Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
II Corinthians 9:15
II Cor.9:15 “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”
The greatest chapter in human history is the life of Jesus Christ. Beginning at his first advent to his resurrection from the dead no other life has had more impact on mankind than the life of Jesus Christ.
His birth marks the pivot between the dates of the old world and the new world, from B.C. to A.D. Time is measured by looking forward to his birth to looking back at his birth.
When God came down to man in the person of Jesus Christ he came in a fashion which man could embrace. Moses could not look upon the person of God as he went up to Mt. Sinai to receive the tablets of the law because of the brightness of the glory of God’s holiness. And it became necessary for God to enshrine his glory in the body of a man, what we know as the incarnate Son of God. Heb.10:5 “Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body [soma] hast thou prepared me;”
And so it was in this prepared body that the perfect Son of God would live on this earth before mankind.
Since God is immutable his existence cannot change which means God had to remain as God and yet become a man to redeem us from our sins. Since God is eternal life, God cannot die. Since God is omnipotent he is powerless to die. Since God is sovereign he is not subject to death. Since God is omnipresent he cannot be subject to being in one place only. So God sent mankind his most cherished Gift.
“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
The hypostatic-union is perfect God and perfect Man coming into this world; as the Apostle John says in his gospel account; the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. This answered the supposed dilemma facing the Trinity in eternity past. That is, how could a perfect God have a restored relationship with fallen mankind?
In God’s decrees in eternity past, his foreknowledge saw mankind falling into sin, a falling that left us separated forever from God. Because God is absolute holiness; that is, he is righteous and just wherein he cannot have a relationship nor fellowship with sinners. The sins of mankind, of which we have all partaken, dooms us to the lake of fire. God prepared the only way to reconcile mankind to an eternal unbroken relationship with him. and that reconciliation would be through salvation in Jesus Christ, wherein mankind could choose to have his sins forgiven by accepting the Sacrifice God sent to pay for those sins.
The Son of God, the second person of the Godhead, would become the lamb of God, slain as it were before the foundation of the world. Heb.9:26 “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once, in the end of the ages, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
Heb.2:9, 14 “But we see Jesus, [humanity] who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that he, by the grace of God, should taste [partake] death for every man.” “Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, And deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
At least two victories are shown here to have been won through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. First he wholly partook of the penalty for all our sins, and secondly he delivered us from the fear of death which Satan holds over men.
I have presided over enough funerals to know that nothing rattles the very core of a person’s being more than the thought of dying. This is evident particularly when you see the faces of those in the waiting room at the hospital, or those whom you pray with in the family chapel in the funeral home. For the born again person peace will come, but for the unsaved it does not.
Those who have not been saved are still shaken by the fear of their own human mortality. Satan holds this dreaded sway, this diabolical lever of death, over the lost. He does not want us to think that anything or anyone can remove this fearful dread of death from us, but he is wrong. Jesus Christ came to not only remove the penalty of our sins, but to remove the dread of death as well. In doing so he became our high priest. Heb.2:17-18 “Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself [humanity of Jesus Christ] hath suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted.”
You see, it was necessary for Jesus Christ to become human in order to be qualified to be our Savior. As a perfect sinless person, who had no sin or sin nature of his own, he was the spotless lamb of God. Why do you suppose God chose for his Son to be born in a stable other than to show us that this virgin born child would be the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sins of the world? With our Lord’s first coming he supposed to be the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, but in his second coming he will be the Lion from the tribe of Judah.
So you see, the first advent, the first coming of God to man in the person of Jesus Christ which we celebrate at Christmas is more than the birth of this child. He is the gift of God sent to you to pay for your sins and offer you a restored relationship with God. I pray you will not miss out on God’s greatest Gift. I pray that the sacrifice Christ Jesus gave of himself for you, that it will not go unwrapped. Unwrap this Gift and receive it and embrace it forever. This Gift gives in so many ways. This Gift is opened up as the written word in this church every week and this Gift is sung about every week in this church. We give our offerings to this Gift. We love each other as we should because we have this Gift. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gift.” II Cor.9:15.
The Gift of Jesus Christ to mankind is indescribable, and inestimable. He takes our breath away when we attempt to use words to express all that he is to us.