It seems there is a possibility that I'll be preaching the Christmas Eve sermon at the church we attend. It is, of course, a very grand Church of Christ tradition to preach about something completely unrelated to Christmas, or better yet, to preach against Christmas celebration, but I've heard some interesting things on the Incarnation lately that made me think a lot so I'm actually considering a real, no-kidding, Christmas-birth-of-baby-Jesus sermon.
The first thing I heard recently that got me into this line of thinking was listening to David Bercot's lessons on what the early Christians thought of the Atonement. He doesn't just approach this from a single angle and one of the angles that he does approach it from is that the Incarnation was more important to the early Christians than it is to a lot of Protestant churches today. This, of course, is a reaction to the perception on the part of Protestants that Catholics over-emphasize the Incarnation, but Bercot's point is that this is no reason to throw out the baby with the bath water (sorry, couldn't resist). Anyway, he had an amazing point based on 1 Corinthians 15:19-22 and 41-49:
If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
(1Corinthians 15:19-22)
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
(1Corinthians 15:41-49)
His point is that the Incarnation is the birth of a second being to descend from. Before Christ we only had the option of descending from Adam (obviously) and this was insufficient since Adam's sin had corrupted the world and brought death. The second Adam (in accordance with 1 Corinthians 15:41-49) brought to us the ability to descend from spiritual perfection, which explains what Jesus was talking about in John 1:12-13 and 3:5-8:
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
(John 1:12-13)
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
(John 3:5-8)
So to enter the kingdom of God you must be descended from Christ, a man who was both man and God, thus making it possible for us to descend from God (to become "children of God" - John 1:12) so that we could say to the Father, "Abba, Father" in accordance with Galatians 4:4-6:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
(Galatians 4:4-6)
It is not a trivial thing to be descended from the Father. In our era we underestimate what that means. In Christ's era such a concept was blasphemous:
But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
(John 5:17-18)
But Christ's coming was to give us a new genealogy, a new line to trace ourselves through so that we could escape the effects of sin on this world, so that we could claim as our Father the Father of our Savior, and the Father of our Savior could claim us as sons. The vision of the judgment that I had previously was, I'll admit, wrong. I had in my mind (and I have heard this preached) that on the day of judgment when Satan is accusing us God will look at us and only see Jesus. This paints God as a being who can be deceived, as though he sent Christ so that he could create an optical illusion for himself. The truth of the matter is that when he looks at us he will see us as his sons. We will belong to him, as we were meant to from the beginning.
