For the month of December, our kids will be hearing the stories of Christmas and important truths learned from these stories in Scripture. This Sunday I am teaching on the importance of the Incarnation from Mt. 1, Lk. 1-2, and Jn. 1.

When Gabriel appears to Mary in Luke 1, he tells her that her son is to be named “Jesus”, which means “God is Salvation.” Jesus’ birth also fulfilled the words of Isaiah, who said, “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel' (which means, God with us)” (Mt. 1:23). These two names are significant because they indicate that God has taken on flesh and has come to live on earth for the purpose of accomplishing our salvation.

Believer’s often fail to focus on the significance of this event. According to J.I. Packer, “The Incarnation…makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains” (54). He also says, “The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand it till we see it in this context” (58).

It is also important to mention that Jesus’ arrival on earth was not an unanticipated occurrence, but the fulfillment of numerous prophesies throughout the Old Testament (Gen. 3:15, Isa. 7:14, 53, Micah 5:2 etc.). The Incarnation was not a result of the Father acting on impulse or executing a “plan B.” There is what theologians call “The Covenant of Redemption,” which took place in eternity past that speaks of the agreement between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that the Son would take on flesh and be our representative, perfectly obeying the father on our account and paying the penalty for sin that we deserve. According to Wayne Grudem,

“On the part of the Son, there was an (eternal) agreement that he would come into the world as a man and live as a man under the Mosaic law (Gal. 4:4; Heb. 2:14-18), and that he would be perfectly obedient to all the command of the Father (Heb. 10:7-9), becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:8). The Son also agreed that he would gather for himself a people in order that none whom the Father had given him would be lost (John 17:12)” (518).

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994. 518

Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. 1993. 54-58.

"Quote" of the Week

"It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. 'The Word became flesh' (Jn. 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation." J.I. Packer

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 118:1

Faith is the means or instrument by which a person is saved. Christians are justified before God by faith (Rom. 3:26; 4:1-5; Gal. 2:16), and by faith they live their lives (2 Cor. 5:7) and sustain their hope (Heb. 10:35-12:3).

Faith cannot be defined in subjective terms, as a feeling or optimistic decision. Neither is it a passive orthodoxy. Faith is a response, directed toward an object and defined by what is believed. Christian faith is trust in the eternal God and His promises secured by Jesus Christ. It is called by the gospel as the gospel is made understandable through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Christian faith is a personal act, involving the mind, heart, and will, just as it is directed to a personal God, and not an idol or an idea.

It is usual to analyze faith as involving three steps: knowledge, agreement, and trust. First is knowledge, or acquaintance with the content of the gospel; second is agreement, or recognition that the gospel is true; and third is trust, the essential step of committing the self to God. These steps go together in the since that there can be Christian faith only when the gospel is known and its truth is accepted (Rom. 10:14).

Through faith we receive Christ, who satisfied the law on our behalf. In this way we are justified through faith alone, without doing the works of the law. But since faith unites us with Christ, it cannot be lifeless. Directed toward God and resting in Him, it is active, "working through love" (Gal. 5:6), seeking to do all the "good works, which God prepared beforehand" for us (Eph. 2:10). Justification is by faith alone, but justifying faith can never be alone.

When James says that faith without works is dead, he is describing a faith that knows the gospel and even agrees with it, but has fallen short of trust in God. Failure to grow, develop, and bear the fruits of righteousness shows that the free gift of God in Christ has never been received. The answer for those with such a faith is not to save themselves by establishing a righteousness of their own, as if they could create faith by their own efforts, but to call on the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:13). God alone can save those for whom it is otherwise impossible (Mark 10:27). Paul shows that good works cannot break this impossibility; James shows that the faith required is faith that rests in the living God.

Even when we have believed, the good works we do are never perfect. They are acceptable to God only because of the mercy of Christ (Rom. 7:13-20; Gal. 5:17). We express our love for God through doing what pleases Him, and He in His kindness promises to reward us for what we do (Phil. 3:12-14; 2 Tim. 4:7, 8). In this we are not making God our debtor, any more than when we first believed in Him. As Augustine noted, God in rewarding us is graciously crowning His own gracious gifts.

