The Incarnation of the Triune God

He was becoming the same as men. He was in every sense in the sameness as men. He was a genuine man. He had the essential attributes of humanness. He wasn't just God in a shell.

He was fully man in all parts and dimensions. A genuine man with real humanity. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It has a color and luster similar to gold, and it often forms in the same kind of rock that gold does. But in the end, iron pyrite, commonly known as fool's gold, is worthless compared to the genuine article. You know, as Christmas approaches, you can be sure that much of the world will get caught up in secular traditions, the fool's gold, if you will. But they will miss what is truly valuable about the holiday, and that's the Lord Jesus himself. So today on Grace to You, take a fresh look at the significance of the Incarnation.

God took on human flesh. As John MacArthur continues his study, called The Real Meaning of Christmas, here's John with the lesson. I invite you to take your Bible and turn to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. And I want to take as the text of our Christmas message verses 6 through 11. Philippians 2, 6 through 11.

And in these verses, we will see five steps in the Christmas story, five features as God enters the world, five great aspects to the Incarnation. First of all, number one, the Lord Jesus Christ abandoned a sovereign position. So like a king who takes off his robes of majesty and puts on the garment of a beggar, the Son of God abandoned a sovereign position. Second point, he accepted a servant's place. When he became a man, he didn't become a king as a man or a great ruler or a great leader or great master. He became a servant.

The moment that he divested himself of his robes of majesty, he donned the servant's apron. Thirdly, he approached a sinful people. He approached a sinful people. In his perfection, he was willing to be a servant to the Father.

In his perfect harmony with the Father, he was willing to be a servant. That service meant that he had to approach a sinful people. He had to enter this sin-cursed planet. He had to render his service here on this earth. He couldn't do it from outer space. He couldn't do it from the edge of heaven. He had to come into this world and he had to touch sinful man at his own level. So that abandoning a sovereign position and adopting or accepting a servant's place meant approaching a sinful people. Look again at verse 7. He was made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man.

That was the only way it could be done. He had to become a man. By the way, it says in the Authorized, was made in the likeness of men. The word was made is probably not the best translation.

It is a participle of the verb genomai, genaminos, which means becoming. He was becoming in the likeness of men. And the idea there is not that he was created then, but that he always was God, but he became a man. He preexisted as eternally as God is eternal. He wasn't made then. He was then becoming a man.

He had always been in existence. So the proper use of that verb indicates a change, becoming something. And it is saying that Jesus, who always was in the form of God, was becoming in the likeness of men.

And it was a process. He was born and he grew in wisdom and stature. He was becoming in the likeness of men. By the way, the word likeness is so important.

The first part of the word is the word homo, which means the same, homogeneous, something that is the same. And what it's saying is he was becoming the same as men. He was in every sense in the sameness as men. He was a genuine man. He had the essential attributes of humanness. He wasn't just God in a shell. He was fully man in all parts and dimensions. A genuine man with real humanity. He had everything that all men have except for one thing.

What was it? Sin. But that doesn't mean he wasn't a man. Adam was a man before he was a sinner. And you and I will be glorified men throughout all eternity when our sin is put behind us. And there are times in our lives when we're not sinning. So to be a man does not necessarily mean you must sin. And Christ did not.

The Bible is clear. He was without sin. But he was no less a man.

In fact, if I may be so bold to suggest he was all that a man could be that we could never know a man to be because of his sinlessness. So he was a genuine man. He was fully man in the essence of his humanity. At the deepest point, he was man.

But go to verse 8. He also was found in the fashion of a man. Not only was he a genuine man and deeply and truly in his nature all that a man is, but he also took on the outward form of a man.

And here's the word schema. The fashion of man. He didn't come into the first century with a 20th century outfit talking a 20th century language. He didn't drop like some visitor from outer space. He was born of a Jewish mother. He lived in a little village of Nazareth. He ate the way they ate. He talked the language they talked.

He transported himself the way they did. He wore the clothes they wore. Took care of himself the way they took care of themselves. He ate what they ate. He drank what they drank. In other words, he took on the scheme of their life.

The customs of their culture. So by personal experience, he adapted to the outer manifestation of the time in which he lived. He was man at the deepest part of his nature. And he adapted to man in that climate and that culture and that time and experienced all of their experiences. Fully God, fully man. The mystery of the incarnation. And sinless all the while. Don't think of Jesus as less than fully human. He was fully human. Did people come into this world through the natural process of birth? Through the womb of a mother? So did he.

Had others been wrapped in swaddling clothes? So was he. Had others grown up? So did he.

