Most of us have probably seen Frank Capra’s Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. As a child, George Bailey had high hopes and expectations. He wanted to travel the world and see and do everything. But when his father unexpectedly died, the mundane duties of running a small savings and loan in his hometown fell upon his shoulders. He did the best he could with what he had. He managed to send his younger brother to college, help a lot of the less fortunate people, and eventually married and settled in a house that probably should have been condemned. At any rate, he seemed satisfied with his ordinary life until one Christmas Eve when his scatterbrained uncle lost a bank deposit. The villain, Mr. Potter, threatened to turn this into a scandal. At that point, George contemplated taking his own life for a very small insurance payoff. But his guardian angel, Clarence Oddbody, helped him to see just how many people’s lives he had helped over the years. George then realized that he had really had a wonderful life, and his newfound contentment gave a new meaning to the whole Christmas season.

In spite of its obvious Roman Catholic elements, It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the greatest movies ever made. But it’s only a Christmas movie to the degree that the viewer understands that a man can do good for his neighbor and be content with God’s providences only because the incarnation of Jesus Christ had as its purpose the complete redemption of those whom God had set apart for everlasting life. Without that theological background, Capra’s film is entertainment but not much more.

The world has produced so many “Christmas” stories like this. What shall we say of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, the Grinch (whatever that is!), Ebenezer Scrooge, and the elderly, bearded gentleman in Miracle on 34th Street? They all play off the same basic theme: someone learning to love others and be kind at Christmas. Yet, few of them, as clever and well done as they are, really get to the real meaning of Christmas.

The Subject of Our Discussion

In today’s text Paul identifies the characters and events of the real Christmas story. Its chief character is God, specifically the second person of the glorious Trinity. The Lord Jesus Christ was manifest in the flesh; that is, although he was and continued to be true and eternal God, about two thousand years ago he took upon himself a complete human nature. He was, therefore, truly God and truly man. And further, this event took place in a real world of space and time. He was seen by real angels according to Paul, not imaginary guardian angels, and his gospel was preached to and believed by real men. The gospel is not a make-believe, feel-good story about non-existent Grinches, talking snowmen or counting-house owners. Rather, it is a message of the Lord of the universe condescending to satisfy our deepest need, i.e., to take away our sin, to reconcile alienated sinners to himself, and to give us everlasting life.

In fact, some commentators think that I Timothy 3:16 was used in the first century as a hymn and others believe that it was an early creed. This latter opinion has some merit since the word translated without controversy in our text literally means “by saying the same thing” or “by common confession.” It comes from the same root, for example, as the word translated confess in Romans 10:9 — That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. To make this somewhat clear in the translations, just about every modern version since 1930 puts most of verse 16 into a semi-poetic form. The translators did this to indicate that they believe Paul is here quoting something that was widely circulated in his day.

The subject of this confession is God manifested in the flesh. Here is where the modern translations other than the NKJV have a problem. Instead of saying that God was manifested in the flesh, they read “who was manifested in the flesh.” The difference is the result of the way that the word God was abbreviated in the Greek manuscripts (it could easily be mistaken for the pronoun “who”), but modern scholars use it to put as much distance between Jesus and God as possible. They don’t want you to believe that Jesus is God incarnate. But using a pronoun instead of the word God does not accomplish this. Why? Because the nearest antecedent for the pronoun is God at the end of verse 15. To get to Jesus, you have to go all the way back to verse 13, which would be too far from the pronoun to be very likely. And further, if Jesus were not God, how could the apostle insist so emphatically that he was manifested in the flesh? So, whether the text has the word God or a pronoun Paul clearly intended for us to understand that God was manifest in the flesh.

The subject of this confession, then, is God — not God in a general sense, however, but God who specifically assumed a human nature. Since neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit were ever incarnate, the apostle must have had the Son in mind. So, what we have here is not the either/or situation critics want, but a both/and situation. Jesus is both God and manifest in the flesh. That is, he is both God and man. This verse is decisive.

About fifteen years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a confessional conference in Chicago at the request of our Synod. After several days of study, discussion and argument, the conference produced an extremely long confession about creation. In my opinion, it wasn’t particularly well done, but the main problem with it was its length. It was far too long for anyone to use. I doubt that anyone has ever used it. I’ve never seen it referenced in any of the controversies over creation since then. In that sense, shorter confessions can sometimes be more useful than longer ones because they get to the point quicker. Why would we need much more, for example, than what the RCUS adopted many years ago? Our statement simply says “that God created the heavens and the earth in six normal days which were chronological periods of light and darkness as recorded in the book of Genesis.”[1] This one sentence rules out every interpretation of Genesis 1 that denies that the days of creation were sidereal.

