Christmas Eve
God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him might have everlasting life by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ shed blood and third day resurrection alone.
The Greatest Gift: Luke 2:1–14
Luke 2:1–14
Revealed Knowledge of God
Because human beings are constantly looking in the wrong places and listening to the wrong voices, God must speak clearly if sinners are to hear him, know him and believe. The good news is that God does speak clearly. Revealed knowledge is God’s direct communication of himself in history and ultimately in the Scriptures. The Bible is not just a “holy” book about God. It tells of his mighty acts and saving words by which he redeems and restores a fallen humanity and creation. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible describes the God who reveals himself in words and actions that people can understand. In the Scriptures one not only finds the “reality” of God, his righteous, holy character, but also his saving work and eternal purposes for sinful and lost humanity.
The Need for Divine Self Revelation
Revealed knowledge is not something extra that is added on to natural knowledge; it is essential. Our understanding of God through natural knowledge leaves us to fill in the blanks of who and what God is. This partial view of God leaves us wanting and uncertain, feeling inadequate, unworthy and inept before the great questions of life. It is not sufficient to fulfill our deepest needs.
The Scriptures further explain the need for special revelation in light of the reality of human rebellion and the fall from our natural relationship with God our creator (Genesis 3). Even at our best we are untrustworthy inquisitors of God. Because of sin, the Bible speaks of human blindness and alienation from God. 1 Corinthians 2:14 describes spiritual blindness. We simply cannot see God as he is. Ephesians 2:1 and Colossians 1:21 speak of the root cause of man’s enmity and blindness to God: the spiritual death of sin. Because of the depth and pervasiveness of sin’s power, God must reveal himself clearly if humanity is to receive life and salvation.
The Supremacy of Divine Revelation
God’s mighty acts of salvation existed before there was a written word, but God proclaims his love, his saving actions in words so that we can know him and that salvation. John says that the words of the Gospel, “are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Just as the voice of a loved one speaking tender words fills our hearts with joy, the writing of those same words in a letter brings that joy to the reader every time it is read. Because they are God’s own words and his proclamation of love, the Scriptures are superior to natural knowledge and all other books.
Additionally, the Scriptures are superior to natural knowledge because they come from the most trustworthy source—God himself. Peter says, “we have something more sure, the prophetic word” (2 Peter 1:19). Jesus tells us that his words are “spirit and life” (John 6:63). He tells the apostles that the Holy Spirit will bring them the words they are to say (Luke 12:11–12). Both 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21, describe the Scriptures as “inspired by God,” or “God-breathed:” written by men who were moved by the Holy Spirit. Because it is God’s inspired word, it is the only reliable source of knowledge for faith, our relationship with him.
We often evaluate the authority or accuracy of words that are spoken to us by the identity of the speaker. If the speaker is trustworthy and has the knowledge or right to speak on a topic, we can generally be confident in the information they provide. God speaks in special revelation; his words are trustworthy and true. Jesus demonstrates this when he says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:1–2). The unique character of the person and work of Jesus underlies the trustworthiness of his words even as they are written and recorded by the apostles and the prophets (Ephesians 2:19–20; 2 Peter 3:2).
The revelation of God in the words of Scripture is comforting. Reading the Bible, a person can come to know God’s will and work with certainty. But this comfort also brings a limitation. Since God chose to reveal himself in this way, we are not free to search for information about God from any source. He limits us to his word. Just as Jesus told Philip that seeing him brought the true revelation of the Father (John 14:9), so the words of God in the Scriptures are our only certain and unfailing guide for questions of life and salvation. This is reflected in warnings not to add to or subtract from the word of God without his authorization. Such warnings are found in both the Old Testament (Joshua 23:6; Deuteronomy 4:2) and the New Testament (Revelation 22:18–19).
Jesus Christ: God Revealed
Underlying the Christian confidence in the Bible as God’s reliable self-revelation is the unique person and work of Jesus Christ. In fact, it is most appropriate to argue for the inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures from the certainty of Christ rather than arguing for Christ from the certainty of the Scripture. While the result may be the same, the order is significant. The essence of special revelation centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is displayed in Scripture as the One who has explained the Father (John 1:18). Hebrews 1:3 indicates Christ is the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” Jesus himself declares that both his words (John 6:63) and his works (John 5:36) reveal the Father—and both his words and his works are accurately recorded in Scripture. He is, in fact, the Word made flesh (John 1:14).