Did others have brothers and sisters? He did. Did others learn a trade and work? So did he. Were other men at times hungry and thirsty and weary and asleep? So was he. Were others grieved and angry? So was he. Did others weep? So did he. Did others rejoice? So did he. Were others destined to die? So did he. Did others suffer pain? So did he. Were others loved and hated? So was he.

He was a man in the form and the fashion. I think it's the Christmas carol away in a major that says, the cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. You mean to tell me that because he was God, he didn't cry? All babies cry. It isn't necessarily a sign of sin. He cried when he was a man.

Why can't he cry when he's a baby? Hast thou been hungry, child of mine? I too have needed bread. For forty days I tasted not till by the angels fed. Hast thou been thirsty? On the cross I suffered thirst for thee.

I've promised to supply thy need. My child, come to me. When thou art sad and tears fall fast, my heart goes out to thee, for I wept o'er Jerusalem, the place so dear to me. And when I came to Lazarus' tomb, I wept.

My heart was sore. I'll comfort thee when thou dost weep till sorrows are all o'er. Sure he wept. He was human in all the fullness of humanness.

That's the Christmas story. He who was fully God did not cling to his privileges, but laid them aside, became a servant, and approached a sinful people. Fourthly, having abandoned a sovereign position, having accepted a servant's place, having approached a sinful people, he then adopted a selfless posture. He adopted a selfless posture. Verse 8, he humbled himself. Oh, people, what a statement.

What a statement. Do you ever think about the humility of Christ? I mean, I see him, and there he is as a little boy or a young man, and he's helping Joseph make a yoke in the carpenter's shop to put on some oxen that he had created.

I mean, he's washing the feet of twelve disciples, and he it was who designed their brains. He's hungry, and it was he who created the universe, the place of humility. He adopted a selfless posture, utterly selfless.

For us, he did this, people. Humility is the theme of Christmas. Humility, filthy stable. Our family was in one this summer in the bottom of a barn, ankle deep in the mire and the filth, where never the light of day or the sun shone. Foul stench that nauseated you, almost gagged you.

Humiliation. St. Augustine wrote so beautifully of his humility, so beautifully. The word of the Father, he said, by whom all time was created was made flesh and born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one of those days for his human birth. In the bosom of his Father, he existed before all the cycles of the ages.

Born of an earthly mother, he entered on the course of the years on that very day. The maker of man became man, that he, ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast. That he, the bread, might be hungry. That he, the fountain, might thirst. That he, the light, might sleep. That he, the way, might be wearied in the journey. That he, the truth, might be accused by false witnesses. That he, the judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge. That he, justice itself, might be condemned by the unjust. That he, disciplined personified, might be scourged with a whip. That he, the foundation, might be suspended on a cross. That he, courage incarnate, might be weak. And he, security itself, might be wounded.

And he, life itself, might die. Humility. And how humble? Look back at verse 8. He humbled himself.

How far did it go? Well, certainly he became mortal, but it went beyond that. He also became obedient unto death. You see, it was an act of obedience. He learned obedience, Hebrews 5, 8, and 9, by death. The greatest act of obedience to the Father was in dying. That was God's will. And even in the garden when he said, oh Father, let this cup pass from me, the humanist was crying out against dying.

The deity was crying out against sin bearing. And yet he said, not my will but thine be done. He was obedient to death. He didn't just become mortal. He died. That's the worst that man can ever, ever endure.

All the way to the grave. And he didn't just die either. Look at the end of verse 8. Even the death of the cross. It's one thing to die. It's infinitely beyond that to die the death of the cross.

The ancient writers used to say that to die on a cross is to die a thousand times before you take your last breath. The pain is excruciating, unimaginable. The suffocation of the organs when the body is suspended by four great wounds is more than you can believe.

The pain, the fiery pain pulsing through the body is more than we can conceive. It was a painful death. And it was a shameful death.

It was reserved for the vilest and the most wicked of criminals. And you hung suspended in space, naked before the gaping, gazing, mocking throng. It was a cursed death. God himself had said, he that hangs on a tree is cursed. It was a lonely death.

There was no companionship. Even God was gone. And I wonder so often as I hear the word still, oh soul, the sign of wonder of all the ages. See, Christ thy God, the Lord of glory is on the cross for thee.

And comprehensible humility. But what's so marvelous that even in his dying, even in his dying, even in such abject depth of human suffering, he still wielded the power of God to redeem the human race. In his dying he could do that. There was a battle fought long ago. The story came back to the king of one soldier who had a sword who had single-handedly destroyed the enemy. And the king said to one of his soldiers, bring me that sword. I want to see such a sword that can do such damage. Soldier got the sword, brought it in, gave it to his majesty and he looked it over and he said, take it back. This is but an ordinary sword.