Likewise, Paul’s confession in our text is also very brief. It includes only six phrases. Yet, look at how much the apostle packed into so few words. By using the word God, which I believe to be the correct reading of our text, he asserts the full deity of Jesus Christ. To this he adds that Jesus was manifest in the flesh — an assertion of his full humanity. Yet, Jesus was not just “God in a body” as Billy Graham says, but a true and complete human nature. He was born, grew up, ate, drank, bled and died, just like other men. Even after his resurrection he demonstrated his true humanity in several ways. On the other hand, we are not to conceive of the Lord’s two natures as if he were two distinct persons. Note that all six of the verbs that Paul used to describe him are singular: God was manifested in the flesh (ἐφανερώθη), he was justified by the Spirit (ἐδικαιώθη), he was seen by angels (ὤφθη), he was preached unto the nations (ἐκηρύχθη), he was believed on in the world (ἐπιστεύθη), and he was taken up in glory (ἀνελήφθη). There is no hint anywhere in our text that the incarnation resulted in two persons.

The Mystery of Godliness

Now, before we consider the six parts of this confession individually, did you notice that Paul also gave us what may be the title for this confession? He called it the mystery of godliness.

Godliness is easy to understand. This confession has something to do with piety and devotion. This, no doubt, refers to the godliness seen and known in Jesus Christ. But the word mystery has caused more than a few headaches. Perry Mason and Matlock are mysteries. But there is no “who dunnit?” here. God did it. He is the only one who could have done it. Then there are also the mystery religions of the ancient Babylonians, Persians and Greeks. The Freemasons are a modern example of the same kind of nonsense. These pseudo-religions regard a mystery as a divine secret that is not only unrevealed but unknowable. Devotees can be slowly absorbed into the non-intellectual realm of the secret, but no one can really claim to know what the secret is.

Some of this kind of thinking has infiltrated the church. Liberal theologians following Karl Barth frequently speak of God as the Totally Other. What they mean is that the disparity between God’s being and our being is so great that we cannot know anything about him at all. They assume that a metaphysical disparity necessarily involves an epistemological one. We can talk about God. We can point to him in a metaphorical or poetic sense. We can sing the Apostles’ Creed because that’s art, but we should never confess the same words because that would bring God down into our world, which, they say, would effectively be a denial of his existence.

But this isn’t exactly what Paul meant when he called the gospel a mystery. For him, and throughout the Scriptures, a mystery is a piece of knowledge that was once unknown but has now been revealed. I’ll give just two verses to show that this is so. The first is Ephesians 1:9. Here Paul says that God has made known unto us the mystery of his will. His mystery is not something that only the initiates of mystery religions experience, but knowledge that was generally available to all the brethren in Ephesus and to all of us as well. And then in the third chapter of the same epistle (vv. 3–4), we find something similar: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ). Here Paul not only wrote that he knew the mystery, but he expected others to know it as well.

What was Paul’s mystery? What is it that was once shrouded in darkness but has since then been brought to light? In a general sense, we can say that it’s the gospel? Or to put it even more succinctly, the mystery of godliness is Christ himself. Colossians 1:27 says, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The full glory of his person and work were not fully appreciated until the 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).

Thus, the greatest mystery in our text is the fact that God was manifested in the flesh. But how God did this has not been revealed. How is it even possible for the second person of the Godhead, who dwelt in light that no man can approach unto, assume a frail, weak and limited human form without compromising his essential deity? We know that it happened because that’s what the Bible says, but there is a lot about it that God has chosen to keep to himself.

Everything in our text is part of this mystery. At one time it was all unknown to the church. In the Old Testament God revealed pieces of it here and there. We can hardly blame the saints who lived before the incarnation for failing to grasp its finer points, but those of us living after the Savior’s advent have no excuse. The mystery has been made known, and we have a responsibility before God to try our best to understand it.

Oddly, the vast majority of commentators spend most of their time arguing over the chronological order of the six statements in Paul’s confession. Was Jesus first manifested, then justified, afterward seen by angels, later preached, believed, and finally received into glory? This assumption is doubtful. We can be sure that the preaching came before the believing, for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17). But the chronology of the rest is not as clear. For example, the last item seems to be a fairly clear reference to Christ’s ascension, yet it comes after the preaching unto the Gentiles. There are also questions about when he was justified in the Spirit and seen by angels, which we will consider in just a minute.

All this is to say that chronology isn’t the issue here. If you want a chronological account of the events of Christ’s life, read the gospel of Luke. Paul’s point, rather, is to give you an understanding of the greatness of the foundation upon which the church of Jesus Christ is built. Note that the common confession found in our text is not just the mystery of godliness, but Paul wrote, great is the mystery of godliness. The secret that has now been made known to the church and upon which the entire ministry of the church rests is huge! It’s magnificent! It’s wonderful beyond imagination! It’s about one whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Is 9:6).

