How can Jesus in a few hours absorb all the necessary punishment for all the sins of all the people who will ever believe in the history of the world and absorb it in a few hours? How could He receive all that wrath in a short time? Because He is an infinite person and therefore had an infinite capacity to be punished. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
This time of year, you're likely to see countless nativity scenes and hear songs about a baby born in a manger. But do you know what it's all about? How could a child born in the lowliest of circumstances make such an astounding mark on history? Find out today as John MacArthur looks at amazing aspects of the birth of Christ that maybe you haven't quite understood. John's lesson today is a look at the theology of Christmas.
That's also the title of the message. It comes from a chapter that you may not associate with Christmas, Philippians chapter 2, but it is critical for understanding the significance of Christ's birth. And we'll get to that in just a moment. But before the lesson, here it is, Christmas Eve, and you may be really busy today, but as we look ahead to the Christmas celebration tomorrow, I want us to pause for a moment and hear some comments John MacArthur recorded a few years back. It's some helpful advice, and it's still so relevant for approaching Christmas with the right mindset.
Well, I think it's um it's the one time in the year when it's sort of Allowed to talk about Christ. Even in the most resistant environment, even in the face of people who really don't have any interest in Christ, it's an unavoidable reality at Christmas. And I think it just reminds us of the advantage that we have. As long as this is the conversation anyway, you need to turn that conversation to the realities of why He came and make sure you prepare the gospel. I think you can be circumspect in the way you do that.
It's wonderful to ask questions. Do you know about Christmas? What do you think about the realities of Christmas? Did you know, for example, whatever, whatever you might want to tell them that isn't common knowledge? Maybe you know some of the backstory of Christmas.
I just think you need to introduce the conversation at a time like this because this is the time when it's in the general conversation anyway, so it's not an intrusive time. And I also think. Very often we pass each other like ships in the night and we don't get the time to sit down and really talk and interact over things because life is so busy. But this season seems to put people in groups for a longer period of time. Maybe it's a party, maybe it's a family visit, maybe it's around a table and a meal.
And it lends itself to a more full and rich conversation about Christmas, which can lead to you explaining the significance of Christmas. And I would just add, as a footnote, don't expect an immediate response because the task is to start by sowing the seed, and then maybe God comes along and waters it, and eventually God may choose to give the increase.
So make sure you take the opportunity to speak of Christ and see how the Lord might use that. Right, and friend, to help prepare you for conversations you might have with unbelievers in the next few days, stay here for John MacArthur's look at the theology of Christmas. And if you're able, turn in your Bible to Philippians chapter 2 as John begins today's lesson. Open your Bible to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, here's the theology of Christmas, okay?
the theology of Christmas. My intention today It is to be straightforward and just tell the real story of the birth of Christ. And have you make no mistake about its genuine. Significance. In Philippians chapter 2.
Verse 5 ends by identifying Christ Jesus. Then Christ Jesus becomes the theme. of the next few verses.
So let's listen as Paul writes. Christ Jesus who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or seized. but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men, Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.
So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. What this section explains to us Is The condescension of the Son of God to come to earth. to die and then to return in exaltation to glory.
So again, I say it's the theology of Christmas. It tells us what happened from the divine side of the story. And I want to just give you five simple steps by which we can walk through this tremendous portion of Scripture. And we're just going to get a kind of a light view. I wish we could dig deeper, but that would take weeks and weeks and weeks to do.
But we'll at least understand the reality of it, if not all of the potential. Elements that could be examined. Five steps as God enters the world. Five steps. As Jesus comes to Bethlehem.
Number one, He abandoned a sovereign position. He abandoned a sovereign position. Go back to verse six. It says in verse 6. That he existed in the form of God.
Thus he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. or seized. We're talking about Christ Jesus, who is identified at the end of verse five. And this amazing statement captures his essential nature. Literally, it reads this way: he being in the form of God.
He being in the form of God. Just take the word being for a moment. Being denotes The person's essential Nature, essence. That which is inalienably unchangeably true about him. That he possesses this nature.
As God, that's his being. That is who he is. This refers to his innate, unchangeable, unalterable essence. His nature is that of God.
