FreeTruth

In Luke 4:18, 19 we read of the call of Jesus as He came to earth: He was anointed of the Spirit to proclaim gospel liberty, sight, freedom, and the year of the Lord's favor. Jesus came to announce the coming of forgiveness, redemption, and freedom.

If you think back to the Old Testament you might remember the year of jubilee--a year in which captives and slaves were set free--a year of favor! This is what the coming of Jesus represents for all in bondage: Jubilee! Freedom! Liberty! The end of slavery to sin, to addictions, to guilt, to condemnation, to the fear of man, to Satan, and to hell's claims upon our souls!

I love the statements of the Bible that tell us specifically and explicitly why Jesus came. Here's one of them. Friend, I want you to think about your areas of bondage, your habitual sins or fears or anxieties or issues. And I want you to think about this: Jesus came to proclaim and then purchase your freedom from every one of those chains that bind.

Some of the great Bible words for salvation connect to the idea of freedom: redemption, ransom, no more condemnation, liberty, Jubilee. This Christmas think on this: Jesus came to set you free. He is the great emancipator-liberator. You can be free in Christ. There is no sin that binds you that cannot be broken; there is no habit from which you cannot be freed; there is no bondage too strong from which you cannot know the freeing grace of Christ.

Humans love to honor the births of great heroes and liberators. Few seem to realize it but that's what we're doing this Christmas. Jubilee came when Jesus came. May God enable you to believe the promise and live the reality.

Yes, may 2010 be a jubilee year for you--for the glory of the Savior.

Labels: Advent, Christmas, the Person of Christ

The early confession of the Church found in 1 Timothy 3:16 (“we confess”) declares “the mystery of godliness” one of the six mysteries noted in the New Testament.

Jesus Christ Himself is this “mystery of godliness.” God, the timeless Spirit, manifested Himself in time, and in flesh! This stretches belief to its limits! It’s utter foolishness to the unbeliever. To the Jew it is blasphemy. Would the Master of the universe stoop so low as to enter the womb of a woman? Would he share human nature with us?

And if He did, would it be real? Would this figure Jesus actually be God and man in a body of flesh? Or would God somehow lend His Spirit to this otherwise ordinary human in some unique way, for the unique work of redemption?

In the early Church there were some who could not believe that God and man could share the divine nature. An interesting term comes to us from these early days. The Greek word “Theotokos” means “God bearer” and also translates “mother of God.”

This expression came to be at the center of a significant dispute in the 5th century. All could agree that Mary was Christotokos, (the mother of Christ), but Theotokos? This proved too much for some (by the way, for those concerned, Mary, of course, was not the “mother” of the eternal nature of Christ--this would have been a monstrous heresy. He is the eternal Son of God, and as such, Himself preceded the womb of Mary, which was in time to deliver this God-man into the world).

It is essential to understand that this dispute about the motherhood of Mary was not about Mary at all! It was about Jesus! Was this Jesus truly, fully, God? Did Mary actually give birth to... God? This was no “splitting of hairs.” The very deity of Christ was being challenged. Would Orthodoxy prevail?

In the end, Cyril of Alexandria won the day against the Patriarch of Constantinople (Nestorius). The bishops gathered at Ephesus, and in 431 AD affirmed that our Lord had two natures; Jesus was fully God and fully man. The issue was settled once and for all. Jesus is God. Mary is the mother of... God!

Brothers, sisters... understand the mystery of godliness--the baby lying in the straw is none other than “God, manifested in the flesh...” And He is to be worshiped, as baby; as 12 year old boy in the temple; as suffering figure on the cross; and as the risen and glorified Christ!

Come, let us adore Him!

Peter Cardillo

Labels: Advent, Christmas, Guest Post, the Person of Christ

I've had occasion of late to reflect a bit on the identity of Christ as truly Man and truly God. It's enough to humble and inspire awe in the soul.

The phrase that has captured me is that of Hebrews 1:3--Christ is the "exact imprint" of God's nature. The words exact imprint translate a Greek word meaning: "the exact expression (the image) of any person or thing, marked likeness, precise reproduction in every respect, i.e facsimile" (Strong). Nearly all the translations include either the word exact or express before the word imprint or image.

To be the exact imprint of something demands absolute equality with that thing; one cannot exactly reproduce or represent something without sharing in the very nature and existence of that thing. If the imprint is in any way less than the original, it is not exact; it is only very like, not just like.

Jesus is just like God, being that He is God the Son. I've never forgotten the impact of John Piper's reflections on this from his book, The Pleasures of God. I hope you'll read them and worship:

So the Son in whom the Father delights is the image of God and the radiance of the glory of God. He bears the very stamp of God’s nature and is the very form of God. He is equal with God and, as John says, is God.

For all eternity, before creation, the only reality that has always existed is God. This is a great mystery, because it is so hard for us to think of God having absolutely no beginning, and just being there forever and ever and ever, without anything or anyone making him be there – just absolute reality that everyone of us has to reckon with whether we like it or not. But this ever-living God has not been “alone.” He has not been a solitary center of consciousness. There has always been another, who has been one with God in essence and glory, and yet distinct in personhood so that they have had a personal relationship for all eternity.

The Bible teaches that this eternal God has always had a perfect image of himself (Colossians 1:15), a perfect radiance of his essence (Hebrews 1:3), a perfect stamp or imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3), a perfect form or expression of his glory (Philippians 2:6).

We are on the brink of the ineffable here, but perhaps we may dare to say this much: as long as God has been God (eternally) he has been conscious of himself; and the image that he has of himself is so perfect and so complete and so full as to be the living, personal reproduction (or begetting) of himself. And this living, personal image or radiance or form of God is God, namely God the Son. And therefore God the Son is coeternal with God the Father and equal in essence and glory.

"Veiled in flesh the godhead see,
Hail the incarnate deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel"

O come let us adore Him.
Amen.

Labels: Deity of Christ, the Person of Christ

I was reading in Luke today, the first five chapters. I've noticed it before but took the time to ponder this Lukean perspective. Luke is emphatic in establishing up front the deity of Christ. This is clear from a combination of texts. In Luke 2:11 and Luke 1:43 he refers to Jesus as the Lord. Then in Luke 3:4, he says that John the Baptist prepares the way for the Lord (i.e.-Jesus), citing Isaiah 40:3-5 as referring to Christ. A quick check back to Isaiah 40 shows that the Lord referred to there is clearly Yahweh-Adonai, the glorious God of the Old Testament. There is no doubt that Luke--under divine inspiration--is identifying Jesus as being one and the same as Yahweh. Thus he is revealing the divine identity and nature of the incarnate Savior-God.

This sets up some fascinating paradoxes in these first five chapters. If you have the time go back and read Isaiah 40:6-31; it'll set this up even better. If you don't then just consider these in wonder and worship:
1. The Lord of all mothers, has a mother (Luke 1:43)
2. The Lord of eternity is born (Luke 2:11)
3. The Lord is presented to the Lord (Luke 2:22)
4. The Lord announces the Lord's birth (Luke 2:15)
5. The power of the Lord is with the Lord (Luke 5:17)
6. The Lord only worships and serves the Lord (Luke 4:8)

That'll be good enough to stagger your heart for today. Be dazzled.

Labels: Deity of Christ, Incarnation, the Person of Christ, Worship