Neglected Truths of Christmas
Whose peace and goodwill? What the incarnation shows us. No room at the inn?
(All scripture quotations are from the BSB unless otherwise noted.)
I wanted to pass along a few things I have known, recently been reminded of, and recently learned about the Christmas story, which is the story of Christ’s incarnate birth. So, Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy these truths as much as I have.
Christ brought God's Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Men
I received a good reminder of this from Ed Elliot's Morning Spiritual Coffee email this morning. Here is a link to that:
What-Did-the-Angels-Mean-by--Peace-on-Earth-Goodwill-Toward-Men
Please click and read his piece, but the gist is that while those who are new creations will have Spirit fruit which will lead towards peace with others as we learn and grow, that is not what the angels were speaking of. This was not peace between humans. This was peace with God.
What the angels were speaking of was the new covenant gospel, where once you have accepted Christ and become co-heirs with Him as God's child, then God only has good will towards you. The gospel is the good news of God's good will towards humanity and His gift of perfect peace with Him. It is only good news. Again, as believers we should hence have peace with one another, but again, we still live in an earth suit infected with the parasite of sin. We are free from sin, we don't have to submit to it, but it is still there, and we still do. We are learning and growing and it is a process.
However, if we view Christ as purely an example to follow, and thus use the power of the flesh to try and “have peace” with each other, then we have missed it. The world and most religions can do the same. Depending on the person they might do this better than believers! This is missing the point of the gospel and the angels’ announcement. The point is not to focus on how well we are being peaceful with others, but to focus on the permanent, unalterable peace we have with God through Christ. And the overall good will God has towards us.
Titus 3:4-5 - “4-But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5-He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 2:4 - Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?
What the angels actually meant is vital to show us the heart of God and His intention by sending Christ. Any other view of God will hinder true repentance. Only an accurate view of His intense love and kindness for humanity will engender true repentance or “change of mind” towards God - either to come to Christ for His salvific life or to live in dependence on that life once you receive it. Consider carefully the vital truth of “peace with God” through Christ that the angels announced.
What the Incarnation Shows Us about Us
The incarnation is truly a mystery. Much has been written and taught about it but there is only so far we can go to understand how God became human and perfectly maintained the nature of both. Yet, Christ did this and continues to exist in this God-Human state with the prototype of our new resurrection physical body. This is not my main point, but is still not often a focus that Christ still remains in a human form.
However, as mysterious as it is, it is essential that we believe it. The entire epistle of 1 John was written to counter those who would oppose this truth. Further, there is at least one other idea that flows from this that I have seldom heard taught: the incarnation of Christ proves without a doubt that God and humanity are compatible. This is probably not emphasized because it is so hard to believe.
Christ also had a “fallen body” originally - just like us.
However, Christ's original body, before He died and was resurrected, was a fallen body just like ours. Scriptures hints at this many ways but it is also just logical. Before the resurrection, Christ did not just appear in the upper room as if He walked through walls - after, He did. His original body could be killed; His resurrection body could not. He aged. Etc. He was tempted in all ways like we are (Heb. 4:5). He was faced with the power of sin every moment of his physical life before His resurrection. Yet, He never submitted His body to it. He never walked by the flesh; He always walked by the Spirit.
Beyond this showing us our full compatibility with God - the truth that we can become “partakers of the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) - it also shows us that once we become new creations and are connected to Christ we can walk the same way He walked on earth. We can bear the same fruit of the Spirit He did. We can operate from Divine power just as He did. This is the good news! This is life. Divine life that Christ said He came to bring (John 10:10). We have been gifted the same life, the same power, by which Christ lived while on earth and in a normal human body. John discusses this further in 1 John - God in us, us in God.
1 John 4:15-19 - “15-If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16-And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17-In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.
18-There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. 19-We love because He first loved us.”
Christ in us - a result of the incarnation.
It is quite simple: if you are a believer, if you are saved, then you abide in God and he abides in you. “Christ in you the assurance of glory…” Christ placed this perfect love in our new hearts (Romans 5:5). This gives us confidence towards God and judgment. As new creations, IN THIS WORLD, we are just like Christ. This phrase “just like” in the Greek is “to the same degree”. John is saying that as new creations we operate to the same degree as Christ did. The new creation, our new spirit and heart, are treasures in an earthen vessel.