Now that's the word being, but let's just look again at this opening statement. It says being in the form of God. And that adds another component. That's the Greek word morphae. And it refers again to the characteristics or the qualities.
Or the attributes of someone. English really doesn't capture this word very well. The word form doesn't work very well. The word form has the connotation of something on the outside, something changeable, something that can be altered. That's not what this word means.
It means the essential, abiding characteristics or attributes that belong to someone.
Now, back to verse 6, even though that is his Essential nature, and he possesses all the attributes and all the characteristics that belong to God. The next phrase says, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. That's a very interesting statement, and it can carry a couple of Connotations. The verb grasped As a rather broad A possibility of interpretation. It can mean.
to seize something. to snatch something. To take hold of it and pull it away, or it can mean to hang on to something, to cling to something, to clutch something.
So let's look at it both ways. There was in heaven a being by the name of Lucifer, right? Lucifer was the worship leader of heaven. He was the anointed cherub. He was the highest of the angels.
But that was not enough to satisfy him. And according to Isaiah chapter 14, He said, I will. Be like the most high. I will be like the most high. What did he want?
He wanted equality with God. He wanted equality with God. So, equality with God for Lucifer was something to be seized. It was something to be snatched. And he tried to snatch it unsuccessfully, didn't he?
Tried to seize it, and he was instantly cast out of heaven and turned into the devil and Satan. Jesus didn't need to do that. For him, equality with God was not something he needed to snatch. It was not something he needed to seize. It was not something he needed to rip away from someone to whom it legitimately belonged.
Because it was his by nature. By nature. Secondly, You can interpret it this way. That having equality with God was not something he clung to. The fullness of that equality with God is described in John as prosthon, a Greek phrase that means face-to-face.
It's talking about absolute equality and fullness. He possessed equality with God. But he was willing to let go of it.
So, on the one hand, it wasn't something he had to snatch because it didn't belong to him. And on the other hand, it did belong to him, but it was not something that he clutched with a death grip, if you will. He was willing. to give it up.
So willing that verse seven says He emptied himself. He emptied himself. He emptied himself of his Glory. It's divine glory. His glory in this world was veiled.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, he pulled his flesh back and gave him a little glimpse of his glory, remember? But he veiled his glory when he came into this world. He set his glory aside. He gave up his honor. According to Isaiah 53, there was no beauty in him that men would desire him.
He was despised. He was rejected. We know that unfolds in the New Testament. He was hated, he was treated with scorn. He was shamed, he was spit on, he was beaten.
He gave up his honor. Those are the things that he emptied himself. Yeah. This is the nature of his humiliation. This is the nature of his love.
So the story of Christmas begins with the Son of God abandoning a sovereign position. Secondly, he accepted a slave's place. He accepted a slave's place. Back to verse 7. Taking the form of a slave.
It's dou loss. Slave. There's no such word as bondservant in the Greek, it's the word for slave. He is a slave. He takes on the form of a slave.
Here's that word morphée again. He takes on the attributes, takes on the characteristics. Of a slave. He literally becomes a slave, a slave of God. And a slave of sinners, if you will.
He came not to be served, but to serve. I am in the midst of you as one who serves, Luke 22:27.
Son of Man came not to be served. But to serve and how By giving His life. And so he takes on Not just a masquerade as a slave, not just a superficial costume, not just the garments of a slave. He takes on the very attributes, the very characteristics of a slave. And what is that which is characteristic of a slave?
Absolute, total submission. to the will of another. In this case, it was the will of his father. that he gladly Submitted to. He became the slave of God.
That he might. Serve us. At the point of our Deepest need.
So he abandoned a sovereign position, accepted a servant's place, and thirdly, he associated with sinful people. He associated with sinful people. We begin to get to the depth of his Slavery in verse 7. He came down. As a slave, he came all the way down to being made in the likeness of men.
And it repeats it in verse 8: being found in appearance as a man. being in the likeness of men, That that's That's again The verb to be, being. Genamenas, that's being, he literally became human. He became human. Likeness.
