The Perfect Gift: God in the Flesh :: John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have witnessed his glory as the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth.
Would you look at this ... under the tree ... a nicely wrapped present.
It says here, Open at Christmas. What do you think it is?
Since it’s next to the pulpit, do you think it’s a special gift for me? Maybe it’s an end-of-the-year-tithe to support the mission of the congregation.
What do y’all think? Well, we’ll never know until we open it. So let’s open it! ... It says here, A gift to the congregation ... the gift of My grace in Jesus Christ. Signed, God the Father.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, amidst all the gifts that you’ve ever received, I trust you will treasure this one above all others: God’s perfect gift of grace and truth ... His Word. All of this … every word of it … points us to and then reveals God’s grace and truth ... the savior of the world, the savior promised in the garden ... the savior promised to Abraham ... the savior promised to David ... the savior foretold by the prophets ... the savior proclaimed by angels ... the savior born of Mary.
The Word Made Flesh ... our Lord Jesus … has come. He is the perfect gift. He came the first time with redemption. And he is still coming. He comes to sanctify. He comes in Word and sacrament. He comes with water and bread and wine to nourish and nurture. He comes to us full of grace and truth, delivering the forgiveness of sins to those who hear and see the Gospel ... his birth, life, death, rest, resurrection, and ascension. As Paul framed it in his letter to Titus, when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us (vv 4-5a). He saved us for the day he will come again.
Jesus was born for this reason. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, literally pitching a tent, as John says, a tabernacle in the flesh, so that he could then live his life without sin for us, carry our sin to his cross, and pay the price for our sin. He ensured our sin died with him on the cursed cross. He then rose from the dead and ascended into heaven so that the perfect gift of God’s grace and truth in Jesus Christ will be with us always ... coming in Word and sacrament ... nourishing and nurturing ... until that final day when brings to light the eternal life he has promised to you.
This is what we are actually celebrating today, the gift of his grace.
Do you understand how much that is worth?
4.
Sadly, the world around you hasn’t noticed any of this. The world is too wrapped up in secular tinsel and wrappings ... of what they think they can do for God ... what they can give to God. Most Americans think they find the glory of God in the carols they sing. They think that Jesus was only a good man ... just a man … anointed perhaps, but still just a man. They might call him the son of God, but not God himself. They may say Jesus is Lord, but most of them chalk him up only to a moral role model ... the guy who told us what he would do. They think he just wants you to love each other and god, whoever that god may be. But they are blinded by their rationalism and pietism and puritanism. They deny the incarnation. They deny life begins at conception. They deny that Jesus was born to die.
About 40 percent of Americans think Jesus was even created by God. And just as shockingly, only 24 percent of Americans strongly disagree with that. As the New York Times reported this week, most people who are churchgoers think that Christmas isn’t about God, it’s about family and feasts. Too many churches canceled services today ... and many more people stayed home today because it was Christmas ... nevermind that God came to us in the flesh to serve you.
They do that because although man was created in the image of God to begin with, we were born in the image of sinful Adam and Eve (Gen 5:1) ... and like them, we are constantly seeking our own knowledge … our own God. We are constantly seeking to make ourselves out to be the top dog of creation. ... We are constantly pointing fingers at each other, denying our sin ... blaming the devil, blaming each other, and even blaming God for our plight. In these ways we say we don’t need Jesus. We constantly harbor unforgiveness. We face the constant shame for these sins. And then we deny how he comes and tell ourselves we are Christians.
To paraphrase Luther, he who does not acknowledge this truth that Christ is true God and does not believe in him as true God, as I have described him so far, is lost and may not have eternal life. ... He who denies that Christ is the Word of God in the flesh is lost and may not have eternal life. He who relegates Jesus to be merely a man is lost. He who says he has no sin is lost.
So brothers and sisters, what are we to do?
Repent and believe the Gospel, the gift of his grace.
3.
The Word became flesh, and he tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory (Jn 1:1-2, 14). And his name is Jesus.
He is the one who humbled himself, being born this day in a manger to the Virgin Mary. He did this so that he could not only walk a mile but days, weeks, months, years in your shoes, actively obeying every law you refuse to obey. This is why we celebrate Christmas. This is the day we recognize that God is with us ... the day he began his march to the cross and to die for your sin, to rise from the dead, and to ascend into heaven.
This is why we are here. Our Lord Jesus Christ has come, he continues to come in Word and sacraments, and he will come again on the clouds to judge the living and the dead.
Behold, by grace he has come so that he will always be with us.
2.
We don’t believe in Jesus simply because we see him with so-called “eyes of faith” that have no history. We don’t place our faith in our faith. The Christian faith has real substance. Our Lord Jesus Christ has entered our history. And he is always with us until he comes again.
Matthew and Luke place the birth of Christ and all salvation history in world history. Like John, they actually bear witness to the truth of the True God and True Man. And you who have not seen but believe in Jesus are blessed. He has given you the perfect gift: his grace that gave you true faith that he is our Savior, Christ the Lord (v 11). He who knew no sin became sin for us that we could receive his righteousness: the perfect gift. God has done something we never expected. He delivered on his promise in the fullness of time to come to us ... in the flesh ... to make things right. And he has.
HE GAVE US THE PERFECT PRESENT: THE WORD MADE FLESH
1.
And out of his fullness, we have all received a gift in the place of a gift (v 16) … or grace upon grace ... which is John’s way of saying Christ is the perfect gift of the divine will ... a fuller measure of God’s grace. That fuller measure, the gift in place of a gift is his word and sacraments.
Using our epistle, we can express it this way. He saved us through the washing of regeneration and and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ, our Savior, in order that, being declared righteous in his grace, we might become inheritors with the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).
God has poured out his grace in abundance into your lives, enabling you to believe in the Real Jesus, born in Bethlehem, to have Real faith in the Real Jesus, that all he said and did was perfect, that his crucifixion alone was the perfect way to pay the price of all your sin. Talk about the perfect gift!
God then uses baptism to wash you ... sanctify you … cleanse you, perfecting you, fulfilling his promise to make you holy just as he is holy (Lv 19:2). God uses baptism literally to save you (1 Pt 3:21).
But that isn’t all. By becoming one with us … in the flesh ... God shows he hasn’t abandoned you ... he is always with you. He interacts with you. He hears your prayer. He serves you. He feeds you. He nourishes you. He comes to you in the Lord’s Supper, the feast he instituted for you. He leads you back to the wells of salvation and to his altar where he delivers to you the bread of life and the cup of salvation. As Jesus says, whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has abundant life in his name.
Talk about the perfect gift! This is why he came. This is why we remember the birth of Jesus! God has given the perfect gift to us: himself.
Every year we may receive gifts we treasure for a lifetime because of the sentiment behind the gift. But the greatest gift-giver is God in the flesh.
So shall we treasure this gift? Or despise and cast it aside as we do the wrappings from the gift we receive? Not only would God have you open his gift, but he would have you receive it in faith and treasure it forever ... in Jesus’ name.