Pastor's Blog

One amazing reality about the biblical story of Christmas is just how much it defies our modern American values.  For most people, Christmas is all about conspicuous consumption; it’s about giving and getting.  We spend more than we can afford on unnecessary things for people whom we don’t even like!  Many who receive our gifts ultimately relegate them to oblivion in their attics, basements, or garages.  And we do all of this as an exercise in ego enhancement.  We don’t want to be seen as stingy.  So what’s the point?

That’s a compelling question because of what lies behind the event that inspired Christmas in the first place:  the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem’s stable.  There’s a great deal of sentimental fluff attached to the celebration of Christmas, even in our evangelical churches.  That’s why the most important single New Testament Christmas text is not one of the accounts found in the gospels, but is a passage found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  He writes:  “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, 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” (Phil 2:5-8).

What’s interesting here is that the Lord Jesus was not passive in His incarnation.  He offered himself to provide what no one else could:  the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  There are two selfless acts described here.  First, He emptied himself in order to be made like us.  God’s Son laid aside the prerogatives of deity—not, to be sure, the attributes of deity, but only the right to use them independently.  During His earthly ministry, He was completely dependent upon the direction of His Heavenly Father and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but in no sense did Jesus Christ cease to be God!

What did He give up?  He gave up the form in which He was manifested in heaven—the glory which He had with the Father before His incarnation, and the resurrection glory He has in heaven now.  Moreover, He gave up the position He had in heaven.  That’s what Paul means when he says that our Lord did not consider equality with God something to be held on to at all costs.  He was still equal to His Father in nature, but He agreed to experience the humiliation of incarnation by laying aside His glory.

Then, too, He also voluntarily assumed the nature of man, taking on the outward manifestation of a bond-servant.  In Christ, there were two natures in one person.  Truly man?  Yes, but also truly God!

Second, the Lord Jesus humbled himself in order to die for us.  He willingly became obedient to death on a cross.  He had to exist in human form in order to suffer the penalty imposed by God on human sin (“the wages of sin is death”).  Jesus could not die without being a man, and thus His incarnation was absolutely necessary.  He did not just die a normal death; He was executed as a criminal in the cruelest method ever devised by depraved humanity.

What does all of this mean?  As Paul says, “Have this attitude in yourselves.”  Don’t think of yourself first.  Willingness to suffer humiliation by voluntarily giving up our own interests for others:  giving ourselves joyfully rather than giving expensive stuff grudgingly.  Let the Lord Jesus be your example.  Many people suffer depression during the Christmas season.  Perhaps you are among them.  Could this be part of the problem?  This Christmas, instead of giving things you can’t afford, try giving of yourself.  Instead of emptying your bank account, like your Lord, try emptying yourself.  You may find that you will actually have a “merry Christmas.”