The Deeper Meanings of Christmas Dr. John Murdoch Maclnnis Teacher of Philosophy of the Christian Religion Bible Institute of Los Angeles
ness of sin and through the cross He h igh ly 'exalted His anointed one and gave to Him the name which is above every name. Men will always endeavor to get rid of the real Christ mas story in one way or another but there can be no reason able doubt as to the issue of this conflict. The story is a part of the life of God and is interwoven with the life of redeeming love. Let us note a few of its most vital and deeper meanings— 1. Its deepest and most essential meaning is that God is seeking man. The essence of religion is not that man is seeking God, but that God in Christ is seeking man. “The Son of man came to seek and to save.” That is the heart of the Christmas story and it is supernatural. Christ is God seeking men. If He did not come as Luke says He did come, how did He come? It is beside the mark to say that He came in ordinary generation.” In ordinary generation men are created. Jesus was not created. He came. That is not ordinary— that is supernatural. To take that story out of the life of the world would be to rob it of the heart of redemption. 2. The Christmas story is the story of the 'deepest meanings and possibilities of redeemed human life. Jesus in His humanity was the expression of what God wants men and women to be. He demonstrated the unspeakable glor ious possibilities of God’s man. We stand amazed in the presence of its outstretching powers and glory. In Christ it is unveiled as the battle ground of two worlds in which, by His grace, righteousness moves through sacrifice to victory. The last great note in the Christmas anthem is “we shall be like Him.” He lived His life within the sphere of human life and in this way pointed out something of what God has made possible by making man in His own image. Christmas means that God came in the likeness of man. It is not man becoming like God, but God becoming in the likeness of men in order that He might make men like Himself. In the unveiling of God we have man re vealed and redeemed. 3. The Christmas story means that in this sublime stoop of the Godhead, God has come so near to us that He is touched with all the feelings of our infirmities. This means that there is at least one heart in the universe that understands us perfectly. If the virgin birth story is not true how did God come into this intimate touch with us? This movement of identification in which God lifts men from sin into the life of freedom is the flaming heart of history. Christmas is not a mere day but an eternal fact. To remove its glowing story would be to rob history of its life and glory and to take the glow from our greatest literature, to impoverish art and silence the sweetest notes in the world’s greatest music. But it shall never be. Kingdoms may rise and fall and the world orders change, (Continued on Page 187)
OMiil time ago for a brief moment the world was startled and astonished by the announcement of the fact that the Soviets had resolved to destroy the Christmas story and to this end that they had really issued an edict forbidding men to teach the story to the children in Russia. Think of it! The world without the Christmas story! Impossible. But why should they want to get rid of it? What harm has it done? Think of the joy it brings to millions of lonely hearts during these Christmas days. If it should be wiped out, what oould men put in its place? The Christmas story is the Virgin birth story of Matthew and Luke’ There would be no Christmas were it not for that story. That IS the Christmas story— the story of how God came into this dark, sad and suffering world in order that we might understand Him and that He might lift us out of the loneliness and death of sin into the joy and glory of His life and purposes. The world without that story would be a world without light and without hope— a world without a sohg. The endeavor to get rid of this story of the redeeming reign of God is not a new thing. It is a part of the con flict of the ages—man’s endeavor to get rid of the rule of God and of His anointed one. The Psalmist understood something of the conflict when he painted that wonderful picture in the second Psalm— There you have the agitated, restless and rebellious leaders of men coming together in an effort to rid themselves of the government of Jehovah and His anointed. Over against this restless activity you have the calm and confidence of the eternal throne and its declaration of purpose— “I have set my king.” That is past— that is the action of the eternal purpose. “Thou shalt break them”-—that is still future but it declares the victory already determined— That is the issue of the Christmas story. There is no shadow of doubt as to what it shall be. It has its roots and power in the heart and throne of the Eternal God. Then again we have the same conflict and issue sub limely pictured in John 1:1-15. Here we have the outshin ing of the life of Deity through incarnation. “The word was God— and the Word became flesh.” In this movement in the life of God you have the outshining of light which was opposed by darkness. But the darkness was not able to overcome it. “The darkness down takes it not” (Greek). Here again the victory of love in its Christmas stoop is . assured. Once again the conflict and its issue is stated in connec tion with Paul’s sublime statement of the stoop of the Godhead in redeeming action. (Phil. 2:5-11). Here again the order is Incarnation, Conflict in the Cross, and victory in Exaltation. The cross on its manward side was the en deavor on the part of the Soviet spirit to defeat Christmas and its purpose of redemption; but God overruled the mad
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