The soldier said, your majesty, you should see the arm that wields it. You look at Jesus Christ and you see his humanness. And you say, but how could a man redeem the human race?

This is but an ordinary sword. But what you should see is the arm of deity that wielded that humanness. That even in death he redeemed the human race.

Great, great truth. So, what do we see then? What is the Christmas story? The Lord Jesus Christ abandoned the sovereign position, accepted a servant's place, approached a sinful people, adopted a selfless posture. That's the Christmas story.

But there's one more thought. Fifthly, he ascended a supreme prince. He ascended a supreme prince. What was God's reaction to this and what should be ours? God's reaction, first in verse 9, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name or a title or a position or a rank that is above every other name or title, position or rank.

God lifted him up and people listen to me. That is the great classical spiritual truth. Jesus said it himself in Luke 14, 11. He that humblest himself shall be what? Exalted.

And that is the spiritual truth that we must learn. When we humble ourselves, God will lift us up and exalt us and that's exactly what happened. He humbled himself and he was exalted. He then becomes the supreme illustration of this kingdom principle.

You sink to the depths of selfless, sacrificial humiliation and God will lift you to the heights of glory. We see him in the temptation. He's humbled 40 days without eating. He's being buffeted by Satan.

He's fasting in repentance again identifying the sins of the nation. In humility, he trusts the Father to take care of him and never uses his power to meet his own needs. And then in glorious exaltation, when the time is done, the Father dispatches the angels who come and feed him.

In humility, he publicly proclaimed to his disciples that he was going to die. And a moment later, he's in a mountain with them and he pulls his flesh back and they see his glory. We see him on the cross in humility and then he bursts from the grave in exaltation and that's the pattern.

Pity then glorification. God exalted him. That was God's reaction. God exalted him. And God gave him a name above every name.

Why? Verse 10. In order of that, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Every knee. Now we come to us and to all the other creatures. Every knee to bow.

Every knee in heaven. Who would that be? That would be the holy angels and the redeemed saints who have already gone to heaven. Everyone in earth. That would be all the living and under the earth. The demons and Satan and all that host.

All the creatures in heaven, in earth, and under the earth. All of them are to bow to that exalted name. He is, says Ephesians 1, far above all principalities and powers. Far above all other names.

Given the supreme place. The prince of God. Notice that he's given a name above every name.

Say, what is that name? Very clear in verse 10. The name of Jesus. That all that is embodied in that name, all that is embodied in who he is, he is unequaled. The savior, the lord of the world and the universe. And at that name every knee should bow. And you know something? Every knee will bow.

That's right. Every knee will bow. If not in adoration, in judgment, right? If not in worship, in condemnation. Every knee will bow.

Even Satan will be cast into the pit forever. He'll bow the knee to the authority of Christ. But look at verse 11 and bring it to personal response. Verse 10 encompasses the broad picture. Every knee should bow.

Verse 11 comes down to the individual. Every tongue should confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father. Every living thing, every living creature in this world will confess Jesus Christ as Lord. The demons and the damned, the redeemed, the holy angels, all will bow, all will confess sooner or later.

The issue is when? If you wait until the judgment is too late. But if now you confess Jesus as Lord, you enter into his kingdom, into salvation. Romans 10, 9, and 10 says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, believe in thine heart God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be what?

Saved. This is the message of the gospel. Jesus Christ is Lord.

That's what we're saying. He is God. He is in the form of God. He is God of very God with all the attributes of God coming to the world with all the fullness of humanness. He became the servant.

He humbled himself. He died, even dying on a cross. And in the midst of that death, purchasing our salvation, God approved and God lifted him back up and exalted him. And then God calls to all the created universe and says, bow the knee and confess his lordship. And if you won't, now you will someday. But then it'll be in judgment and condemnation.

Now or later, the choice is yours. You can bow the knee now in adoration and love. You can confess him as Lord now and enter into the joy of salvation forever. Or you can resist and say no and someday you'll bow the knee because you'll be forced and you have no choice and you'll be condemned. Our prayer is that you'll confess Jesus as Lord.

What greater Christmas gift than that than to receive eternal life? Why be a fool? What kind of fool would reject that?

Incomprehensible. But is there a message for Christians here? Most of us are Christians. Is there a message for us? For sure.

You want to know something? This passage was written for Christians. That's right. The passage was not written for unbelievers. It was written for Christians.

