I’m going through Joshua in my current seminary studies. I was struck this morning, Father’s Day, by this passage from the commentary, Josha: No Falling Words. Enjoy.

“It’s too bad much of the church has lost this vision of God or Christ as the warrior who fights for his people. Too many of us regard this conception as substandard, by which we mean it does not fit our sentimental twentieth-century graven images of what God ought to be like. The imagery seems too violent. And we do the same thing for the Lord Jesus, with perhaps not a little help from church school materials. The popular image of Jesus is that he not only kind and tender but also soft and prissy, as though Jesus comes to us reeking of hand cream. Such a Jesus can hardly steel a soul that is daily assualted by the enemy…No mild God or soft Jesus can give his people hope. It is only as we know the warrior of Israel who fights for us (and sometimes without us) that we have hopeof triumphing in the muck of life.”

Taken from Joshua: No Falling Words, Dale Ralph Davis, page 82.

To continue with my theme from the last week’s series of blogs about the resurrection, there’s one more entry I’d like to post about what the resurrection does for us.

My most recent post was The Revolutionary Resurrection. In that post was a section called, “The Resurrection Reverses the Garden Curse.” I’d like to dig a little more deeply into that garden.

There are four things that Adam and Eve’s first sin brought to mankind that the resurrection of Jesus begins to reverse.

• Fear
• Death
• Works
• Slavery

Each of these four things didn’t exist prior to Adam and Eve’s sin, and each of these four things were dealt with by Jesus upon his bodily resurrection.

Fear to Courage
God warned the first couple about the effects of sin, should they engage in it. “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Sure enough after both of them ate from the forbidden tree, they immediately began to experience sin’s effects. One of those effects was fear: “They heard the sound of ?a?the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, “??I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid…” (Genesis 3:8-10).

Jesus resurrection from the grave began the process of reversing our fear of God[1] to bring us courage when we face the Almighty. “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you ?have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Romans 8:15).

Death to Life
The separation of the spirit from the body is another terrible curse that God warned our first parents about. Man was made a physical being and is not complete without his physicality. Sin brings death, but Jesus’ resurrection begins the reversal process from this terrible curse by guaranteeing us a resurrection from the dead like Jesus’ resurrection. “For ?a?if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ?in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5).

Works to Grace
Man’s natural inclination is to work for his salvation. Every religious system in existence shares one thing in common. Whatever their belief about eternal destiny, the religious adherent must earn their place in Heaven, or nirvana, or whatever the belief may be. Christianity is unique in that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and grants us eternal life with him purely by unmerited favor and grace.

We see a taste of the works mentality in Adam and Eve right after they committed their first sin. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings” (Genesis 3:7).

The attitude of man when recognizing his shame is always to find a way to cover his shame by his own efforts. But even Adam and Eve recognized that their efforts were not good enough. For after sewing fig leaves together to cover themselves they still felt the need to hide: “I was naked so I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10).

Jesus resurrection provides a wonderful reversal from the works mentality. “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus…For ??sin shall not ?be master over you, for ?you are not under law but ?under grace” (Romans 6:10-11,14).

Slavery to Freedom
Adam and Eve’s sin forever made them slaves to sin. “Through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” Romans 5:19). But Jesus’ death for sin provided forgiveness and his resurrection provides power for a new life. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ?b?raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life…knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our ?body of sin might be ?done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:4-5,6-7).

Conclusion
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus provides far more to the Christian than we can outline here. Suffice it to say that Christ’s resurrection from the dead provides us with real power to experience God, know him, and please him.

Following yesterday’s post in anticipation of Sunday’s resurrection celebration here’s another quote from another great theological mind. This comes from John MacArthur’s commentary on I Corinthians.

“Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation…the endurance of the church of Jesus Christ through 2,000 years is evidence of His resurrection reality. His church and his word have survived skepticism, persecution, heresy, unfaithfulness, and disobedience. Critics have denounced the resurrection as a hoax and fabrication, but have never explained the power of such a fabrication to produce men and women who give up everything, including their freedom and lives when necessary, to love and to follow a dead Lord!