Now, let’s look at the individual articles of this confession to see exactly what it says.

The first article says that God was manifested in the flesh. As we’ve seen several times already (and cannot repeat enough), this affirms the doctrine of the incarnation. The second person of the Trinity assumed a true and complete human nature. Yet, it is not just the doctrine of the incarnation that we must see here. Does not the manifestation of God in the flesh also include the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary? And lest we descend into the mere sentimentalism that pervades the world’s celebration of Christmas, that we cannot really appreciate the incarnation without a firm grasp of its purpose. Unless we affirm that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, as Paul wrote earlier in this very book (ch. 1:15), we have nothing to celebrate. The ancient Greek deities were supposedly manifested in the flesh, and many idols have a physical form of one kind or another. Dagon was a fish with a man’s upper torso. Asherah was a prostitute. But, you see, our affirmation that Christ came in the flesh includes the entire scope of the Bible’s teaching regarding his person and work.

Paul’s second article of confession is that Jesus Christ was justified in the Spirit. Here the word justified simply means that he was somehow declared or shown to be what he was said to be. But the question is, How was this declaration made? How a person answers this will be determined by his understanding of the word Spirit. There are basically three views on this. One is that the word Spirit refers to Jesus’ human spirit. In other words, his human mind understood exactly what his purpose was. To me this seems too self-evident to be part of a major confession. Another interpretation is that Spirit refers to Christ’s deity, i.e., he was declared to be God. But this makes the second article unnecessary, since it was more clearly stated in the first article. The third view is that the Spirit mentioned here is the Holy Spirit. This means that the Holy Spirit testified to the Messianic ministry of Jesus Christ. Now, here we have something that the Bible emphasis repeatedly both in the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament, Isaiah frequently spoke of the Spirit’s work. Two passages are especially to the point. One reads, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD (Isa. 11:1–2). And the second one, which Jesus himself made reference to at the very beginning of his ministry, says, The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (Isa. 61:1; cf. Luke 4:18–19). In the New Testament, the Spirit attended to Jesus at every point from his conception through his baptism, temptation, and public ministry. And most importantly, it was the Spirit of God who, according to Romans 1:4, declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead. The point here is that it was not just Paul or the early church saying that Jesus was God manifested in the flesh; the Holy Spirit did as well and in much greater ways.

The third article adds that the angels are also able to testify to the great mystery of Christ’s incarnation. Angels were involved in the Christmas story when the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb. They sang at his birth. We also find angels mentioned at various times during his ministry, e.g., at his temptation in the wilderness (Mark 1:13) and resurrection (John 20:12).

The fourth article says that the Lord Jesus Christ was preached unto the Gentiles. His gospel transcends all boundaries, calling people from every nation, tribe and family to fall down on their knees before the incarnate God. Here we remember that it was always God’s purpose to redeem the world, although not each individual in the world. The Lord never intended to confine his grace to one nation  or people forever, but only to use that one nation to cradle the Messiah. The preaching of the gospel unto the Gentiles demonstrates that the day of God’s great mercy has now arrived. And this is further confirmed by the fifth article, which says that God’s mercy has been and will continue to be effective. The gospel was not only preached unto the nations, it has been believed throughout the world.

And, finally, the sixth article explains why God’s purposes cannot fail. Jesus Christ, after fulfilling his work here on earth, ascended into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of the Father. Everything that takes place in the universe is not just under his control, but also serves his purpose in redeeming a world of sinners unto himself.

This, beloved, is the real Christmas story and it is the only Christmas story.

For time to time, the news reports of battles over manger scenes on government property. Secularists argue against them based on their particular understanding of the separation of church and state. Christians counter it with historical arguments and freedom of religion.

The fact that the secularists object to manger scenes shows that they believe them to be a threat. But from a Biblical perspective the whole argument is rather silly. Can a manger scene lead even one soul into heaven? Of course not. But even if it could, the second commandment, as Question 98 of our catechism explains, prohibits visible representations of Christ because God “will not have His people taught by dumb idols, but by the lively preaching of His Word.” Instead of spending millions of dollars fighting ridiculous law suits, the money would be better spent on sending out real gospel heralds to preach the real Christmas message every day of the year.

Let Bedford Falls take a collection for George Bailey. Let the Grinch give back all the decorations that he stole from the little Whos down in Whoville. Let Ebenezer Scrooge learn generosity from Tiny Tim. Man will never understand the meaning of Christmas from people that never existed and events that never took place. Christmas is about God’s grace to sinful men by the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity. Everything that we need is in him. It is a great mystery of godliness — far greater than anything the world could ever dream up!

Let us therefore confess today and everyday that Jesus Christ is the God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Amen.

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[1] 1985 Abstract of Synod, 105.