Redemption through Incarnation

An excerpt from this morning's sermon: "Redemption Through the Son" (Ephesians 1:7-10)

 

There is no redemption without Incarnation because only a blood-relative could be our kinsman-redeemer and pay the price to get us out of hock and out of jail. That’s why Jesus was born as a little human baby in Bethlehem.

It was 25 years ago that 16 year old Anissa Ayala found lumps on her ankles and began having severe stomach pains. Her parents took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. If she couldn’t get a bone marrow transplant she would die. Her older brother wasn’t a match, her parents weren’t a match. Others were tested, but no match.

So her parents made a huge decision: they decided to try and conceive a child who might be a match for Anissa. Mary Ayala was already 42 years old – so her odds of a successful pregnancy were only 40%. Abe Ayala had to have his vasectomy reversed, and even if they could conceive, there was only a 23% chance that the baby would be a match. And they got all sorts of criticism and hate mail for what they were doing. But for the sake of their daughter, they did it. Little Marissa was born in 1990, and she was a match. 14 months later, they fed her marrow into sister Anissa’s veins, and her cancer was completely cured. Today, Anissa and Marissa are best friends.

Marissa said about her sister, Anissa. “Without her and her sickness, I wouldn’t be here. And if I hadn’t been born, she wouldn’t be here.”

She was born because of her sister’s terminal disease, so that her sister might live.

We are all born with a terminal disease – literally. It’s in our blood from our father Adam, and it’s sin. It’s killing us from the inside out from the day we are born. We needed a cure for our disease – blood atonement – but there was no match. We needed a blood-relative. So God decided to bring His own Son into the world to be our kinsman-redeemer. What a sacrifice for the Son, yes, but what a sacrifice for His Father. So Jesus came, and He was a perfect match for us because He’s a real human being, just like us. He could pay the price to redeem us because He is God and had no sin. Jesus was born as a little baby so that He might give His blood, so that we might live forever. We have redemption because of Incarnation.  Isn’t that Christmas?

Abba Father

And because you are sons,

God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,

crying, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:6

 

I’ve been a Christian now for almost 45 years, and I’ve read this passage hundreds of times., I’ve taught it in seminary and preached it from the pulpit. But God spoke it to my own heart it at a dark, low, sad time in my life. I cried out, “Abba, Father!” And I talked to my Father as His child.

I had always read this as describing the joyful, exuberant cry of a Christian who grasps his sonship, is overwhelmed with excitement that God is his Father, and so he comes into the Father’s presence with his head held high, shouting out, “Abba! Father!” But maybe Paul was describing just what I was going through: a child of God feeling weak, spiritually depleted and helpless—but at that moment, still knowing that I could cry out “Abba, Father!” and my Father would be there for me, and hear me, and love me.

That’s when Jesus cried out to His Abba Father.

It was at the darkest lowest moment of His life. He was on His knees, face on the ground, sweating drops of blood as He looked ahead to the physical torture, and emotional abandonment of the cross. But He knew that His Abba Father was there. He could go to Him, He could pour out His broken heart, He could even ask Him if the cup could pass Him by. At that moment the Holy Spirit was flooding Jesus with assurance that He was the beloved Son of God, and He could cry out to His Father.

So that’s the way I read this passage now, not so much as the joyful cry of a Christian on a sun-shiny day, but as the whimpering cry of a child of God on a dark, terrible night who knows that His Father is there for him.

Our 4 kids are grown now, but during the years that we were raising our 4 kids, we always left our bedroom door open a crack because we never knew when we might hear, in the middle of the night, “Mom! Dad!” When Rachel was in high school she came down with a severe bone infection that put her in the hospital for two weeks. She was so sick. And when she came home from the hospital I remember in the middle of the night, hearing that faint cry. I would fly into her room—my feet hardly touched the floor.

How much more our heavenly Father hears our cries. His door is always open, and if you are His child, He is waiting to hear your faintest whimper, in the darkest night: “Abba, Father!” Do you cry out to Him? You can. It’s part of your birthright as a child of God. You can say with the Psalmist in Ps. 116:1,2: “I love the Lord, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live!”