How do you know that? Because this whole passage is just an illustration of another principle. Go back to verse five. The whole passage simply illustrates another principle.

And what is the principle? Verse three. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. Don't look on your own things, but on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being, and then you go into the passage.

What is Paul saying? Be humble. Be selfless.

Be lowly. And if you need an illustration, then let this mind be in you, which was in Christ, who was something and became nothing, that God might make him something again. He is a living illustration to the believer.

If you will humble yourself, God will exalt you. You know, people often ask around Christmas time, I guess, what is the Lord trying to tell me? What is the point of Christmas?

I think the point of Christmas is right here. Christmas, there's no better time in the year than to teach us the illustration of the lesson of humility. Character of Christ, he was unselfish. He was humble.

He was condescending. And Paul is challenging the church to that perspective, an attitude of a willingness to suffer, to be humiliated, to be selfless, to be sacrificing, so that God can lift us up. The thing we need to learn, people, is not to always be asserting ourselves, defending ourselves, pushing ourselves up, but to be humble and selfless. That is the message of Christmas to us.

Listen to the words of Paul Rees. For us Christians, says Paul, there is no place where the principle of effacing self in behalf of others appears so impressively as it does in Jesus Christ. He is God giving himself away, yet remaining God. He is God putting off a sovereign's vesture for a beggar's rags. He is God rising from his bench where he sits as judge and going to the gallows for the criminal. He is God impoverishing himself, beggaring himself, exposing himself to evil's spite and spittle, never sparing himself until he has made the rude cross on Jerusalem's hill the sign and the sum of his utter self-giving. Great statement.

And what is he saying to us? Let this mind be in you. That is the message. Be humble this Christmas. Be selfless.

Reach out to somebody else in need. Jesus did. Selfless. Selfless. That's the message for us. The message of humility. You're listening to Grace To You, featuring the verse-by-verse Bible teaching of John MacArthur.

John is a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is part of his current series titled, The Real Meaning of Christmas. Well, as we have explained, there's a clear purpose for airing this Christmas study so many weeks before Christmas. I guess you could say, John, it's all about being prepared.

Well it is, and that's what we've been saying in the last couple of days. You might say, well, we should wait until the week before Christmas to think about Christmas. Well, conversations about Christmas are going to start pretty quick.

And this is pre-Christmas training, if we can say it that way. Doing The Real Meaning of Christmas in November should equip you to not only enjoy the full richness of Christmas in a way that perhaps you haven't in the past because you didn't have the information we're giving you, but also allow you the opportunity to communicate these glorious truths leading up to that holiday. I want to mention that we have a book to go along with this series. The title of it is God's Gift of Christmas. It's a beautiful book.

It's a small, compact, hardcover gift book, 120 pages. And the book, God's Gift of Christmas, is available from Grace To You, obviously at a reasonable price, as all of our material is. And it's going to set a context for celebrating Christmas by taking you through fascinating details like who were the shepherds, who were the wise men. It even looks at the people who missed the reality of Christmas, even though they were there. It looks at the religious leaders, Herod, the masses in Jerusalem, and later even the Nazarenes. God's Gift of Christmas takes you not only to the tender manger scene, it helps you see the big picture. It's filled with clear gospel truth. I think this is the kind of book that should become a cherished family tradition, as well as an excellent timely tool for evangelism.

It points readers to the eternal importance of what happened in Bethlehem. So you can order the book, God's Gift of Christmas, or you can order a whole group of those books to give to your friends. They're available right now from Grace To You. Yes, and now is especially a good time to pick up John's book, God's Gift of Christmas.

It's on sale for 25% off our regular price, along with nearly all of our resources. To help you stay focused on Christ this holiday season, or to help an unbelieving friend consider Christmas from a whole new perspective, order God's Gift of Christmas when you contact us today. Call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. Again, the title to ask for, God's Gift of Christmas.

The price is $9, and shipping is free. And also, during the sale, you can get the MacArthur Study Bible for as little as $15 in soft cover, and shipping is still free. To get an early start on your Christmas shopping and to take advantage of the discounted prices, call 800-55-GRACE, or visit gty.org. And when you're online, make sure to catch up on the articles at the Grace To You blog. There you will find insights from John on practical issues facing you and your church. Just click on the GTY blog tab at the top of our homepage at gty.org. Our website is also where you go to download any of John's 3500 sermons free of charge. They are all available in MP3 or transcript format at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for tuning in today, and be back tomorrow as John shows you some people who missed Christmas and how you can avoid making the same tragic mistake. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.