Yes...we have a new look but the content is the same...

To fully grasp and understand the meaning of Christmas, we have to look at Christ. Yesterday we saw that Jesus is "Immanuel" which means "God with us". That is an amazing statement. God, the creator took the form of the created. The Infinite One became finite. To fully understand that (and I am not sure we fully can) we have to look at the precise words Paul uses to describe this marvelous reality.

Yesterday, I quoted Paul's description of Christ's humility from
Philippians 2:6-7, "...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"

To bring to light the fullness of what Paul is trying to say, we have to look at a couple of words as they are in the Greek text. The first word is "form". "Form" in this context is the word "morphe" which refers to the outward appearance of the inner reality. In other words, Jesus has always existed in the "form of God'. By His very nature, He is and will always be God, possessing all the divine before He came as the Christ-child and even after. It is who He is. By His very nature, Christ is, always has been and forever will be divine.

Now there is another word that can often be translated as "form". This word is quite different it is "Schema" . "Schema" is the outward form that changes from time to time and from situation to situation. A good way to look at these two words is to think of ourselves. We are all essentially human. Our nature is human...as a women it is female and as a man it is male. That is our "morphe" but we change depending on our stage in life. I was a child then a young girl and then a young woman. Now I am a middle-aged woman and will be one day an old-woman. My outward "schema" changes all the time but my inward "morphe" stays the same.

So as Christ became a child then a man, His "morphe" never changed but His "schema" did... as He took the "schema" of a "bond-servant". He is fully divine and fully man as He lived a human life with all the changes it brings.

How does this help us worship Him more fully at Christmas time? As John MacArthur puts it " In light of the profound reality of Jesus' full and uncompromising deity, His incarnation was the most profound possible humiliation. For Him to change in any way or to any degree, even temporary by divine decree of His Father, required descent. By definition, to forsake perfection requires taking on some form of imperfection. Yet, without forsaking or in any way diminishing His perfect deity of His absolute holiness..."

Now before we truly can appreciate this passage there is one more word to look at. Philippians 2:6 says "He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped". The word "equality" is in a plural form in the Greek (isa= "equalities") Which suggests that Paul may be thinking of every aspect of Jesus' deity. The term refers to exact equivalence...like an isosceles triangle has two equal sides. Jesus did not in any way forfeit His equality with God as He became man. Both the Divine and the human are found in Christ. That is why He can be the perfect sacrifice, have a sinless life, be our Atonement and provide our justification.

When you put all that together, NOW take a look at that baby in the manger. It is the Christ Child...born human with all the frailties and limitations and yet fully God with all the power and perfection of God.

Christmas is the good news...God came to earth! He is with us!
Let me know your thoughts girlschat@gmail.com

Here is a picture sent by Julie of her two, with their cousin "warming their toes" Thanksgiving weekend..