The Theology of Christmas B

He became human, a real man, true man, a hundred percent human as a hundred percent 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. 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 Christ's birth that maybe you haven't quite understood. John's lesson here on Grace to You is a look at the theology of Christmas.

That's also the title of the sermon. It comes from a chapter that you may not associate with Christmas, but it is critical for understanding Christ's birth, Philippians chapter 2. So if you're able, turn to the second chapter of Philippians and here's John with the message. Open your Bible to Philippians chapter 2...Philippians chapter 2.

Here's the theology of Christmas...okay?...the theology of Christmas. 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.

I want to just give you five simple steps, 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. Jesus had all the privileges of being God and He chose to set those privileges aside to serve sinners in the Father's will. It's always like a king who takes off his crown and takes off his majestic robe and puts on the rags of a slave and comes out of the palace to help the poor destitute paupers survive.

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 doulos, slave. There's no such word as bondservant in the Greek, it's the word for slave. He came down.

How far down? He didn't come from being the King of heaven to being a King of earth or a King of Israel, He will eventually be the King of kings and the King of Israel. But for this occasion in His incarnation, He came to be a slave. He took off the robes of majesty and put on the apron of a slave.

This, of course, is what the Old Testament promises. Look at Isaiah, the last part of Isaiah where the Messiah is designed to be the Servant of the Lord, the Servant of the Lord. He is called that again and again and again and again. He is a slave. He takes on the form of a slave.

Here's that word morphe 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 His 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.

It says He was made in the likeness of men. There would have been a lot of ways to serve God. Maybe He could have provided redemption by becoming an angel. Maybe He could have been the slave of God, obeying God like an angel obeys God and holy angels are the slaves of God. They obey God.

They do His will at all times, at all points. Maybe God could have designed that redemption be accomplished by angels. After all, it was angels that brought the Law. Maybe it could be angels that brought salvation.

But not in the plan of God. 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's again the verb to be, being, genomenos, 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, a hundred percent human as a hundred percent 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. He, 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. Morphe 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...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 walk or 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.

Had they changed over their lifetime from being an infant to being an adult and all the stops in between, so had He. Had they originally when brought into the world been wrapped in cloth? That's what they did with babies. That's what everybody does with babies. Read it in Ezekiel 16, 10. They were doing it way back then.

That's always been the way. Well He was wrapped in cloth. Did they have brothers and sisters, these human beings? So did He. Born to Joseph and Mary.

Did they work? So did He. Did they learn a trade? So did He. In fact, for 30 years He plied His trade in the little village of Nazareth, working in a family business with His father who was a carpenter and nobody knew who He was...nobody knew who He was. You couldn't tell by looking at Him. Was He hungry? Of course He was hungry. Was He thirsty? Of course He was thirsty. Did He go to bed at night and sleep? Of course He went to bed at night and slept.

We know that one time He was so tired, He fell asleep in a boat in a storm. Was He ever angry? Sure. Was He ever grieved? Yes. Did He ever shout because He was angry? Yes. Did He ever cry because He was grieving?

Yes. He was a human being. He dressed like people dressed. He put His sandals on. He put His robe on.

He had an undergarment and that's the way everybody looked in that day. 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's 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 manger in an insignificant inn, really in an insignificant village, raised in a humble cottage, a 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 who 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 a sinful people. Fourthly, He adopted a selfless posture. How selfless was He? Back to verse 8, 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 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. Augustine summing up the incarnation of Christ said, the Maker of man became man that He, the 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 by 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 corrupt mortal judge. That He, justice itself, might be condemned by the unjust. That He, discipline itself, might be scourged with whips. That He, the foundation, might be suspended upon a cross. That He, courage personified, might be weakened.

And that He, security, might be wounded. And that He, the very life itself, might die. Augustine went on to say, to endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us unworthy creatures. He who existed as the Son of God before all ages without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these years, did this though He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil. And although we who were the recipients of so much good at His hands have done nothing but evil, 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, raised from the dead, lifted to the right hand of God, restored to full glory, full honor, full privilege, full expression of attributes, full use of His own independent will.