The Divine Logos and the Divine Scripture
A unique fact of Christianity, in contrast to the world’s other religions, is the declaration that God became a human being. Almighty God himself became incarnate and thus spoke most clearly to all people. The apostle John deepens our understanding of the words of Scripture when he proclaims that the “Word” (in Greek, Logos) of God is the ultimate source of revelation. In John 1, God himself is called the Word. In Greek philosophy, the Logos was the principle, wisdom, knowledge, or word that holds the world together. John says something so simple, yet so profound that it is almost incomprehensible, “the Logos is God” (John 1:1) and that “the Logos became flesh” (John 1:14). That Word made flesh is Jesus the Messiah. When Jesus speaks words, they are, “spirit and life” (John 6:63). We speak of the divine character and divine inspiration of the words of the Bible because of Jesus Christ. His person, his character, his work and his view of the Scriptures are the foundations for our confidence in Scripture. God makes his word most certain for us when he comes to speak that word himself. He comes to speak words that we can understand. He speaks words through the apostles and the prophets so that every person can understand.
Jesus Christ, the Revelation of God
As God in human flesh, Jesus is uniquely able to reveal God. The prophets spoke the words of Christ as they were revealed to them; Jesus speaks his own divine word directly (Hebrews 1:1, 2). To know Jesus Christ is to know God himself (John 14:9). Christ claims that he is the way to the Father (John 14:6) because he himself is God (see also John 10:30). To know Jesus’ words, then, is to know the words of God. To know the words of the apostles and the prophets, words that Christ himself valued and guaranteed (see John 14:26 and John 17:3–20), is to know God’s Word. Jesus is the Word of God revealed, made flesh, that reveals and delivers the very presence and blessing of God to all those who receive the words of the Scripture by faith.
The Scriptures as “Sacramental Words”
When it is remembered that Jesus Christ himself is the Word made flesh, a deeper understanding of God’s revelation emerges. Just as God comes to us in the flesh, his words have always come “enfleshed” for us. The Word became words, so that we can be certain of our redemption and salvation. Lutherans sometimes speak of the “sacramental” character of the words of Scripture. The biblical text is not merely human words; these words are also spiritual. Christ came in human flesh and still comes “enfleshed” in tangible forms. In fact, God has always come in such a way. In the Old Testament, we read how God wanted to come near to his people. Knowing that sinful humans could not withstand his holy presence, God “covered himself” so that he could reveal himself. He covered himself to meet Israel in the tabernacle and the temple. In the fullness of time, he covered himself in human flesh. Still today, the words of Scripture, the water of baptism, the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper are the very power of God because Christ has enfleshed himself there for us.
Saying that the words of Scripture are “sacramental” in character simply affirms what Jesus says in John 6:63, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Scripture has a sacramental or incarnate character because these words, although fully human, are also fully divine. Christ has located himself in these words. This is another way that God limits us to his way of doing things so that we might place our complete confidence in him. We know that he is present in these places, because he has promised to be there.1
1. Manger of Majesty: Humility's Hope
2. Shepherds' Surprise: Salvation's Song
Love’s Duel in Christ
This is truly the most delightful drama,79, r involving not only communion but also a saving war, victory, salvation, and redemption. For Christ is God and a human being in one and the same person, who does not and cannot sin, die, or be damned; and his righteousness, life, and salvation are unconquerable, eternal, and all-powerful. When, I say, such a person shares in common and, indeed, takes as his own the sins, death, and hell of the bride on account of the wedding ring of faith, and when he regards them as if they were his own and as if he himself had sinned—suffering, dying, and descending into hell—then, as he conquers them all and as sin, death, and hell cannot devour him, they are devoured by him in an astounding duel.80 For his righteousness is superior to all sins, his life more powerful than death, and his salvation more invincible than hell.
The Wedding Ring of Faith for the Bride of Christ
So it happens that the faithful soul, through the wedding ring of its faith in Christ her bridegroom, is free from all sins, secure against death, protected from hell, and given the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of her bridegroom, Christ. Thus, “he takes to himself a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle … making her clean by washing … in the word of life,”s that is, through faith in the word, life, righteousness, and salvation [of Christ]. As Hos. 2[:19] says, [the Lord] becomes engaged to her “in faith, in mercy and compassion, in righteousness, and judgment.”t
The Majesty of the Wedding Garments
Who can even begin to appreciate this royal marriage? What can comprehend the riches of this glorious grace? Here, this rich, upstanding bridegroom, Christ, marries this poor, disloyal little prostitute, redeems her from all her evil and adorns her with all his goodness. For now it is impossible for her sins to destroy her, because they have been laid upon Christ and devoured by him. In Christ, her bridegroom, she has her righteousness, which she can enjoy as her very own property. And with confidence she can set this righteousness over against all of her sins and in opposition to death and hell and can say, “Sure, I have sinned, but my Christ, in whom I trust, has not sinned. All that is his is mine and all that is mine is his.” As it says in the Song of Sol. [2:16]: “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” This is what Paul says in 1 Cor. 15[:57]: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” But this “victory” is over sin and death, as he notes in the previous verse [v. 56]: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
Why Ascribe These Things Only to Faith?u
From the preceding, you may once again understand why the fulfillment of the law and justification without any works by faith alone may only be ascribed to faith. You observe that the first commandment, “You shall worship one God,” is fulfilled by faith alone.81
