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©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
Birth of Jesus
The Incarnation of God
by Rev. A. C. Dixon (1854-1925)
"But when the fulness of
the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God
through Christ." (Galatians 4:4-7)
FOUNDATION Magazine, Nov - Dec 1998
THIS
SCRIPTURE GIVES, first of all, the fact of the incarnation. "God sent forth his
Son." Jesus speaks of the Son of Man as "he that came down from heaven." He
was preexistent to His birth. "They shall call His name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. 1:23). "A child shall be born, a son shall
be given, and He shall be called the Wonderful, the Counseller, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." The birth of Jesus, was, therefore, the
incarnation of Deity.
Let us consider:
- The Preparation for the Incarnation;
- The Process of the Incarnation;
- The Purpose of the Incarnation.
The Preparation
"When the fulness of time was come." (1) There was a political preparation. Rome
did not care about religious opinions. She simply wanted her revenue, and there was,
therefore, religious liberty in a large measure all over the world. War had ceased. The
temple of Janus was closed. (2) There was a linguistic preparation. The Greek language, in
process of formation for centuries, had reached the very perfection of language, that the
Gospel might be written and preached over the world through this perfect medium. (3) There
was a religious preparation. The Jews were scattered to the four winds and had carried
with them the Old Testament Scriptures and the traditions of their fathers. (4) There was
also a demonstrative preparation. The world had grown bad. You have only to look at the
ruins of Pompeii to see a picture that Paul drew of the heathen world. The world of
painting, the world of literature, the world of music, the world of culture had become
putrified, and it had been demonstrated that culture, artistic refinement, military power
and civil government did not make people morally better
The Process
"Made of a woman [not of man], made under the law." There was in Jesus Christ
the union of the human and the divine-just as divine as if He were not human, and just as
human as if He were not divine.
We have accounts of the deification of men in pagan
mythology. But I do not remember any account of a god becoming a man, to help man. Whoever
heard of Jupiter or Mars or Minerva coming down and attempting to bear the burdens of men?
The gods were willing enough to receive the gifts of men, but Christianity is unique in
the fact that our God became a man with human infirmity and emptied Himself of the glory
of heaven, in order that He might take upon Himself the sins, diseases and weakness of our
humanity. Thus it is that God made Himself thinkable as well as lovable to us. The highest
form of our thought is perfect man, and I confess that I am not quite capable of thinking
pure spirit. When I try, it assumes at least a ghostly, phantom form. So that God Who is
spirit, in order to make Himself thinkable to us, puts Himself into the shape of our
highest thought: perfect, sinless man. If you try to think something higher than the human
form, you make it a monster. When we think of God, we are apt to think of Him in human
form. In the Epiphanies of the Old Testament God revealed Himself to Joshua and others in
human form. He puts Himself within the compass of our highest conception, in order that He
may make Himself real to us in His love and sympathy and power.
The Purpose
The purpose is threefold: (1) The primary purpose is redemption. "To redeem them that
were under the law." Jesus Christ came to this world to die. In the prophecies, the
gospels and the epistles, the supreme purpose of Jesus Christ in coming into the world is
to make atonement for sin. "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the
world" strikes the keynote of His mission. Redemption means a buying back, and the
question is pertinent: From whom or what was man bought back? Origen taught that man had
sold himself to Satan, and the death of Christ bought him back from Satan. But the
difficulty with that statement is that man had no right to sell himself to Satan and Satan
had no right to purchase. If such a sale were made, it was a fraudulent transaction.
The purpose of the Incarnation was "to redeem them
that were under the law," and in the phrase "under the law," there is at
least an intimation of the answer to our question. By his sin, man has come under the law
of condemnation. The righteous law of God has found him guilty and holds him for
punishment. The death of Christ satisfies the demands of the law, and thus buys him back
to liberty. Without this satisfaction of justice God cannot be merciful; for mercy
excludes justice, and justice excludes mercy. The moment a judge begins to be merciful he
ceases to be just, and the moment he begins to be just he ceases to be merciful. The
Incarnation through the death of Christ makes it possible for God to be "just, and
the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." If God should be merciful without the
satisfaction of justice, He would cease to be a God of justice and would thus forfeit His
throne of righteousness. In a word, He would cease to be God.