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 cause they reject Christ. Every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord.

If you do it in this life, what happens? Romans 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 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 heir and share in all His heavenly riches. He is God giving Himself away, yet remaining God. He is God putting on a king's robe and then taking it off and taking it beggar's rags. He is God, the judge, rising from the bench and going to the gallows as a criminal. He is God impoverishing Himself, beggaring Himself, 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. Father, we thank You again for Your Word. We thank You for the truth concerning our Savior.

These are wonderful days to go back and think deeply about the coming of Christ. May there be no soul in the hearing of this voice of mine who will wait to confess Him as Lord in the fires of hell. May You be gracious and open their hearts to confess Him as Lord today and now here on the earth that they may do it forever in heaven. May we as those who know Christ and love Christ humble ourselves to do Your will no matter what it costs, knowing that to those who obey, there will be an exaltation.

Jesus is the pattern for us as well. If we humble ourselves, You will one day exalt us. We thank You for this great grace. We rejoice in it.

We celebrate it with grateful hearts. In Christ's name, amen. That's John MacArthur showing you why you need to respond to Christ's birth with worship. Along with teaching here on Grace to You, John is a pastor, author, and he's chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary in the Los Angeles area. Today John looked at how Christ humbled himself in taking on human flesh. It's a compelling message called the Theology of Christmas. Now, here's a quick and important note. Today, December 21st, is the deadline if you want to get a MacArthur Study Bible or any other item from Grace to You and still receive it before Christmas. John, you have the details and you also have a few gift suggestions.

Well I do, and we're definitely getting down to the wire here. This is the last day to order resources in the United States and have them delivered by Christmas. Orders must be placed with next day shipping by phone before 4 p.m. Pacific Time or by internet before 2 p.m. Pacific Time.

And outside the U.S., you need to contact your local GTY office. Let me suggest just four things to think about. Number one, and this is a big one, the new testament commentary series. Thirty-four volumes, you can order the whole series. If you do that, a high discount is offered, or you can order any volumes that interest you from the books of the new testament that you would like to know more about. Commentaries are the best way to dig deep in the scripture. Then one perfect life, the story of Christ weaving together the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in one chronological narrative that tells the full story. It's a powerful way to see the life of Christ blending the new testament gospels together, and other passages of scripture as well in the beginning and the end of the book. And then biblical doctrine, a thousand-page book, all the categories of systematic theology, everything you wanted to know about theology and everything you didn't know you needed to know, not just for pastors but anyone who loves the word of God. It's a reference book.

You can look up any doctrine in the back, and it'll take you to the page where it can be explained to you, biblical doctrine. And then, again, to remind you, the MacArthur Study Bible is available in the New American Standard, the New King James, or the ESV, with footnotes and everything that comes with the Study Bible. Everything from hardback to premium leather is available and still discounted twenty-five percent. So if you order your Study Bible today, you'll save that twenty-five percent off the regular price. Order today by four p.m. on phone or two p.m. on the internet.

Yes, and these helpful resources make ideal gifts for new believers and veteran saints alike. To pick up the MacArthur Study Bible, or One Perfect Life, or biblical doctrine, or the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, get in touch today. Our toll-free number is 800-55-GRACE.

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And if you do it online, make sure you choose Next Day Shipping. And friend, thanks for praying for John MacArthur and the Grace To You staff. That's really the most important way you can minister to us. And also, if you get a moment over these next few busy days, we would love to hear how John's verse-by-verse teaching is helping you grow in your love for the Lord. Email us. It's a great way to contact us. You can write to letters at gty.org, or if you prefer regular mail, our address is Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for tuning in today, and join us tomorrow when John looks at an ugly, hard truth at the heart of the Christmas story, but it's a truth you need to understand. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time on Grace To You.