“A follower of Buddha writes of that religious leader, ‘When Buddha died it was with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains.’ Mohammad died in Medina on June 8, 632, at the age of 61, and his tomb there is visited yearly by tens of thousands of Muslims. But they come to mourn his death, not to celebrate his resurrection. Yet the church of Jesus Christ, not just on Easter Sunday but at every service of immersion baptism, celebrates the victory of her Lord over death and the grave.”[1]

1. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: I Corinthians, John MacArthur, “The Evidence for Christ’s Resurrection,” pages 398, 400, and 401.

I’m studying for my message for this coming Sunday’s Easter celebration with our small group. This morning I ran across this passage from Dr. Robert L. Reymond’s A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith:

“Now it is significant that virtually all critical scholars today are prepared to admit that the disciples very shortly after Jesus’ death underwent a remarkable transformation in attitude, with confidence and certainty suddenly and abruptly displacing their earlier discouragement and dispair…it was this newborn confidence that created the church as a missionary movement…Nothing less than his actual resurrection can explain both the empty tomb and the disciple’s transformation from doubt and gloom to faith and the martyr’s joy.”

I’m looking forward to this Sunday’s celebration of the most important day in history.

How well do you know God? Has it ever occurred to you why we are able to know the depths of God’s character?

We all have people we know better than others. We know them better because we spend more time with them, interface with them more than others, and feel a closeness to them. In the case of our Lord Jesus, the more time we spend in communication with him, the more meaningful time in his word and contemplating his truth, the better we get to know him. But I submit that our knowledge of God’s goodness and character would be severely limited if not for one terrible thing.

Sin.

Allow this to roll around in your head for a while. Had it not been for sin we would know and understand far less about God’s character than we do right now. When I say “know,” I’m referring to knowing God experiencially. It’s one thing to know God theoretically or intellectually, but experience is a different matter altogether.

Without sin we would not know about God’s forgiveness. Without sin there would be no need to express forgiveness to anyone. Forgiveness, both giving it and receiving it is a wonderful experience.

Without sin we would not know about God’s grace and mercy. If we had been without sin, to whom would he demonstrate these traits of his character?

Without sin we would not know God’s justice. We say that God is just and all his judgments are true. But we would not comprehend the scale of God’s justice if there were no sin.

Without sin we would not know God’s long-suffering (patience). God does not orchestrate the immediate damnation of the sinner. Rather, he takes time for the sinner to come to conviction. He puts up with the sin of all mankind, for his own purposes.

Without sin we would not know God’s wrath. Honestly, that’s something I can do without. Thankfully, those who know Christ will never experience the fullness of God’s wrath. But we can know something of God’s character by recognizing his wrath toward those who reject his son and remain in their sin. Knowing his wrath helps us to understand his justness, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

I’d also like to submit that without sin we would not know the full expression of God’s love.

It’s one thing to love when things are good and relationships are close. But it’s another thing to love when offended or rejected or persecuted. The sinner who comes to know Christ comes to realize how much God’s loves him or her because of the love expressed through the cross of Christ. How much deeper is our understanding of God’s love because Jesus suffered horribly for the sake of our redemption. The full expression of God’s love could never be fully experienced if not demonstrated through his suffering for us. Can there even be a full expression of love without suffering or sacrificing for another? If Christ is our model for loving expression, then I think not.

I hate sin. I long for the day when my sin nature will forever be removed from me. But I’m also in awe that God’s ordination of sin’s existence enables me—enables all of us—to experience God’s character in ways that would not be possible without sin. Truly, our knowledge of God, our understanding of his character, of who he is, would be greatly limited if not for the expressions of God’s character demonstrated because of sin.

How deep and profound it is to understand God’s character because of our flaws. It reminds me of one of my favorite passages:

“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

All things, even sin which separates us from God is used by God to enable the Christian to know him, to really know him in ways not possible without the existence of sin.

