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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Hail the Incarnate Deity by Charles R. Swindoll

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December 22, 2010

Hail the Incarnate Deity
by Charles R. Swindoll

Matthew 1:23

On that still winter's night, something was up . . . something

extraordinary . . . something supernatural. The shepherds

raced to the City of David and found their Savior, just as

the angel had said . . . swaddled and lying in a feeding

trough. This was the Promised One, the Messiah! God

had finally come to dwell with His people, but in such

an unexpected way.

Just who was this holy Child the shepherds gazed upon?

Make no mistake: He was incarnate deity. The newborn

Jesus existed in eternity past as God the Son. He was

coequal, coeternal, and coexistent with God the Father

and God the Holy Spirit. However, Jesus relinquished

the privileges and the pleasures of His existence in

heaven when He took upon Himself the limitations of

humanity (Philippians 2:6-7). In emptying Himself,

Jesus voluntarily set aside the prerogatives and

prerequisites of life as He had known it, an existence

He had enjoyed; He released His right to that kind of

life, saying to the Father, "I will go."

Go where? To Bethlehem. He took "the form of a

bond-servant, and [was] made in the likeness of men."

Allow yourself to picture what the shepherds saw. There

He is, the baby. Do you see His ten fingers and ten toes?

His button nose? Can you hear the cries? There's

humanity. In this holy infant is the beginning of an earthly

life. Look deep into His eyes and see the beginning of life

itself.

Later, this divine man, completely unique in His nature

and in the perfect life that He lived, "humbled Himself by

becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a

cross." Isn't that amazing? Of all ways to die, He died on

a cross---the most humiliating and painful kind of death.

God the Son lowered Himself. He took on the flesh of an

infant. He died a humiliating death. As a result, God the

Father "highly exalted Him." One day, all will bow in

worship of the risen Lord, "to the glory of God the Father."

It's all about His glory. What a plan. What an execution.

What a perfect, awesome wrapping! The God-man. Jesus

is undiminished deity and true humanity, two distinct

natures in one person, forever. That's the baby in the

manger!

See Isaiah 7:14 and Philippians 2:5-11.

http://www.insight.org/

Adapted from

Charles R.

Swindoll, "

Meet Immanuel

. . . the Indescribable Gift," in A Bethlehem Christmas, message series (2007).


Copyright © 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

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