaches, if the Word made flesh did not take on all of our existence (with the exception of our sin) then we humans remain in bondage to ourselves with no hope of rescue. Sin has so affected us that there is nothing about us that is left untouched by its destructive power. Our bodies are filled with decay and inevitable death, and our hearts and minds are prone to idolatry. We need a savior who accomplishes a full and complete salvation. This is precisely what was the Word made flesh, Immanuel, God with Us, did.

That he had a body like ours is evident in that he became tired, hungry, and thirsty; that he possessed a soul like ours is evident in that he cried, became angry, felt compassion, agonized, and loved. He also obeyed the rules of logic and could, therefore, communicate with people, express ideas. All this to say, that when the Word became flesh, he became all that we are to redeem all that we are. But if any portion of us was not assumed by our Savior then we are not saved. 

But it all was assumed by the Word become flesh, God incarnate. Beginning with conception, through gestation, birth, and maturity unto death, Immanuel lived our life and, as a result, was the perfect Redeemer. One day we will experience the fulness of his salvation when we stand in the new heavens and earth with glorified bodies and incorruptible minds. That is a destiny guaranteed by the One who healed us, body and soul. 

May we join the angels in singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Whose in Charge?

The late Leon Morris, the respected New Testament scholar, offers this observation in his commentary on Revelation: “We feel ourselves caught up in the world’s evil and misery and we cannot break free . . . we all, at times, feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the grip of forces stronger than we. The world’s agony is real. And the world's inability to break free from the consequences of its guilt is real.” (Tyndale NT Commentaries, IVP, 1987, p. 91). When we hear of a powerful politician flexing his muscles, daring others to stop his incursion into a neighboring country, or read of a yet another sect of religious zealots murderously seeking to establish a crushing theocracy, we sense the kind of helplessness to which Morris refers seeping into our souls. For the believers in the first couple of centuries after the resurrection of Christ, when ambitious Rome, invincible Rome, pagan Rome, had control over more than 25% of the world’s population, the future must have seemed even more precarious. How was it all going to end?

A powerful antidote for such fears is found in the vision granted to us through John (see Revelation 5). The heavenly scene that we are introduced to leaves no doubt about who is in charge of history and the goings on of the world. The victorious Lamb is the one who breaks the seals on the scroll of God’s purposes, setting all in motion. What transpires involves divine justice and gracious redemption. Evil, all evil, will be overcome, and those who the Lamb ransomed for God “from every tribe and language and people and nation,” bask in the glory of his triumph.

We need to be reminded of this super-reality when the closer reality closes in. The knowledge that the exalted status of our Savior was gained by his redemptive obedience, coupled with the truth that our prayers in the midst of such troubling times will not go unanswered, must shape our responses. Tyrants and terrorists do not have the final word. That is reserved for the one to whom the multitude in heaven declares, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.”

Rational Miracles

Miracles, by definition, are phenomena, welcome phenomena, which stand outside the bounds of what is expected, normal, or natural. They don’t have a scientific explanation and so are attributed to divine intervention. For the materialist, therefore, a miracle is an impossibility, and to believe that they occur is irrational. No matter how extraordinary a phenomenon, it must have a rational, scientific explanation.

Given their presuppositions, I don’t know how materialists would have explained the healing of the man who sat day by day at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3). Everyone familiar with the Beautiful Gate knew him to be one who had been lame from birth, who was brought to the location so that he could beg for alms. When it came to pass, therefore, that he was suddenly able to stand and leap about they couldn’t deny that it was he or that he was now completely healed. But what brought this about? Why was he suddenly able to walk? The explanation given by Peter wouldn’t have satisfied the materialist. It wasn’t scientific. It wasn’t rational.

Well, actually, that’s not completely true. The healing might not have been scientific, but it was totally rational, for it was done in the name of Jesus.

Prompted by the healing, Peter offers the incredulous onlookers a string of titles and adjectives for Jesus, when put together, provide a perfectly rational explanation as to why the man was healed “by faith in his name.” Jesus, the one those listening had “delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate,” was the “Holy and Righteous One” who had been glorified (ascended and now seated at the right hand of God, as attested to by the outpouring of he Holy Spirit) by the “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers,” who was raised from the dead and shown to be the “Author of life.” He was the “servant” of God, the “Christ” who “suffered” as “foretold by the mouth of all the prophets,” who himself was the one of whom “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’” He was the object of “all the prophets [had] spoken” about the age to come in which the covenant that God made with Abraham that “’in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed,’” would be realized. Given the reality of who Jesus is, it makes perfect sense that Peter and John, ministering in the power of Jesus could heal the man in the name of Jesus.

The hope is that the materialist (or anyone else for that matter) would reason backwards from the miracle and come to the conclusion that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). For some who listened to Peter that was the case. And for those in any age who hear the testimony for themselves, and are willing to weigh the evidence, a perfectly rational response will be to repent and believe.

To Seek and to Save

Events that had been planned from eternity were about to unfold. Jesus, knowing that the “days drew near for him to be taken up,” had “set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). That determination had brought him into proximity of the place that symbolized God’s presence among his people. Soon, despite the accolades that will accompany his entrance into Jerusalem, he will be rejected by the “righteous,” who should have been able to see him for who he was. They will remand him to be humiliated, tortured, and finally executed. Spiritual blindness was a persistent problem for Israel; now the malady would prove decisive. In a stroke of divine irony, however, a blind man will recognize him and an unrighteous man will welcome him.

Jesus proclamation that the “Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), reveals that the heart of his mission was to wrest from men and women any sense that they have no need of him. Men like Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, and Zacchaeus, a despised tax collector in the employ of Rome, were persuaded of this need, and when they heard that their savior was passing by, they laid hold of him.

Jesus’ encounters with these two men serve as a fitting exclamation point to his ministry prior to Holy Week. He had proclaimed his purposes early on in his hometown of Nazareth (see Luke 4:18-21) and he had been faithful in demonstrating that, as proclaimed, he had come “to seek and to save the lost.” That explanation of his work within the context of these two final encounters, places his entire enterprise within an eternal frame. The confession of Bartimaeus and the contriteness of Zacchaeus reveal faith in Jesus that saves them not only from earthly bondage but from eternal judgment as well.

Just after these encounters and prior to his ascent to Jerusalem, motivated by the misapprehension of many as to what was about to take place, Jesus relates a parable that warns of the consequences of not grasping who he is. The message: understand now and live accordingly, for when I return it will be too late. We are in that time period right now. It extends from the moment of his ascension until his reappearing. Pray that, like Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus, you will have ears to hear when the good news about Jesus is made known to you. The faith that will be engendered will result in eyes that will see him as the savior of the world.

The Great Reconciliation

In his opening words to the Colossians, Paul offers some of the most exalted language regarding Jesus in the New Testament. He attaches activity and characteristics that are reserved for God alone, including bringing everything into existence: “For by him 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” (1:16). He then presents Christ’s work upon the cross as an act of reconciliation. Christ, in whom “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” acted “to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (1:19-20).

Scripture teaches that man’s failure and the subsequent injection of sin and death into that which Christ made is the cause of the disharmony that exists between humans, humans and animals, humans and creation. “To reconcile all things,” therefore, suggests that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is meant to address the effects of sin not only in the lives of human beings, but in the rest of creation as well. This finds support when Paul states elsewhere that “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” for then “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Romans 8:19, 21).

This broadens the responsibility of the Christian. With Christ as our head (Colossians 1:18), we should expect to be used as his agents of reconciliation “far as the curse is found,” to use the words of Isaac Watts. Preaching faith and repentance, alleviating suffering, addressing injustice, or restoring broken relationships, are reconciling activities made possible through the power of Christ at work in his church. This is our labor until the day when all will be reconciled and we stand before him in the New Heavens and New Earth.