Notice the contrast between God's work and our growth. The word “perfect” (teleioó) has an extremely contextual interpretation and is heavily based on tense. If it is referencing Christ's work, then it is a past finished perfect work. Yet, the same word can reference our growth in grace and knowledge of Christ. Mixing these up will mess up your faith mindset. You will be trying to achieve what Christ already perfectly completed. Or, more rarely, you could mix it up the other way. This means you could have a mindset of passivity, that somehow Christ will move your limbs like a puppet. Neither is true.
Thus, it is vital to carefully analyze these passages. In this passage I just quoted, both ideas are referenced. Verses 15-17 reference Christ's perfect past work: Christ changes our spiritual location - we are no longer in the flesh or in Adam, we now abide in Christ or the Holy Spirit. And they abide in us. This work of Christ has “perfected” His love in us - and thus in His church that we belong to. It is faith in His finished work that gives us confidence on the day of judgment. This is a sure fixed thing that Christ did - and it is finished.
Our work is growing in grace and knowledge of Christ - including knowledge of His love.
Yet, as believers, do we ever fear? In verses 18-19, is John saying that any believer who fears has not had Christ's perfecting work done? Is our confidence in our salvation based on how well we don't fear? Of course not. If so, then there are no believers - everyone fears at some point. So, what is John referencing here? He is discussing our maturity - the renewing of our mind. John is portraying love and fear as utter inverse concepts. We cannot be walking in perfect love and be fearful at the same time. We cannot be afraid of God and walk in perfect love. It is one or the other.
Though we have the perfect love of Christ infused in our new hearts, we don't always walk in that love. We often still think and act as if God is going to punish us for our failures. We are not mature with our mindset perfected in the truth of God's love for us. We don't always trust His new covenant promises. We are afraid He is a harsh God and we do not heed the angelic message and the good news that He has goodwill towards us.
John concludes with why we don't always reflect God's love to others. “We love because He first loved us.” To the degree that we trust God's love for us is the degree to which we will reflect His love to others. To the degree that we believe that He has given us His love in our hearts as a gift is the degree to which we will act like this is true. Otherwise we will try to love from the same power the world does - the flesh. This will never work in the same way. There is a worldly kindness and affection, but it cannot equal the supernatural unconditional love of God.
When we think or act based on any kind of fear that God will punish us for our sin, either now or in the future, we are not acting or walking in love. This is the foundation for walking in God's love! You absolutely cannot love others until you recognize and trust God's love for you! A sign post, or beacon, that shows how mature you are in God's love is how little you fear God's punishment! It's like a scale - as your fear piles up on one side, your ability to love lowers. As your trust in God's love piles up on the other side, your fear decreases, and you are able to love better. When we are fully mature in our thinking about how much God loves us - fear will be gone. This is John’s message.
The Incarnation gives us Hope
In conclusion of this section, because Christ demonstrated the compatibility of Divinity with normal earthly human flesh, then it gives us even more confidence in our personal compatibility with the Divine nature through the finished work of Christ. Since through Christ we have this connection - we have been gifted His life and it's power to also walk by the Spirit just as Christ did. This is not some kind of lifeless mimicking of Christ's actions; it is the ability to respond to our life and circumstances as Christ did with His. We are not a Jewish carpenter living in the world of Roman rule 2000 years ago. But His same character and love indwells us and we can reflect it into our specific life and circumstances.
Unlike Christ, we do not do this perfectly. We see God and His love in a skewed dark fashion and find it hard to trust His promises, especially about us. We focus on our failures and fear God's punishment or at least His displeasure. We don't see our sin as being taken away, especially the one we just did. We fear that God will send negative circumstances based on how well we are doing. We tacitly reject God's promised gift of perfect peace with Him no matter what. Our mindset is not “perfected” in the knowledge and trust of His love.
And that is our work - eliminate mindsets that cause us to be afraid of Abba God and water down His promises. Avoid false teaching that bases our security in God's love on on how well we are doing. Recognize what we have and who we are as new creations. As Christ is, so also are we here in this world. We are partakers in His Divine nature. The incarnation paved the way for this truth and all the other promises tied to it. Now we simply learn to fully trust it - but, that is a full time job! And it is our only work as believers - everything else flows from that.
No Room at the Inn?