Homo omati. Homo, the same. The same as humanity. A real man, true man, 100% human, as a 100% God. This is the mystery of the Incarnation.
He's not half God, half man. He's not all God masquerading as a man. He is fully God and fully man. He takes on the likeness of men. That's why I say he approached.
A sinful people. Yeah. Verse 8. tells us That this likeness to men Was not only true on the inside, he was truly human, but it was manifest on the outside, being found in appearance as a man. Here's the word schema.
Schema simply means The external. The external. It is not the same as Morphe. Morphé describes the attributes, the inside, what is true of a person by nature or. by attribute, characteristic.
This word This word Is the word for the exterior, the outer manifestation, being found in fashion as a man. Schemati. We get the word scheme or schematic from it. He was made in the likeness of men, but he also looked like a man. He also looked like a man.
This is uh This is important for us to be reminded of. Jesus didn't walk around, by the way, with a halo on his head. He didn't walk around with a gold aura around him. He didn't float a foot off the ground. He didn't glide that way through life.
He didn't have a robe that never got dirty or feet that never needed to be washed. He looked like a man. He talked like a man. He acted like a man because he was fully human, both in terms of attributes and characteristics and also in terms of appearance. Nobody knew that he was God by looking at him.
He didn't stand out in a crowd like he does in medieval paintings, which are silly. He looked like everybody else looked. And he experienced the things that human beings experience. Had they come into this world? Through the natural process of A mother's womb, so had he.
That Christmas Carol says The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes. But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes I don't buy it. I don't buy it. Crying is a signal that all babies have given them by God to let. Dad know he better go get mother.
If nothing else. It is his code to the father. that you have just reached the end of your usefulness. Of course he cried, but it wasn't a sinful cry. He was Fully human.
and would be seen as fully human. Born in an insignificant Major and an insignificant in. Really in an insignificant village. Raised in a humble cottage. The lowly mother.
A tradesman, father, And even when he embarked upon his ministry, nobody knew who he was. John had to point to him and say, Behold, the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, or nobody would have recognized who he was. And even after John said it, most people didn't believe it because there was nothing about him. There was no aura about him. And even when he spoke, he spoke with a man's voice.
And even though he said things no one had ever heard, They still didn't believe he was God, and even though he wielded power that raised the dead and cast out demons and healed diseases. And fed multitudes out of food created by his very words, they still weren't sure he was God. In fact, The party line of the Jewish leaders was: he has this power, that's undeniable, but it comes from. Hell. No, he came down.
He abandoned a sovereign position, accepted a slave's place. And associated with the sinful people. Fourthly, he adopted a selfless posture. How selfless was he? Back to verse eight.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. How selfless. How selfless He prays in the garden as he begins to feel the cross coming on him. And he knows on that cross he's going to bear the weight of all the sins of all the people who would ever believe throughout all of human history. He's going to bear an infinite amount of sin in a few hours.
He's going to feel the wrath of God, the likes of which we could never comprehend. You ask that question: how can Jesus in a few hours absorb all the necessary punishment for all the sins of all the people who will ever believe in the history of the world and absorb it in a few hours when it takes eternal hell and still the sins of sinners who are there are not going to be paid? The wrath of God was beyond comprehension. How could He receive all that wrath in a short time? Because He is an infinite person and therefore had an infinite capacity to be punished.
The selflessness Shows up in the garden when he says, Father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will. But yours. be done. And he even says, For this I was born.
to go to the cross. and die. He humbled himself Early in his life, he humbled himself in Nazareth. Nobody knew who he was, and there he was as a little boy, and his father probably taught him how to make a yoke for the oxen for the local farmer. His father probably taught him how to make a chair for somebody, a table for somebody else.
And he was the one who made the universe. Nobody knew. He washed the feet of the twelve And he is the one at whose feet all the angels of heaven bow. He came down. But he didn't just humble himself to come into this world and humble himself to To work in a carpenter shop, he humbled himself all the way to death.
and the worst possible death The excruciating death On the cross, some historians have said anybody who died on a cross died a thousand deaths. He became obedient. even to the death. of the cross. He stooped all the way.
to die for Our sins. Death on the cross was painful, shameful. You were a curse, Deuteronomy. 21.23 says, Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. Paul quotes that in Galatians 3:13.