John Newton on the contradiction of an angry Calvinist.

"They who avow the doctrines distinguished by the name of Calvinistic, ought, if consistent with their own principles, to be most gentle and forbearing of all men, in meekness instructing them that oppose. With us, it is a fundamental maxim, that a man can receive nothing but what is given him from heaven (John 3:27). If, therefore, it has pleased God to give us the knowledge of some truths, which are hidden from others, who have the same outward means of information; it is a just reason for thankfulness to Him, but will not justify our being angry with them; for we are no better or wiser than they in ourselves, and might have opposed the truths which we now prize, with the same eagerness and obstinacy, if His grace had not made us to differ. If the man, mentioned in John 9, who was born blind, on whom our Lord graciously bestowed the blessing of sight, had taken a cudgel and beat all the blind men he met, because they would not see, his conduct would have greatly resembled that of an angry Calvinist."

Empathy and the Election of Donald Trump

Good writers know the difference between “sympathy” and “empathy.” I sympathize for another person when I have compassion for their fear or their sorrow. But I empathize with that person when I allow myself to feel what they feel. I choose to enter into their suffering as though their nerve endings were connected to my own brain. And this is a choice. Sympathy only goes as far as what I myself feel. Empathy actively enters into another’s suffering until I feel it myself.

I’ve been surprised and baffled to hear that blacks, women, Jews, Muslims and others are reacting to Donald Trump’s election with tears and fears. Because of my personal demographic – male, white, middle-class, living in a rural, very non-diverse area – I don’t feel threatened. Personally, I would have been more afraid if Hillary Clinton had won. It’s really hard for me to grasp statements like these from a respected, Reformed, black pastor—

“Congratulations white evangelicalism on your candidate’s win. I don’t understand you and I think you just sealed some awful fate . . . evangelicals expressed solidarity (again) with some of the worst aspects of American history and culture while abandoning brothers and sisters of like precious faith.”

Huh? But I have precious brothers and sisters in Christ representing very different demographics than mine, who share this pastor’s grief and fear. I might think they are over-reacting and exaggerating. But this is where empathy is required. I have to admit that I’m not living in their skin or in their cities. They might be right or wrong, but their feelings are still real and painful. Brotherly love compels me to empathize with their fears even if I can’t understand their logic.

Anthony Bushnell, writing on John Piper’s Desiring God site said this—

“One of the central teachings of Christianity is to love your neighbor as yourself. The Bible exhorts us to ‘weep with those who weep;’ it doesn’t tell us to ‘judge whether they should be weeping’. . . The same is true for those in fear. We don’t have to agree with the intensity of their fear in order to empathize with them. Compassion doesn’t require us to be convinced another person is entirely correct. It requires us to care about how he is feeling. Even if you think the danger won’t come to pass, the fear is certainly real.”

I’ve said before that I am no Donald Trump fan, but my “side” won in this election: the stats show that a majority of white, male, older (don’t laugh), evangelical Christians voted for Trump. I don’t require any empathy. But my friends who love Jesus as much as me but look nothing like my demographic, deserve my empathy even if we don’t see this election the same way. I need to listen to them until I feel, in some measure, what they feel. I owe it to them to do my best to get in their skin. It’s what I would want from them if the situation was different.

And it’s what God did for His children in the Incarnation. God is spirit, and cannot suffer, and did not need to suffer. He was immune to suffering, but in the Incarnation, He laid aside His immunity to pain to feel ours. God the Son literally got inside our skin, not just to suffer for us, but to suffer with us. He didn’t need to, but He chose to. His empathy for us took on flesh and blood. So we know He cares for us. And I think that’s all our brothers and sisters, frightened by this election, want to know from us.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. . .” Hebrews 4:15

 

Four things God says about your problem

1.) “I am in sovereign control over your situation.”

 Psalm 115:3 “Our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases” 

Do you believe this?—do you really? If you are a child of God nothing in your life is random or accidental. Jesus taught His Disciples in Matthew 6 that God is our heavenly Father who God cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, He even knows when one falls to the ground. How much more is He intimately, powerfully, lovingly controlling every detail of your life?