What other ways do we know God better because of sin?

Had a great time at church this afternoon. In addition to looking at a large number of verses about God’s sovereignty over all creation, and the supremacy of Christ, we had an early dinner together of chilidogs and beans. My poor daughter is keeping her distance from me for the rest of night since I had THREE helpings of beans and two chilidogs. I make chili all the time, though I’m not a hot dog fan. The exception of course: chilidogs.

But that’s not why I’m writing tonight.

Our service time was spent looking through scriptures and discussing how people often perceive the Gospel. We went through so many passages this afternoon that I lost count, but the one in particular stuck out to me: The Parable of the Sower.

Luke 8:4-15 records Jesus’ parable and its meaning so that what he intends us to get from the parable can be clear and unmistaken.

In the past whenever I’ve read this passage I tended to focus on the hearers whom Jesus describes as being good soil. More than anything I want to be good soil, that is, one who hears the word of God and bears the kind of fruit that God intends his word to bring about. Though Jesus does not explain in this passage what “fruit” means, his meaning is actually pretty clear since throughout the Gospels and the New Testament “fruit” is either used to represent the souls won to Christ by Christians, or (and most often) it is a reference to personal character brought about in the Christian through obedience to Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart (in John fruit refers to both, but in Matthew, Mark, and Luke fruit refers to character). More importantly for my purposes today I was drawn to Jesus’ use of the description of “thorns” that grew up with the seed (word of God) and choked it. It brings to mind another passage where Jesus referred to “tares” or in the common vernacular, “weeds” in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

In each case Jesus applied a different meaning for the “seed.” In the first passage the seed was the word of God. In the second the “good seed” are believers in Christ. In the first passage the word of God grows in the person, but the thorns of life choke it out. In other words, the normal everyday desires of life prevent the seed from taking firm root. In the second passage Jesus describes something different: people who look like Christians as they begin their experience, but who turn out later to have been imposters all along. In both cases Jesus intimates that the normal experiences in life either prevent people from growing in their faith, or are people who never had faith in the first place.

As I listened to the passage this afternoon I thought of people who hear God’s word but instead of giving supremacy in their lives to Jesus Christ, they look upon the Bible and Jesus as solutions to their personal problems or a way to get their desires fulfilled. In other words, they give preference to the thorns rather than the word of God which can produce something greater. They treat the word of God as if its purpose to is to grow up and make the thorns less thorny. They want to keep the thorns and keep what Jesus has also planted. The word of God and the sovereignty of Jesus Christ take a back seat to personal ambitions or desires. Consider also that in the second passage something similar is going on, though more drastic. In the first passage the people who receive the word are those who honestly receive it. They want it. But they still care more about the thorns of life. But in the second parable the people recorded there are deceivers from the very beginning.

The Greek word for “tares” is only used once in the Bible, and it’s in this passage in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. It’s not a simple weed, but a reference to a very particular plant (zizanion,) known in modern times as a bearded darnel. Darnels are nasty things. They look like wheat as they are beginning to grow. Only later as the plant begins to head is the difference more obvious. Most importantly, darnel seeds are poisonous, causing dizziness and in some cases even death.

It’s no mistake that Jesus used the darnel in his Parable of the Weeds, and the thorns in his Parable of the Sower. For a person with thorns the normal issues of life take precedence over Christ. The object of faith becomes that which faith is thought to deliver: materials blessings, emotional wholeness, and end of suffering, etc. In fact the Bible never promises such things to the Christian (it usually promises the opposite). In the second passage there are those who appear to be children of God, but in fact are mere imitations. They also do not give Christ supremacy; in fact they deny it altogether. They walk the walk for a while, and talk the talk, but in the end they expose themselves for that they truly are: poison at the core. They are designed to perform the same function as thorns—choke out fruit which God intends to raise.

