The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ

THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

A Reflection for Christmas Eve

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: December 24, 2022

Series: Christmastide

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

As we are gathered here on this Christmas Eve, it is fitting that we turn our attention to the Scriptures in order to ponder the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This incomparable grace is revealed profoundly in the fact that He traversed the great distance between divine holiness and human weakness: He did this by becoming man. Christmas hymns are at their best when they direct our attention to this mystery.

In the first song that we sung tonight, we sang that “the everlasting Son… Himself a servant’s form puts on” and we were instructed that we should “rise to meet thy lowly king” (from the hymn “The Advent of Our God”). A lowly king? A servant king? A little Lord – as the fourth song put it: “The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” (from the hymn “Away in a Manger”)

Well might we ask, as we did in the second song, “what child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?” The answer is that “this is Christ the King” and we were instructed to hasten “to bring Him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary.” (from the hymn “What Child Is This?”)

The fourth verse of the third song nails it: “The heav’nly Babe you there shall find to human view displayed” (from the hymn “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”). What a gift! The heart of a godly person would have aspired to see the face of God, but how can a mere mortal ascend to the highest heaven in order to see God’s face? And yet, what we have in Bethlehem is the High King’s deliberate descent – His condescension – to ordinary manhood, ordinary boyhood, ordinary infanthood. As Charles Wesley put it,

“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail th’incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.” (from the hymn “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”)

And as we sang in our sixth song, the Lord whom we greet on Christmas morning is the “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing” (from the hymn “O Come, All Ye Faithful”). The Word was always with the Father, but once He came in the flesh, it could henceforth be said that the Word is with humanity. The Word is with us. God is with us. Emmanuel: God with us.

Simply put, as we sang in the seventh song, “He came down to earth from heaven / Who is God and Lord of all” (from the hymn “Once in Royal David’s City”). Don’t let the poetry obscure the meaning. The meaning is simply this: from heaven, the God and Lord of all came down to earth.

All this is the glory of the grace of Christmas.

In order to continue to display to human view the glory of our Lord’s incarnation, God gave us the Scriptures. God intends that as we hear and understand the Scriptures, the eyes of our heart will actually see the divine glory shining forth from the Lord Jesus Christ. So, I invite you to ponder a few simple Scriptural passages that open to our view the glorious grace of Jesus:

“… though he was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Finally, let me share a fourth passage, which I will actually use as a template to walk through the gospel message:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9)

According to this verse, the grace of Jesus unfolds in four parts.

PART 1: “HE WAS RICH”

Part 1: “he was rich”. It would be an understatement to say that He had vast holdings, including the cattle on a thousand hills. In fact, He possessed all things. “[All] things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). He is the One who sustained all things and held all things together (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:17). He is God’s Son (Galatians 4:4) – the beloved Son who always enjoyed fellowship with the Father and who shared in the Father’s glory. The Father had appointed Him “the heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2). Philippians 2:6 gets to the heart of the Lord’s wealth: “he was in the form of God” and he had “equality with God”. He had divine rank and status. He had all the sovereign authority, all the heavenly glory, all the powers and privileges of deity, all the freedom to do whatever He desired to do. Our Lord was incomprehensibly rich.

PART 2: “YET FOR YOUR SAKE HE BECAME POOR”

Part 2: “yet for your sake he became poor”. Here is the stunning truth: the One who had all freedom to do whatever He desired to do, desired to undertake loving action “for your sake”. The form that this loving action took was the voluntary acceptance of poverty: “he became poor”. Although our Lord’s poverty can be understood to some degree by the fact that He was born into an ordinary working-class family, that’s not the best way to grasp His voluntary poverty. The best way to understand our Lord’s impoverishment is by comparing His condition of relative poverty on earth with the absolute riches that He had previously enjoyed in heaven. God became Man. The Lord of glory became a servant. As the Philippians 2 passage shows, the One who was in the form of God took on the form of a servant; the One who had equality with God was born in the likeness of men. The sovereign King became subject to human authority structures. The One who had all the powers and privileges of deity lay in a manger, nursed at His mother’s breast, and was dependent on parental care.

Our Lord’s voluntary poverty can continue to be unpacked in terms of other aspects of His life. The Galatians 4 passage tells us that He was “born under the law”. The divine lawgiver put Himself in a position in which He had to live a truly human life as an obedient keeper of the law. The divine king and judge placed Himself under the law, that as man He might fulfill the law. And He did: He lived the entirety of His life in perfect conformity to His perfect law.

This sets the stage for His ultimate impoverishment, which was a shameful death on a cross. The Philippians 2 passage tells us that He obeyed the Father “to the point of death, even death on a cross.” On the cross, our Lord entered into the place of God-forsakenness – the place of utter abandonment – which is why He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

PART 3: “SO THAT YOU BY HIS POVERTY MIGHT BECOME RICH”

This brings us to Part 3. Part 3 and Part 4 will draw from the same phrase: “so that you by his poverty might become rich.” What I want to emphasize in Part 3 are the three words “by his poverty”, which point to the fact that our Lord’s poverty is the means by which poor sinners become rich saints. Second Corinthians 8:9 teaches us not only that the Lord Jesus Christ became poor, but also and especially that His becoming poor is the means of our redemption.

Never fall into the liberal Protestant trap of thinking that the Lord became poor, suffered, and died merely as an example of love for us to imitate. Truly the Lord is our example, as many passages make clear, 1 John 3:16 among them: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Our Lord’s self-giving love is set forth as the perfect example which we must strive to imitate.

