Christmas Why Christ Came

Why Christ Came
December 25, 2006

"Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:7-8).

Although these words were written by David, they go far beyond any of his own experiences. By divine inspiration, he was penning the very words of the coming Messiah, whose coming into the world had been already written down in God's eternal Word. These words were later quoted as Messianic by the writer of Hebrews. "Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God" (Hebrews 10:7). Thus, the basic reason why the infinite God became man at the incarnation was that this was the will of the triune God, planned before the foundation of the world (note I Peter 1:18-19).

But then the Lord Jesus elaborated the human implications of His coming in many other wonderful ways. For example, He said concerning His mission: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). All of us were lost sinners, deserving only to be rejected by God, but He came to save us from our sins.

And that salvation not only included forgiveness of sins, but also the gift of eternal life. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51).

Furthermore, this everlasting life begins the moment we "eat of that bread," by faith believing in His name and receiving His gift, and this transaction results in a changed life here on Earth, "I am come," He said, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17). HMM

When the Angels Worshiped Christ
December 26, 2006

"And again, when He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him" (Hebrews 1:6).

Jesus Christ is "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18), but the day finally came when He had to enter humankind, and the eternal Word "was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). By eternal generation, by the incarnation, by the virgin birth, and by the resurrection, He is in every sense God's "first begotten" -- His only begotten -- Son.

Our text says that when He first entered the world, born of the virgin, His heavenly Father called on all the innumerable angels in the heavenly host to bow down and worship Him. It is not clear whether this command is a quotation from the Old Testament or not, although it is cited in a passage which also quotes several other Messianic prophecies as applied to Jesus Christ. Psalm 97:7 and Deuteronomy 32:43 have been suggested as possible source verses, but neither of these seems to fit very well in context. Thus it may be that our text refers directly, and solely, to a specific decree of God, proclaimed throughout the universe at the time of the human birth of His Son, and recorded here alone. All the angels of the infinite cosmos bowed in solemn worship, but a special contingent was commissioned to watch directly over the birth, and proclaim the good news to those nearby. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:13-14). The angels saw and worshiped; the shepherds heard and told. And "all they that heard it wondered" (Luke 2:18).