The supremacy of Jesus Christ and the view of the scriptures as our authority for life and practice is critical for a Christian to be a Christian. Christianity is not designed as a solution to our personal problems. The heart of Christianity is the person of Jesus Christ. When we cede supremacy to Christ the thorns cannot choke out what God intends because we are removing them, and pushing them back that God’s will might be done in us. When we cede supremacy to Christ the poisonous weeds may grow up with us in our midst, but in the end Christ will separate us to himself and the weeds will be left only for burning, much like the land that gave itself for thorns.

What place does Christ occupy in your life? If he is the means to your ends, then chances are he is not occupying the place in your life you thought he was. But if your life is surrendered to Christ (surrender is a military term, as in “unconditional surrender”) then and only then can you find yourself bearing the fruit that he has intended for you to have.

While beginning a study on the biblical definitions of love, I ran across an interesting list by Professor Wayne Grudem from his book, Systematic Theology, on the “Signs of a More-Pure Church.” In this highly esteemed volume, Professor Grudem defines a pure church as, “[The] degree of freedom from wrong doctrine and conduct, and its degree of conformity to God’s revealed will for the church” (Chapter 45, page 873). Two things about this definition and Grudem’s list of church attributes caught my attention.

First, Grudem places doctrine and behavior hand-in-hand. Improper doctrine does not naturally or organically work itself out to become proper biblical behavior in a Christian’s life. Jesus remarked about this is Matthew 7:17-20 when He said:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (ESV).

Second, Grudem’s list (presented below) can be used to not only help determine if a particular church is near biblical standards, but also if individual believers are near those standards as well. Before I comment on this it behooves me to point out that not all Christians are mature (no matter how old they are or what their position is – that goes for pastors and missionaries too). Christians are all over the scale when it comes to spiritual understanding, insight, biblical knowledge, practical application, and the Fruit of the Spirit. However, a Christian as well as a church body should be growing toward the attributes listed below.

I’m going to take a liberty and rename this list from Grudem’s “Signs of a More-Pure Church” to:

Attributes of a Spiritually Mature Church

1. Biblical Doctrine (or right preaching of the Word)
2. Proper use of the sacraments (or ordinances)
3. Right use of church discipline
4. Genuine worship
5. Effective prayer
6. Effective witness
7. Effective fellowship
8. Biblical church government
9. Spiritual power in ministry
10. Personal holiness of life among members
11. Care for the poor
12. Love for Christ

That’s a whopper of a list and its certainly true that not many churches that I am aware of are at the top of their game when it comes to meeting all of these standards. Every church has a mixture of believers who are following Christ, believers who struggle with sin or live defiantly in sin, people who think they are believers or are pretending to be believers, and unbelievers. All of these affect what a church body looks like from the outside in. But a genuine church that is seeking to know God and live obediently to Christ is a church that is pursuing these attributes.

I won’t spend an entire article on each attribute, that’s something you can do on your own. However, I want to point out what Grudem mentions is the one thing that can corrupt these attributes and lead to the spiritual downfall of a church: A focus on the ideas and concerns of man rather than the ideas and concerns of God. This comes (in part) when we define our Christianity and service to God first by our culture or national heritage rather than approaching the Bible for what it instructs regardless of, or transcendent of what our culture or heritage teaches us. God is transcendent of culture and above it. Sometimes He calls believers to embrace certain cultures and norms, and other times he calls us to transform culture in keeping with His attributes of holiness. Grudem wisely asserts:

“When a church begins to stray from faithfulness to Christ, this will be evident not only in the shift to impure doctrine but also in the daily life of the church: its activities, its preaching, its counseling, and even casual conversations among members will tend to become more and more man-centered and less and less God-centered…The conversation and activities of the church will have very little genuine spiritual content [prayer, scripture, forgiveness of sin, trusting Christ]. Where there are admonitions to moral reforms, these will often be viewed as human deficiencies that people can correct by their own discipline and effort, and perhaps encouragement from others, but these moral aspects of life will not primarily be viewed as sin against a Holy God, sin which can only be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit working within” (emphasis mine).