In many a prison of Europe is the record opposite the name
of a poor debtor or criminal: "Debt paid by John Howard"; "Fine paid by
John Howard." And when the law was satisfied because justice had been vindicated
through the kindness of another, the court of justice could be merciful and release the
prisoner. For the court to do so without the satisfaction of justice would be to discredit
the law and forfeit all claim as a court of justice. It would be the destruction of the
court. And for God to be merciful without the satisfaction of justice would be the
destruction of God.
(2) The second part of His purpose was "that we might
receive the adoption of sons"-not that we might recognize that we are sons already,
but "that we might receive the adoption of sons." And the word
"adoption" means more than taking up a waif child of the street and by a process
of law treating it as if it were your son, to receive your inheritance. It means really
producing the condition and experience of a son. Jesus came to redeem us from sin, that we
might become really sons of God, with the very nature of God, "born from above,"
"partakers of the divine nature" by regeneration.
(3) The third part of the purpose is that we should
recognize and express the fact that we are sons of God. "Because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father." You
become sons through faith in Jesus Christ and then enter into the spirit of the son that
becomes familiar with the father. Abba is the child's prattling word for father.
When we have accepted Jesus Christ, we have become akin to the Father; having become
real children of God, we then have the spirit of sonship by which we can come into His
presence and make known our wants in a familiar way.
(4) The fourth part of the purpose is that we should be
"heirs of God through Christ...... Thou art no longer a servant but a son, and if a
son, then an heir of God through Christ." Righteousness, as defined in the letter to
the Romans, is primarily right relation. We must get right with God before we can do right
before God. Until we get right with God, all our doing right is "filthy rags" in
His sight. "I beseech you in Christ's stead," pleaded Paul, "be ye
reconciled to God." In other words, get right and then do right. And you cannot get
right by doing right. Through the death of Christ on the cross making atonement for sin,
we get a perfect standing before God. That is justification, and it puts us, in God's
sight, back in Eden before sin entered. God looks upon us and treats us as if we had never
sinned.
Heirship is a matter of relation. If your name is in the
will, you get what is left to you regardless of your age, color or condition in life. A
cartoon in a daily paper, a few days after Mr. Carnegie's death, pictured a ragged tramp
standing on the street corner and weeping as if his heart were broken. A policeman asked,
"What is the matter?" "Mr. Carnegie is dead," blubbered the tramp.
"Well, what of that?" continued the policeman. "Was he a relative of
yours?" "No, no," said the tramp. "That is what I am crying about. If
I were a relative of his, I would be a rich man." The cartoonist, in this grotesque
way, announced the great fact that heirship depends upon relation. And yet Mr. Carnegie
might have disinherited his own son by leaving him a merely nominal amount. But if his
will had said, "All my children shall inherit my fortune," the heirship would
then have depended upon the sonship, and, as sonship is an unchangeable relation, not one
of them could have been disinherited. Once a son means forever a son. You cannot
"un-son" a man. And God makes my heirship depend upon this unchangeable relation
of sonship. "If a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
This brings us to the proposition which a life-time of
searching for the truth had confirmed:
JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT A PRODUCT OF THE AGE IN WHICH HE
LIVED, BUT OF ANOTHER WORLD, WHO CAME TO THIS WORLD FOR A PURPOSE. Three things prove
this: (1) His claims; (2) His character; (3) His works. First, what He said about Himself;
second, what He was in Himself; and third, what he did, being Himself.