But even so, I want us to ponder the fact that there is something utterly unique about our Lord’s impoverishment that makes His impoverishment the very means of our redemption. The apostle Peter puts it simply: “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). He had earlier written: “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Our Lord’s impoverishment – His taking on human flesh so that He could live righteously in the flesh and then suffer vicariously in the flesh – was aimed at our salvation. “[For] your sake he became poor.” And as the 2 Corinthians 5:21 passage teaches, “For our sake he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin”. Although He knew no sin, He became sin for our sake. He took upon Himself the guilt and shame and punishment of our sin. He is “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). He “[made] purification for sins” (Hebrews 1:3). The One who was without sin and who always kept the law and always did what was pleasing to the Father, was treated as if He were a lawbreaker. The law pronounces a curse upon lawbreakers: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” (Galatians 3:10) In great mercy, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 5:13). He entered into the place of ultimate impoverishment in order to redeem us from sin and death. The apostle Paul wrote:

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4)

Through the poverty of His Son’s incarnation, suffering, and death, God “condemned sin in the flesh” so that He might justify and sanctify us. This is why you should have a very Merry Christmas – because our Lord’s impoverishment is the means of bringing sinners into everlasting and joyful fellowship with the living God.

PART 4: “SO THAT YOU BY HIS POVERTY MIGHT BECOME RICH”

This brings us to Part 4, which again relates to the final phrase in 2 Corinthians 8:9 – “so that you by his poverty might become rich.” In this fourth and final part I want to emphasize “so that you… might become rich.” In terms of the whole verse, what is striking is this simple concept: the Lord became what we were, in order to make us what He is. Or to put it another way: the Lord entered into our bankrupt condition, in order to bring us into His blessed condition. Do you see this? The Lord was rich and we were poor, but He became poor in order to make us rich: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” The rich Lord became a poor servant so that impoverished sinners might become rich in Him. The Lord became what we were, in order to make us what He is – and other passages make the very same point.

The 2 Corinthians 5:21 passage teaches that the Righteous One became sin so that sinners “might become the righteousness of God”.

Galatians 4:4-5 conveys a similar idea:

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

God’s Son became what we were – a man under the law – in order to transform lawbreakers into sons of God. Lest anyone get the wrong idea, our becoming sons of God doesn’t mean that we become divine. But it does mean that we are brought into a privileged, graced, and dearly loved position before the Father. It does mean that we are in fellowship with God. “[For] in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Galatians 3:26) Understood rightly, it is difficult to improve upon the way that C. S. Lewis put it: “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”

Revelation 4:9-10 echoes the same truth – “by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” By natural right, Jesus is the only truly worthy Priest-King. And yet, He “has freed us from our sins by his blood and make us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Revelation 1:5-6). Mankind’s capacity to fulfill its high calling as image-bearers of God was lost in the fall, but this capacity and dignity is recovered through Christ.

Through Christ, poor sinners are able “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24)

Through faith in Christ, poor sinners “become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Through the sufferings of Christ, poor sinners become part of the royal priesthood, learning to steward holy things now and destined to reign with Christ forever.

Through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, slaves become sons, accursed ones become blessed ones, lawbreakers become liberated to live in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

Through the incarnate and glorious grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, poor sinners become rich toward God. Those who trust in Christ are welcomed as sons and daughters, beloved by the Father, indwelt by the Spirit, incorporated as living stones into “a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21), and commissioned to represent Christ as His ambassadors to a world that remains impoverished and lost without Him.

A CONCLUDING WORD

This good news of our Lord’s purposeful impoverishment for the sake of our enrichment in Him, is meant to transform us. The Lord’s grace is meant to transform not only our position, which is what I have emphasized so far, but also our practice – the way that we live. Up until now I have utilized 2 Corinthians 8:9 as a template for understanding the incarnate and intentional grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, but what must not be overlooked is the context in which Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 8:9. Second Corinthians 8:9 is situated in the context of two chapters (2 Corinthians 8 & 9) which are about us as Christians giving generously to others, specifically to other Christians who are in need. Paul calls this giving an “act of grace” (in 2 Corinthians 8:6, 7). Later Paul writes, “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9:11) Part of our “[becoming] rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9) is our being made large-hearted participants in God’s kingdom of self-giving love.

The Philippians 2 passage makes a similar point. Paul glories in the truth that the divine Lord becoming a lowly human servant in order to impress upon us that we ought to follow our Lord’s example:

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself” (Philippians 2:4-7).

In other words, our Lord Jesus Christ did not consider His high position as something to be used for His own self-protecting advantage, but instead He decided to use all the riches and resources of His high position in order to pursue “the interests of others”. And Paul says that you and I ought to have this same mindset – to use our resources for the good of others.

If you want to have a very Merry Christmas, then don’t miss this key point. The reason that sinful human beings are so often frustrated and miserable is because they are turned in on themselves: self-absorbed, and small-hearted, and stuck on pleasing themselves. And so it is that the human heart is layered up with the muck and grime of sin and envy and complaints and self-serving agendas. The good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to deliver you from such poverty, first by addressing the guilt and punishment that your sins deserve, and second by showing you the everyday path of joy in practical day-to-day living. Would you have a household full of joy? Would you have an extended family gathering full of joy? Would you have congregational fellowship full of joy? Then do your part: clothe yourself with the humble sacrificial mindset of the Lord Jesus Christ, put on the attitude of self-giving love and large-hearted generosity, and get on with the happy business of serving others for their sake.

Blessedness is always escaping the reach of the selfish takers, but blessing flows to those who learn to give generously and warmly and patiently and kindly for Jesus’ sake. As Scripture says, “we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (Acts 20:35) Yes, we must remember our Lord’s words, and we must remember our Lord’s embodiment of those words:

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”