Grudem then goes on to drop this nuclear bomb: “When such humanistic emphases become dominant in a church…it is moving in the direction of becoming a false church” (Chapter 45, page 876).

Boom.

As Christians, even as corporate church bodies, we can be mistaken in our doctrine, exhibit a few bad behaviors from time-to-time, screw up church discipline and our witness. We can get all of the attributes wrong. We are human, sinful, prone to going our own way rather than God’s. But when we keep our attention upon Christ and obedience to the scriptures, even if we get it wrong we will still be in a process of maturing to become like Him. But when our focus is on ourselves, our culture, our ideas, we will always go astray. Always.

We may take as an example the lives of kings Saul and David. If you read carefully about Saul’s life you discover that he really wasn’t that bad a guy, in fact, he was a pretty good guy. He kept his zipper shut (unlike David), he raised his kids to be loyal and trustworthy (unlike David), he didn’t use his political power to amass wealth to himself (unlike David), he wasn’t known for cruelty to his friends or enemies (unlike David), he was not given to bouts of misjudgment that resulted in injustice (unlike David). Yet God said of Saul, “You have rejected the Word of the Lord” (I Samuel 15:23), and called David a “Man after my own heart” (I Samuel 16:7, 13:14). Of course it is true that Saul had many serious faults, however, considering the violence, immorality, and chaos of David’s life, what was the difference that set him apart as a man of God instead of Saul who seemed to have so many of the right behaviors? A hint is found in Saul’s confession in I Samuel 15:24:

“I feared the people and listened to their voice.”

Saul was a people pleaser instead of having a life focused on pleasing God. For all of the good that Saul did to establish his nation (read: church), his primary attention was his service to his people to benefit his people rather than his service to God, which would have brought greater benefit.

Look carefully at the lives of Saul and David and you will see one attribute of David too often missing from Saul – repentance. David was always screwing up – big time – so his life reads like a movement from one moment of repentance to another, signifying that his focus was always on his Lord. As a result God used David to far outclass the work and reputation of Saul. He built a mature nation, but under Saul the spiritual life of Israel was withering away until even Saul himself consulted a spiritist medium to learn his fate – a fate that God had declared to him long ago.

When our focus is on obedience to Christ through the scriptures, we can rest in the understanding that though we make mistakes and sin, God can redeem each moment for His glory and purposes. Then we will know that we are growing into the attributes of maturity, whether as an individual believer, or a community of believers. When our faces are bowed in repentance, God always gives us a look from Heaven.

Jesus Christ is superior to all religious founders, teachers, philosophers, and ideologies. The American Heritage Dictionary defines Superior as, “Higher than another in rank, station, or authority, or a higher nature or kind, of great value, excellence, extraordinary.”

Beginning with this common and well accepted definition, examining the world’s most significant religious and philosophical figures, and comparing them to Jesus Christ, we see that Christ is eminently superior in every category.

Jesus’ Personhood

• His Birth
• His Life
• His Death
• His Resurrection

Jesus’ Character

• His Morality
• His Behavior/Expressions
• His Knowledge

Jesus’ Identity

• His Humanity
• His Servanthood
• His Kingship
• His Deity

In every way, Jesus Christ is superior to Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, Karl Marx, and all other religious and philosophical teachers. In every category Jesus Christ surpasses each of these significant but much less important figures of history.

His Personhood
Jesus birth is superior because unlike others, it was prophesied hundreds of years in advance (Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2). His birth is superior because it was miraculous – Jesus was virgin-born (Luke 1:30-38). His life was superior because it was lived without sin (John 8:46, II Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, I Peter 2:22). His death was superior because it was done on our behalf – to wash away sin (John 1:29, Romans 5:6-8). Jesus’ resurrection is not only unique, but also superior because it was permanent and it saves the person who trusts in Him (Romans 5:10, I Corinthians 15:3-4, Hebrews 7:25).

