December
2, 2015
Dear Members and Friends
of Second Reformed Church,
As we
journey through the Advent season to Christmas, may we remember these words
found in the letter of Philippians (2:5-11, ESV):
“Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”
Paul commands us to have
the same mind as Christ, we Christ gives us if we are in Him. If we are in Christ, if we have received the
historical Gospel – the life and work of Jesus – then we have been given the
mind of Christ – even as our sin nature continues to fight against what we
already have in Christ.
Thus, so have this
mind! Fight against the sin nature by
the power of God the Holy Spirit – with us – as we join together as Christ’s
body – hearing the Word of God read and preached the receiving the
Sacraments. God gives us His Grace that
we would be able to do all those things He commands us to do and empowers us to
do. Sin is rebelling against what God
has commanded and made us able to do and be – it is a tearing away from the
Image we are being conformed to in Jesus Christ.
“who, though he was in
the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men.”
Hear this Christmas
history: God the Son Who was and is and
is to come, God without end, chose in the Counsel of the Holy Trinity – the One
God Almighty – to become for us and all we who believe in Him and what He has
done – our salvation. And He did so, not
by becoming any less than God – He is forever God if He is God! – but He
“emptied” Himself in taking human flesh, becoming the Man, Christ Jesus,
becoming a servant of God, while remaining God Himself – this is the mystery…
God, the Immortal,
Almighty Spirit, took on human flesh and became a real human being, He entered
the womb of the Virgin Mary, and God grew in her womb and was born – His
creation giving birth to her Creator.
Have this mind – the
willingness to be all that God has made us and called us to be to His Glory and
for our joy – even if we should take on what we are to become what we must be
to accomplish the purpose of God. Let us
bow down! The dirt on His feet was too holy
for them to desire to touch.
God has accomplished the
incomprehensible for us and for our salvation to His Glory – and He says, “Be
like Me. Have my Mind. Infinity put on finitude: I know what it is to need to be fed at the
breast of my mother; I know what it is to live under My Father’s Law. It is finished.”
“And being found in human
form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
To
save us, the Mind of God said that God must be Man, for only a human can take
the place of a human, and the only Man Who can accomplish this work is God
become Man and still God. One Person,
two natures, two wills, one obedience that led Him to keep all of the Law and receive
for His Holy Obedience, the full Wrath of God no the cross for all of the sins
of all we who will believe in Him savingly.
And
so it is finished! God has saved His
people, and we can respond in joyful, fruitful, hopeful living – Glory to God
in the highest!
And
so God physically raised Jesus, the God-Man from the dead and exalted Him – He
was taken back into Heaven, and now a real human being sits on the throne of
God for our sake and to the incomprehensible Glory of God.
Jesus
is our Prophet – having carried out the work of salvation in history – the
Gospel. He is our Priest – fulfilling
all sacrifices through Himself – one shedding of blood over and throughout time
and space. He is our King – Sovereign God
over all of Creation.
A
baby was born in Bethlehem – He is our God and Savior.
Merry
Christmas!
In
His Service,
Rev.
Dr. Peter A. Butler, Jr.
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