His Claims
Jesus Christ certainly claimed four things:
(1) That He was the Son of man; not a son of man, but the
Son of man. Fredrick W. Robertson says: "There is something exceedingly emphatic in
that expression, Son of man. Our Master is not called the Son of Mary, but, as if the
blood of the whole race were in His veins, He calls Himself the Son of Man. There is a
universality in the character of Christ which you find in no other man. Translate the
words of Christ into what country's language you will, He might have been the offspring of
that country. Date them by what century of the world you will, they belong to that century
as much as to any other. There is nothing of nationality about Christ. There is nothing of
that personal peculiarity which we call idiosyncrasy. There is nothing peculiar to any
particular age of the world. He was not 'the Asiatic.' He was not 'the European.' He was
not 'the Jew.' He was not the type of that century, stamped with its peculiarities. He was
not the mechanic. He was not the aristocrat. But he was the man. He was the child of every
age and nation. His was a life world-wide. His was a heart pulsating with the blood of the
human race. He reckoned for His ancestry the collective myriads of mankind. Emphatically,
He was the 'Son of Man."' Now, was there anything in the environment of Christ to
make out of Him such a world-wide Son of Man? Just the contrary. He was raised in a
mountain village, and village life tends to make men narrow. Travel may correct this
tendency, but Jesus did not travel out of Palestine. Born of the tribe of Judah and having
a legal right to the throne of David, we should naturally expect Him to share the narrow,
bitter feelings of His Jewish kindred, and, like them, chafe under the loss of national
glory. On the other hand, He shares none of their narrow feelings. He teaches them a
lesson in brotherly love by condemning their priest and Levite for passing by on the other
side, while He praises the hated Samaritan who stops and helps the wounded man. All
through His life there was a conflict between His universal sympathy and the narrow
bigotry of His people. When Demosthenes thanked the gods that he was a man and not a
beast, a man and not a woman, a Greek and not a Barbarian, he expressed the sentiments of
all mankind till Jesus came with the thought of universal humanity. Jesus was not Jew
enough for the Jew, nor Roman enough for the Roman, nor Greek enough for the Greek. They
all rejected Him because He belonged to all alike and refused to belong to either
exclusively. The forces at work in the world at that time did not produce such a man.
(2) Jesus taught that He was the Son of God. The High
Priest said to Him on His trial, "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said unto Him, "Thou hast
said" (Matt. 26:64). The High Priest understood His answer as affirmative, for he at
once rent his clothes, exclaiming, "He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have
we of witnesses?" When Pilate wanted to let Him go, the Jews cried out, "We have
a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God" (John
19:7). One of the charges flung into His face on the cross was that He said, "I am
the Son of God" (Matt. 27:43). Thus the enemies of Jesus testify that He claimed to
be the Son of God. And His friends who were closest to Him and best knew His mind admit
the claim. "I saw, and bare record" says John, "that this is the Son of
God" (John 1:34). Paul "preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of
God" (Acts 9:20). When the centurion, beholding the wonders of the crucifixion said,
"Truly this was the Son of God," he simply echoed the claim of Christ's friends
and the charge of His enemies.
(3) Jesus taught that He was God in such a way as to
compel others to admit the claim. It is evident that His friends and enemies understood
Him as claiming that in being the Son of God He was God. Listen to these words: "He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). Again: "He that seeth Me
seeth Him that sent Me" (John 12:45). Many men, before and after Christ, have tried
to demonstrate the existence of God. Jesus made no such attempt. His mission was to
manifest God in His own person. His claim confirms the message of the angel, "They
shall call His name Emmanuel, God with us," and Paul showed that he had caught His
true meaning when he wrote "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16). Jesus
taught the impossibility of knowing God the Father except through Himself: "Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him" (Matt. 11:27). He claims identity of divine nature with the Father in the words,
"I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He calmly claims attributes which none
but God can possess. He declares that He is eternal. To the cavilling Pharisees He said,
"Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). As a man He prays, but in one of His
prayers we see a flash of His deity: "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine
own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (John 17:5). And,
with this eternity of nature, He declares that He has equal honor with the Father. The
Father "hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son,
even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father
which hath sent Him" (John 5:22, 23). He claims to be omnipresent as to place and
time: "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the
midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of
the world" (Matt. 28:20). He claimed that He had power to forgive sins (Matt. 9:5,
6). And His enemies were right in their question, "Who can forgive sins save God
only?" He claimed to be able to work miracles even to the raising of the dead:
"For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son
quickeneth whom He will" (John 5:21). To an unprejudiced mind there can be no shadow
of doubt as to the fact that Jesus taught that He was God and gave to those near Him such
proof of it that they were compelled to admit the fact. John crowns Him Creator of the
Universe: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God .... All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was
made" (John 1:1, 3). He calmly wrote, "We are in Him that is true, even in His
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life" (I John 5:20). After Jesus
had stilled the storm on the sea of Galilee, "they that were in the ship came and
worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God" (Matt. 14:33). His
receiving their worship proves that He claimed to be God; their giving worship proves that
they gladly admitted His claim. Paul's Christ, "Who is over all, God blessed for
ever" (Rom. 9:5), is the true Christ.