None of these things are true for any other religious leader or philosopher. The births of Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, and Marx, along with all other such leaders, were ordinary births, without foretelling. But Jesus’ prophetic virgin birth pointed to a unique quality of character and identity not shared with any other person.

Jesus’ Character
Jesus Christ was sinless in nature, thought, and behavior (John 8:46, II Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15). Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines sin as, Lawlessness or transgression of God’s will, either by omitting to do what God’s law requires, or doing what it forbids.”

The founder of Islam, Mohammad, confessed that he was a sinner who transgressed God’s laws and needed forgiveness (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, #335, #379, #407, #408). Buddha and Karl Marx rejected the concept of sin or a sin nature, as we are familiar with it in the Bible – but both accepted the idea of wrongful deeds, which is another way to refer to sin. Moses confessed his sin before God, acknowledging his need for a Savior.

Unlike all of these, Jesus needed no forgiveness and needed no Savior because He was sinless. He declared his own sinlessness to the religious leaders of His day. His morality was perfect, without failure. While Buddha taught a form of enlightenment that he himself had to attain, Jesus was different. Jesus needed no enlightenment. The Bible declares Jesus to be the one who gives enlightenment (John 1:5,9, I John 1:6-10). Jesus even warned against so-called enlightenment that does not take sin into account: “Beware that the light that is within you is not darkness” (Luke 11:35).

As a sinless person all of Jesus’ thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and behaviors were without moral failing. No religious leader or philosopher can claim this other than Jesus Christ. In fact, none of the leaders mentioned here ever made such a claim, except for Jesus. Jesus was perfect in these things because His knowledge was perfect. Unlike Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, and Marx, Jesus was pre-existent (John 1:15, 8:42, 56-58). His teachings about morality and right living came from His perfect character, His perfect experience, and His foreknowledge (John 5:19).

Jesus’ Identity
Compared to other religious leaders Jesus’ identity is unique and superior. As already mentioned, His humanity was sinless. But there are three other traits that make Jesus superior to all others – His servanthood, His kingship, and His Deity.

While Buddha taught religious principles to others, he first sought enlightenment for himself, for his own benefit. Mohammad founded Islam on a principle that the prophet of Allah was to be served by those he taught. A prophet could even receive benefits from his religious service that ordinary people could not receive – like multiple wives. Karl Marx taught service to the State. Jesus was different from all of these.

Jesus Christ is above all rulers, authorities, and nations (Ephesians 1:19-23, Colossians 2:9-10). Though He was already God, He emptied Himself to become a servant (Philippians 2:5-8). Jesus said He came to serve (Matthew 20:28). While all other religious leaders sought to raise their spiritual standing, to achieve a higher plane of spirituality or consciousness, only Jesus Christ sought to lower and humble himself. Prior to His birth He was omniscient. Yet He sought in becoming a man to limit Himself – including His consciousness, to that of a man. Only Jesus sought to humble Himself from that position which was already His by Divine right.

Though Jesus was the ultimate servant (Mark 10:45), He is also a king. He is the King of Israel (Jeremiah 2:3-5, Ezekiel 37:21-28, John 1:49, 12:13). He is the King of the Earth (Psalm 42:2,7, Zechariah 14:9, John 18:37). Jesus is of higher authority than all earthly rulers (Ephesians 1:19-23, Colossians 1:9-10). He is king because of His kingly decent (II Samuel 7:12-13). He is king because He has moral authority to reign. He is king because of His Divine right as Deity (Colossians 1:13-17).

Mohammed ruled Arabia as a king – but only after slaughtering many opponents and shedding much innocent blood. Buddha was born into royalty, but he renounced it. Moses governed, but rejected kingship for himself. Karl Marx’s philosophies have reorganized many states, but like all others, he did not possess the moral authority to lead.

And finally, Jesus is superior because of His Deity. All others – Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, and Marx, and every other religious and philosophical figure were all mere men – but Jesus Christ is the unique Son of the Living God.