This doesn’t remove the pain or resolve the perplexity, but what comfort it brings to know that our heavenly Father is in complete, loving, caring, control. Don’t be afraid of this truth: This problem is from God. It might be hard, and it might hurt, and the fire might be hot—it was hot for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego—but God was right there with them in that fire, wasn’t He? This trial is from God, and He is in control. But He says something else—

 2.) “My glory and your good is the purpose behind your problem.”

Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” 

 His glory: He has allowed this problem into your life—to show off the splendor of His glory. Wow! What a privilege we have when God afflicts us: our problems are painful opportunities to put our God on display, to show off His wisdom, power, and mercy. 

We can be myopic, we are up too close – and we are wringing our hands asking “What’s happening to me? Why is this happening to me? What’s going to become of me?” But it’s not just about you, it’s not even mostly about you, it’s about the grand plan of the universe which is to bring all glory and honor to God. And you can be absolutely certain that this is the ultimate purpose behind your problem. 

And your good! He is sovereignly causing all things to work together for your good: 

Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [And what is the good?]  For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son . . . 

Let this percolate into your mind and down into your heart until it brings peace and comfort. God has entrusted to you the stewardship of your situation for the purpose of displaying His glory, and in the process, transforming you into the image of His Son. His glory, and your good. Wow! Do you believe this? Do you accept it? Does it bring you joy? Don’t move on, don’t offer anymore counsel until it does. 

“But is it about God’s glory and my good even if my own sin got me into it?” Does Romans 8:28 have an exception clause for sin? Absolutely not. If you are a child of God, and even if your sin got you into this mess, He is sovereignly causing all things to work together for good.

Then turn to this wonderful passage that puts it all together: 

James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If this is of God, and for His glory, and my good, then I choose to be joyful. God is not to be blamed, He is to be thanked and praised. And then He says—

3.) “I hold you responsible to trust and obey Me in this situation.”

Now this goes against the grain of our world. Oprah says it’s not your fault, you’re a victim of abuse or you were spanked as a child or whatever. God says, “If I have put this situation in your lap, then you are responsible to trust Me and obey Me, and I will give every spiritual resource to do so.” You don’t need to make excuses, or shift the blame to anyone or anything else—look at the log in your own eye, and deal with it—

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;  [No, you’re not the first one to struggle with this] and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

Now let me tell you how most Christians misunderstand this passage: It’s not saying that God will always provide a way out of your trial, a way of escape. It’s saying the opposite: The “way of escape” is through it. God doesn’t promise to take away your trial but to be with you through it so that you can endure it! That’s what it means to “escape,” you can escape sinning in your trial by trusting and obeying. And like the hymn says: “They who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true.”

And one more thing God says—

4.) “I bless those who trust and obey Me with peace and joy.”

Do you believe that the blessing of God is better than anything sin can offer? You can run away from this trial and escape the pain—you can give into that temptation, and experience the pleasure. But do you want the blessing of God, or not? I urge you to wrestle with this question until the answer is yes. The blessing of God comes to those who trust and obey.

Paul had much pain in his life, and once it was so great that he said this:

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 “Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

What did Paul want? For the pain to stop. And God had all the power in the universe at His disposal to stop the pain, but He didn’t. He had no lack of love for Paul as His precious child, but He didn’t take the pain away. Why? Because He wanted Paul to find something infinitely greater through the pain—Christ and His all-sufficiency. Circumstances?—unchanged. Problem?—solved.

The real question is: “Do you want what God wants, and are you willing to do whatever He says?”

When you settle this you can stop asking “Why, Lord? Why are You doing this to me?” You already know why: for His glory and for your Christlikeness, that’s why. So stop “why-ning,” and just ask “what?” “Lord, what would You have me do in this situation?”

When you finally say, “Lord, not my will, but Your will be done,” and “Lord, whatever You tell me to do in Your Word, I will do,” your circumstances haven’t changed, but your problem is really solved, isn’t it? 

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”