Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [119] The Creator became a Creature

The Creator Became a Creature

When I was learning to preach - and that's still happening after 30 years! - a gracious retired pastor listening to me speak came to me after one sermon and said something like this, "Whenever I preach doctrine I make sure that I always write it down so I get it accurate."

He wanted to make sure that he preached accurately and truthfully. I am sure he was pointing out a fault he had recognised in my preaching but wanted to put it to me gently!

He was right! The pulpit is no place for amateur doctrine.

In our glide through The First Christian Hymn, we've arrived at "being made in human likeness."

This is the third downward step of the Son of God. First, he decided to give up the trappings of Divine Royalty. Next he came as a servant. Third he was made in human likeness.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶ who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death –
        even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father."

A Second Nature

The Son of God became what he was not (a man) and continued to be what he always was (God). This is a very high mystery. The Son of God added to that divine nature a real human one, so that Jesus Christ was two Natures in One Person.

Those two natures, say the teachers of the church, did not mix or mingle or become diluted but continued together, side by side. To explain this they speak about the "hypostatic union" between the two natures.

Neither nature was diminished or changed in the incarnation. The moment the child was conceived in Mary's womb, he was both fully man and fully God. He was not, now, a little less God, or a little more man. He forever remains both God and man.

If we want a very faint analogy: the Queen of England finds when she logs onto Ancestry.org that she does not come from any noble line, but only commoners lie in her past.

Why Did the Son take on a Human Nature?

According to the apostle Paul, this third downward step, is part of Jesus' descent. We might say that it is a higher honour to be God alone rather than to be God and man. To add to pure uncreated divinity, created humanity, is a humbling.

There is only one reason the Son of God added a human nature to his divine one. He had to in order to save us, and in love he wanted to save us.

Only a man could pay the penalty of death for men. This is why the animal sacrifices were inadequate - indeed why the blood of bulls and goats could not wash away our sins.

Summing it All Up

When the great Hudson Taylor was called to be a missionary in China he wore a pig tail like the locals and ate with chopsticks. He gave up the (supposed) dignity of a westerner and became like the locals.

Boy was he misunderstood by some fellow missionaries!

But he did this to win the people he was trying to share the Gospel with. He became like them to win them.

And this, brothers and sisters, is the reason the Son of God took to his divine nature a human one.

We will never reach others until we are prepared to become like them, to walk in their shoes, to read their books, watch their films, eat their food, dress in their clothes, eat in their cafes and speak their language.

Just as a mother and father speak gaga to their baby, lowering themselves in joy to communciate with their little one, so, if only we could comprehend the far greater divide, God spoke gaga to the world when he came into this world at Christmastime.

And you and speak gaga to those around us when we do everything to enter their world in order to win them - and teaches Jesus - that requires doing humbling things.

A SONG FOR THE DAY

This most beautiful song, often sung in mid and late December, tries to catch the wonder of the incarnation the other way round, from man to God, through the eyes of Mary, mother of Jesus. Mary did you know?

Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect lamb?
That sleeping child you're holding is the great I am

Mary did you know? Mary did you know? Mary did you know?

Mary did you know? Mary did you know? Mary did you know? Oh

Mary did you know?

Buddy Greene / Mark Lowry

Worship  HERE.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our wondrous God and Father,

We marvel at your wise ways! And we worship at your feet. We are astounded by the humbling of your Son, Creator becoming creature.

And we more marvel at the reason he became a man. We thank you for sending him into the world to save undeserving sinners, and we worship him for his willingness to come into our world, to suffer and to die, because he loves us so.

Teach us to love others like this. To enter their alien-to-us worlds to reach them.

And we ask this for Christ's sake,

Amen

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash