“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” John 1:14a
Jesus, Son of Man! Jesus, Son of God! And both in one!
As a man, He got tired; as God, He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11)
As man, He got thirsty; as God, He gave living water (John 4)
As man, He got hungry; as God, He fed thousands with a lad’s lunch (John 6)
As man, He was tempted in all points like as we are (Hebrews 4:15); as God, He was without sin, baffling His enemies with the question, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46)
As man, He sorrowed over separation from friends; as God, He promised never to leave them comfortless and to come to them.
As man, He is despised and rejected of men (Isaiah 53); as God, “all the angels of God worship Him.” (Hebrews 1:6)
As man, He wept at Lazarus’ grave; as God, He raised Lazarus from the dead.
And this marvelous Christ, who was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:13) was “made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law.” (Galatians 4:4-5)
The cause of condemnation was in us who had sinned and “come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), in us who had “turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6), in us who like sheep had gone astray, in us who preferred darkness to light because our deeds were evil.
So for us who deserved death, Christ was made under the law and died under the law, but His death was the “end of the law for righteousness” (Romans 10:4). Made under the law, He bore the penalty of the law (for us,) grievous as it was.
It is joy superlative to know that the Lord has fully dealt for us with the law’s claim. Legal satisfaction is forever taken out of our hands by Christ. Jesus Himself dealt, in the sinner’s interest, with the law, honoring its holy claims to the uttermost under the human conditions which He so freely undertook, so that, by faith, the relationship between Jesus and sinners is real, a community of their sin debt on one side (paid in full) and Christ’s merit on the other side.
–edited from an article by Robert G. Lee, “Christmas Celebrates the Birth of Jesus”
“Had It Not Been, Then Forever My Soul Would Be Lost”
SHARING