(4) Jesus claimed that He was Himself the antidote for all
evil. Men have presented their plans and philosophies for the remedying of earth's ills,
but Jesus stands alone in presenting not a system, but His own personality as capable of
supplying the needs of the soul. To the hungry soul He says, "I am the bread of
life." To men who stand perplexed about the way from earth to heaven He says, "I
am the way." To Pilate's question: "What is truth?" which is but an echo to
the question of all ages, He replies, "I am the truth." To the seeker after the
secrets of life He boldly says, "I am the life." To those who are groping in the
dark He says, "I am the light of the world; He that followeth Me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life." To a world crushed beneath the burdens
of guilt, superstition and ignorance He says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy,
and My burden is light." Instead of systems of philosophy or plans of relief, He
presents Himself. This idea is not of earth. It was not man's way of doing before or since
Jesus came. He stands alone as the One Who offers Himself as the remedy for all evil.
There was nothing in the thought of His age to suggest this, nothing in His environment to
foster it. The idea bears the superscription of another world.
His Character
There are but three positions we can hold with reference to
Christ. Some said, "He is a good man: others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the
people" (John 7:12). Jesus Christ was either deceived, a madman, a bad man or God.
None but God, or a madman, or a deceiver, could have made the claims that He did. The
whole trend of His life indicates the soundest mind, filled with the healthy enthusiasm
which a great mission inspires, and He thinks too clearly to be deceived. The charge that
He was a madman, no one is foolish enough to defend. Then we are driven to one of two
other positions. He was either God or the worst of men. We have just seen that He claimed
the attributes of deity. A good man cannot claim to be what he knows he is not. A good man
cannot be a hypocrite. Now, does any one in this day contend that Jesus was a deceiver? I
have yet to hear of such an one. A candid Jewish Rabbi admitted in a sermon some time ago
that Jesus was a good man, whose object was to do good, and died a martyr to His mission.
Such an admission puts a man who rejects the deity of Christ in an embarrassing position,
for he must now prove that a good man can be a hypocrite, that a good man can at the same
time be the worst of men. There is no middle ground. Jesus pressed this fact home upon the
young man who came to Him saying, "Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life?" when He replied, "Why callest thou Me good? there is none good
but one, that is, God" (Mark 10: 17, 18). "To say that I am good is equal to
saying that I am God."
The question of Jesus, "Which of you convinceth Me of
sin?" challenges not only His hearers, but all the ages; and their verdict has echoed
the words of Pilate: "I find no fault in this man." Friends and foes who lived
close to Him and inspected His words and actions confirm the claim that He is good. Peter
says, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (I Peter 2:22).
"Ye know," says John, "that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in
Him is no sin." (I John 3:5). All admit that He was good; AND IF GOOD, HE IS GOD.
His Work
His work was to establish a kingdom not of this world (John
18:36). Such a thought was not of this world. The Jews were looking for a temporal king to
deliver them from Roman rule. If Christ had taken hold of their idea and used it for His
own advancement, He would have acted like a man, and His success could have been explained
as the success of Napoleon and Washington can be explained.
On the contrary, He opposed the leaders of public opinion
and began the establishment of a spiritual kingdom which lives today after the ancient
kingdoms of Greece, Rome and Egypt have ceased to exist, except in memory. A young man, a
poor mechanic, from a mountain village, with no rich, powerful allies, does this in three
years! And He does it by the deliberate sacrifice of Himself. Men have died martyrs to
their mission. But man has never yet planned martyrdom as a part of his mission. Jesus
told His disciples that He would go to Jerusalem and be crucified and on the third day
rise again (Matt. 16:21).
He provides before His death for a memorial of that death.
Men do not build monuments to their defeats. But Jesus would have His followers remember,
not the Mount of Transfiguration, but Calvary; not His glory, but His shame. Indeed, He
makes His shame the test of discipleship. He tells His followers that they must expect to
be hated, persecuted, killed. Men do not try to establish kingdoms in this way. All these
things go to prove that Jesus was not native to this world. He was more than man, and, as
I see Him standing out distinct from and above all others, I cannot resist the impulse to
fall at His feet and say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God."
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