Conclusion
Even from our simple definition provided in the first paragraph we can see how unique and superior Jesus Christ is in comparison to all other religious teachers. He is higher in rank and station than Mohammed, of greater authority than Moses or Marx, of a higher nature, kind, value, and excellence than Buddha. Jesus Christ is more than extraordinary – and that doesn’t begin to explain Him.

Christmas is one of those holidays that I can take or leave. Perhaps it’s because of the way that we have trivialized what the holiday represents. We hang stockings, decorate trees, arrange manger scenes, and give gifts. Of course no one is fooled, it’s the gift giving and receiving that has become the real focus of Christmas. We love to get stuff. And we get joy, happiness, and a lot of squishy good feelings when our loved ones rip off the wrapping to expose our expressions of love. That’s a form of “getting” too. Nothing wrong with that, in and of itself; but we are fooling ourselves if we think that benign gift giving and receiving is really representative of what God gave man in Jesus Christ. God’s great gift to man, in point of fact, didn’t happen on that first Christmas. It happened on Good Friday when Jesus was violently crucified for our sins. Had the crucifixion never happened, and the resurrection, then Christmas would be meaningless.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ – God becoming a man – was an event so powerful and significant that for 2,000 years man has counted his days and marked his history by the birth of the babe in the manger. While ancient kings the world over were positioning themselves to be worshipped like living deities to their populations and remembered like gods, the real Son of God busied himself with becoming an everyday man. And yet that humble event, regarded as a sweet treasured moment that gives hope to mankind was in fact something altogether more brutal and violent than our holiday pageants, Christmas TV specials, and even church services willingly remember. We focus our Christmas remembrances on the coming of “Immanuel,” the God with us from Isaiah 7:14 and the “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace,” of Isaiah 9:6. But the Christmas tradition, that is, the belief that God would send a Savior, appears in the Bible long before Isaiah’s hopeful promises. And in these foundational promises of God, from which even Isaiah’s prophesies spring, the seed of Adam, Abraham, and David was planted in blood.

The first prophecy about the coming of Jesus was given, not to man, but to the Evil One, Satan. After persuading Adam and Eve to break God’s law and eat the forbidden fruit, “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle…I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heal” (Genesis 3:14-15).

That first promise of a coming Messiah to crush Satan marked the beginning of Satan’s attempt to do to Christ, and to man, what God declared would happen to him. At each stage of biblical history, when God’s promise to send a “seed” unfolded, the Enemy made moves to trample that seed underfoot. At each stage when God gave a promise of the seed of the Savior, separation and death soon followed.

Following God’s first promise to Abram of a seed to come after him (Genesis 12:1-3,7), Sari his wife was separated from him by Pharaoh of Egypt, immediately threatening the fulfillment of God’s promise.

Immediately after receiving the second promise of a coming seed (Genesis 15:1-5), Hagar the Egyptian was introduced to become Abram’s concubine. She, along with her son Ishmael were a cause of division in the family and Sarah recognized the potential threat to Abraham’s son Isaac – who was to carry the promise of the seed.

In Genesis 17:1-8 God made his third promise to Abraham of a coming seed. Shortly thereafter Abraham traveled to Gerar where its king, Abimelech, took Sarah as a concubine. The urgency of the text indicates Sarah was in imminent jeopardy, but God spoke to Abimelech and saved her and his promise, from danger.

Just as Abraham his father had a wife that could bare no children, so too Isaac, the child of promise, was given a barren wife. God’s promise of a coming seed seemed in danger again – until He intervened and Rebekah was able to conceive (Genesis 25:21).

Immediately after receiving the promise from God about the coming seed, Isaac was driven from his land and his family’s welfare put in jeopardy (Genesis 26).

After receiving his father’s blessing in the line of succession, Jacob’s life is threatened by his brother Esau (Genesis 27:41), causing him to flee. When Jacob returned years later with his family, Esau rode out with 400 men to slaughter him. But Jacob’s godly wisdom intervened to change Esau’s heart, and he spared Jacob and his family (Genesis 33:1-16).