Sproul, R.C. Faith and Works. The Reformation Study Bible. Orlando: Ligonier Ministries. 2005. 1804

"Quote" of the Week

"(Faith is) a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor towards us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds and sealed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit." -John Calvin, Institutes 111.2.7

Lesson 8: THE TRUTH ABOUT CONSTANTINE

Last Sunday, I taught our youth about how the persecution of Christians had finally come to an end with the help of Constantine. When asked why he acted under the banner of Christianity, some have answered that it was because he was a believer, while others argue that he was trying to gain the support of Christians. Below I discuss why I think both of these views are wrong and discuss Constantine's true motivation.

1) THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT HE WAS A CHRISTIAN

There is actually sufficient evidence to suggest that he was not. He never placed himself under the direction of Christian leaders or bishops. Christian Historian Justo Gonzalez explained, "Constantine reserved the right to determine his own religious practices, and even to intervene in the life of the church" (121).

He was also known for blending the beliefs of paganism and Christianity and for repeatedly taking part in pagan rites, in which no Christian would participate. According to Gonzalez, "During most of his political career, Constantine seems to have thought that the Unconquered Sun (of paganism) and the Christian God were compatible-perhaps two views of the same Supreme Deity-and that other gods, although subordinate, were nevertheless real and relatively powerful" (122).

2) HE HAD NO REASON TO GAIN THE SUPPORT OF CHRISTIANS AT THIS TIME BECAUSE THEY HAD NO INFLUENCE

When Constantine took power, persecution was taking place throughout the empire and many Christians had been removed from military and government positions due to the policies of Diocletian and Galerius (see previous post). According to Gonzalez,

"If Constantine had been such an opportunist, he chose a poor time to seek the support of Christians...He was preparing to go to battle for the city of Rome, (the) center of pagan traditions...Christians were stronger, not in the West, where the battle was to be fought, but in the East, to which Constantine would lay claim only years later. Finally, it should be pointed out that whatever support Christians could give Constantine was of doubtful value" (121).

3) CONSTANTINE BELIEVED CHRISTIANITY TO BE A POWER THAT COULD BE CONTROLLED.

It is probably correct to say that Constantine believed in the power of Christ. The problem is that he wrongly assumed that this power was his to use as long as he supported Christians. He thought that by appeasing the Christian God, he could gain the power needed to rule the empire. Gonzalez stated,

"For (Constantine), the Christian God was a very powerful being who would support him as long as he favored the faithful...What he sought was not the goodwill of Christians, but rather the goodwill of their God" (122).

Scripture, however, clearly opposes this reasoning. Daniel 4:35 says,

“(God) does as he pleases with the powers of heaven. He does what he wants with the nations of the earth. No one can hold his hand back. No one can say to him, ‘What have you done?’”

In other words, "God does what he wants without anyone forcing His hand.

Although Constantine had a distorted view of God, many, however, would argue that he received the power he pursued. Unfortunately, he settled for far less than what God intends. As discussed last week, all those in power eventually lose it and empires rise and fall. Only ones position in Christ as an adopted child of God is permanent. J.I. Packer asserted, “God’s adoption of us (believers) makes us his heirs, and so guarantees to us, as our right (we might say), the inheritance that he has in store for us” (217). Although Constantine gained an earthly inheritance he missed out on a spiritual and eternal inheritance that is better by far (Rom 8:16-17; Gal 4:7).

Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity: Volume 1 The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper Collins. 1984. 121-122.Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. 1993. 17.

IS THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY NECESSARY?

Many view the study of theology as solely an academic and impractical exercise that is optional for followers of Christ. I recently ran into a well-known minister from the United States in an airport in Nicaragua. We talked for a bit about our mission trips in the country. After I told him that we spent the week teaching pastors about the Doctrine of God, he responded by saying, “I hope you did not simply leave them with doctrine.” As I left that conversation I began to think, “What else would we have left them with?”

Although he did not come out and say it, it was communicated to me that he viewed the study of theology as being an insufficient academic exercise. If this was his point, which I hope it wasn't, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology is extremely practical--one of the simplest reasons being that right thinking about God leads to right living for Him. According to theologian Wayne Grudem,

"The Bible often connects sound doctrine with maturity in Christian living: Paul speaks of 'the teaching which accords with godliness'(1 Tim. 6:3) and says that his work as an apostle is 'to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness' (Titus 1:1). By contrast, he indicates that all kinds of disobedience and immorality are 'contrary to sound doctrine'" (1 Tim. 1:10).

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1994. 29.