I recently read a fascinating article about Christolic archaeology. I could not find it again to link but I found a similar article that describes the proper interpretation of “no room at the inn”. You can read it here:
The gist of this idea is that the Greek word translated “inn” for Christ’s birth story doesn't really make sense as a public dwelling place. Those were not common in this society and often were of ill repute. The more likely translation should have been guest room. The NIV translates it this way. The idea would be that Mary and Joseph arrived at a relative’s house and the normal room where they would put traveling guests was full. Thus, they had to stay in the room where they would normally keep an animal. There was often a built in spot to put hay or even water for the animal. This was cleaned out and used for the new baby Jesus to sleep.
What the article above doesn't mention, but the other alluded to, is that this room was often used for the family’s sacrificial lamb to keep it without blemish before taking it to the temple for sacrifice. It would be safer in this inner room than remaining outdoors with the rest of the animals and would be more convenient to take when it was time. There was not necessarily an animal in that room when Mary gave birth; but, the symbolism is ripe since Christ became the final sacrifice for sin. Yet, Mary, Joseph, and the new baby Jesus were still surrounded by their family, and the common idea of being in some strange stable surrounded by animals is simply not accurate.
This word is not used often in the New Testament but Luke uses it one more time. It is informative to our discussion.
Luke 22:11 - “and say to the owner of that house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’”
This is the famous “upper room” where Christ ate His final passover supper with His disciples. Translating this word “inn” makes no sense since this was a room in a private house. If we apply this idea back to where Luke describes where Christ was born, then there would be no space left in the “guest room” or “upper room” in the private housing of one of their relatives. Thus, they ended up in this less desirable lower “animal” room, but still not the same idea as a public stable at an inn.
Final Thoughts
I found this fascinating. Both for how a common idea from scripture that is fully accepted by the church and the world could be really quite off-base. In this case, there is little harm; yet, in many cases there is a lot of harm to the gospel. Plus, you miss out on the symbolism of the room where the perfect lamb was being kept safe for the temple sacrifice was where the true perfect “Lamb of God” was born. And it just makes sense that the family of Joseph and Mary would not be inhospitable in that culture, especially with a woman about to give birth.
Putting this together with how the Angels announced God's peace and good will towards humanity and how this birth in the space reserved for the perfect sacrificial lamb resulted in God incarnate - God and humanity joined together in perfect harmony. Thus, we see how the Christmas story and the Easter story join to proclaim the new covenant gospel. Yet, I have one more final Christmas thought.
The start of the new covenant was not Christmas, it is Easter.
Despite those who put together Bibles and divide the new and old testaments at Christ's birth, the actual new covenant did not begin then. As Christ Himself proclaimed in that upper guest room that I just mentioned, Christ proclaimed the new covenant as starting when His blood was “poured out” on the cross. The cup was a symbol of this.
Luke 22:20 - “In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.”
The true dividing line of human history was the cross, not the birth of Christ. The old covenant did not end until Christ died. When Christ was still alive, his disciples were still living under the old covenant of Law. Christ Himself lived under Law. This is crucial to understand. It helps us properly divide old covenant teaching from new covenant. The disciples were not “saved” and indwelled by the Holy Spirit before the cross and new covenant was enacted.
Galatians 4:3-7 - “4-But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5-to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. 6-And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7-So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.”
There is a lot to unpack here and I really want to publish before Christmas is over at least in my time zone! But this is a good place to end. Christ was “born under the law” - under the old covenant - so He could keep the Law perfectly and thus break the slavery of the Law and make us children and heirs of God. What makes us a child of God is His Spirit in our new hearts. The Spirit within testifies and convinces us that God is our kind Abba. This relationship is in opposition to the curse of the Law. The old covenant depended upon us and our faithfulness; the new covenant depends upon Christ and His faithfulness.
This is all part of the epic story of humanity's redemption. The incarnate birth of Christ led to His sacrifice which led to His resurrection which enabled the new covenant to fully replace the old and cause us to become new creations in Christ - true sons and daughters of God, connected to His Divine life. This reality is everything. It is how we love; it is how we live; it is what matters. We can love like Christ loves - we have His love poured into our hearts. We can live like Christ lived - we have become the righteousness of Christ as a gift. And all because of the incarnate birth. God with us leading to God in us. The Divine and human connection that is everything.
I hope all of this ties together for you and was a blessing. Merry Christmas 2024 and a happy new year for 2025. May it bring a year of rejecting religious lies and growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ with a deeper faith in the new creation that Christ has made you. Praying you walk well in the riches of God's gracious gifts and promises.