Christ became a curse for us, absorbing the wrath of God. On our behalf.
Someone wrote still, O soul. The sign and wonder of all ages see Christ your God, the Lord of glory. On the cross. For me. That's the marvelous reality.
There's a final point. He abandoned a sovereign position, accepted a slave's place, approached a sinful people, adopted a selfless posture, and finally he ascended a supreme prince. Verses 9 to 11, he ascended a supreme prince for this reason also. What reason? The reason of his submission, the reason of his humiliation, the reason of his obedience to death, even the death on the cross.
For this reason, because he perfectly obeyed the Father and accomplished redemption, God highly exalted him. God raised him from the dead, it tells us in the New Testament. God raised him from the dead as a sign of God's satisfaction over his death. And then God exalted him to his own right hand. And bestowed on him the name which is above every name.
In fact, Hebrews tells us in chapter 1 and verse 3 that God exalted him to heaven, and he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He was given then a name. What name is that? It's the name Lord. It's not the name Jesus.
That's an earthly name. People name their sons. Jesus. That's not the name above every name. The name above every name is Lord.
God then highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name. The name which is above every name.
So that at that name which is given to Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of God the Father. His humiliation Complete. On the cross. followed immediately by his exaltation.
He accomplished our redemption. and God exalted him. It says in verse 10 that every knee will bow to him. In heaven, that would be those that are there. On earth, that would be those that are here.
Under the earth, that would be those that are in hell. They will all They will all. Acknowledge him as Lord. Every tongue. In verse 11, will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Whether they confess it In heaven? Whether they're confessing it on earth or whether they confess it in hell, don't think for a minute that the people in hell don't know Jesus is Lord. He is the Lord of Hell. They know it. And hell is defined as the terrible inflicted suffering of those people who denied Christ what he deserves.
And that is the affirmation of His Lordship. and appropriate submission and worship. That's what sends people to hell. Because they reject Christ. Every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord.
If you do it in this life, what happens? Romans 10, 9, and 10. If you confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. saved from hell, from sin, from judgment. Better to confess it now?
and go on confessing it forever in heaven. than to go on confessing it in bitterness and remorse forever in hell. Every tongue. will confess it. God has given you the opportunity even today to make that confession now.
If you make it now. You will joyfully make it forever. And he will exalt you to his own throne. And you will be a joint air. and share in all his heavenly riches.
He is gone. giving himself away. Yet remaining God. He is God, the Judge. rising from the bench and going to the gallows.
As a criminal. He is God exposing himself to evil's spite. never sparing himself. Until he makes it all the way to a cross on Jerusalem's hill. And that cross becomes the sum and the sign.
of his utter Selfless. Humiliation. and he did it for us. Confess him as Lord. Receive the salvation he offers.
And you'll go on doing that forever. You're listening to Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. Today John looked at how Christ humbled himself by taking on human flesh in a compelling message called The Theology of Christmas.
Well, friend, if I can ask a favor, if you're grateful for today's broadcast, perhaps it helped you see an aspect of the Christmas story that you've never heard before, or it helped prepare your heart for a truly worshipful Christmas celebration, whatever it is, we would love to hear your story. When you have time in the coming days, jot a note and send it our way. You can send an email to letters at gty.org. That's our email address one more time. Letters at gty.org.
Or if you prefer regular mail, you can write to us at gracetoou.com. P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Also, as you gather with family and friends for tomorrow's Christmas celebration, let me encourage you to review John's lesson today called The Theology of Christmas. You can download it free of charge in mp3 and written transcript format at our website gty.org.
Listen to it or read it with your family before tomorrow if you can. It's a great way to keep Christ at the center of your celebration. And keep in mind that all 3,600 of John's sermons are free to download at our website. Just go to gty.org.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for taking some time out of your Christmas Eve to join us. and be here tomorrow for a Christmas message that might surprise you. Not a message that looks back to the first time Jesus came to earth, but One that looks ahead to his glorious return. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