In II Samuel 7:12-13 God promised to make David a great man and give him a seed to rule on his throne forever. After securing his kingdom and reputation (chapters 8-10), David became lax, took Bathsheba in adultery, and from that point his kingdom and his family endured in chaos, with his sons and servants murdering one another. If not for God’s promise for his lineage to endure, David would have lost all.

THE PROMISE OF REDEMPTION BROUGHT DEATH

Even from these few examples of God’s promises concerning the coming Messiah we can see a pattern. From Adam until Isaac there was a focus on destroying a single family or to separate a single family that possessed the promise of the seed – the coming Savior. The objective was to prevent the birth of a promise-holder, or destroy the lineage. Immediately after each promise was given there was either separation or the threat of death.

Beginning with Jacob, Satan attempted to destroy whole families or a nation of people. Inferred in the text is that when multiple children were born to the possessor of the promise, Satan could not learn which particular person was to carry the seed, so he targeted the entire group. We can see an example of this even during the Exodus period. God promised to Abraham that his seed would be oppressed in Egypt for 400 years before being freed (Genesis 15:13-16). 400 years later as the time of God’s promise was at hand, Pharaoh ordered all baby boys killed in hopes of killing the one child that would lead Israel to freedom. This event was mimicked in Palestine when Herod ordered all boys less than two years of age to die in hopes of killing the promised Messiah (Matthew 2:16).

Even during the period of Israel’s exile, in Esther 3:7-11, Haman tried to wipe out the Jewish nation – which would have destroyed the fulfillment of God’s promise of the coming Savior.

In virtually every case when God made a promise about the coming seed (Christ), that promise was followed by separation or the threat of death. And as the promise was accompanied by violence, so too was its fulfillment.

Jesus’ birth was preceded by the promises of salvation from sin (Matthew 1:20-23), and the mantle of David’s kingdom (Luke 1:26-38). Just as the promises held separation and death, so did they also hold the same during Jesus’ birth. His family was forced to separate from the their home and nation, fleeing to Egypt for safety from Herod’s murderous intent (Matthew 2:13-15). At news of Jesus’ birth, but unable to find him, Herod issued sweeping orders to murder all children around Bethlehem aged two and under (Matthew 2:16-18). Separation and death even accompanied the promised infant Jesus into the world.

IF IT’S NOT PEACE ON EARTH AND GOODWILL, THEN WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

At Christmas we give gifts to celebrate the giving of the gift of eternal life in Christ. But when God made promises of a coming Savior, Satan worked separation and death – even at Jesus’ birth. But in God’s foreknowledge and sovereign plan, all of this foreshadowed the reason for Jesus’ coming – redemption from sin reconciling us to God (NON-separation), defeating spiritual death (LIFE in Christ). The birth of Jesus was only the beginning. Jesus’ incarnation culminated in the cross where all of the promises of God were fulfilled – including separation from the Father (Matthew 27:46), and Christ’s death for us.

• The promises of God in Christ were accompanied by separation. Satan’s separation is to separate us from God. But Christ’s separation from God at the cross brought us into a right relationship with Him (Romans 6:5-11).
• The promises of God, while bringing life, are sometimes accompanied by death, or fulfilled through death, such as Christ’s death on the cross – the reason for Christmas.
• All who will attain or live under the promises of God must share in the conditions of both the promises and the fulfillment: Separation from the world – II Corinthians 6:14-17, and death to sin – Romans 6:5-11, Colossians 3:1-3, II Timothy 2:11-13.

We can enjoy the holidays, family reunions, gift giving, and feasting on Christmas. But our joyful celebrations can never truly represent the brutality that accompanied the promises and the first Christmas. Nor can our celebrations contain the real substance of meaning behind the incarnation of Christ. That comes during the other 364 days of the year as we live out what Christ intended – putting to death the deeds of the sinful nature, and separating ourselves from an evil world system in total dedication to the One and Only True Living God.