December 1928
T H E
K I H G ’ S
P jr& I N;E ¡SS'
731
The B irth of the World’s Saviour B y ; t h e L ate À. C. D ixon , D.D.
HEN the fulness of the time was come, God sent .forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son
order that He might take upon Himself the sins and weak nesses of our humanity. Thus it is that God made Him self thinkable as well as lovable to us. The highest form of our thought is perfect man, and I confess that I am not quite capable of thinking pure spirit: When I try, it assumes at least a ghostly, phantom form. So that God who is spirit, in order to make Himself thinkable to us, puts Himself into the shape of our highest thought—per fect, sinless man. If you try to think something higher than the human form, you make it a monster. When we think of God, we are apt to think of Him in human form. In the Epiphanies òf the Old Testament God revealed Himself to Joshua and others in human form. He puts Himself within the compass of our highest conception, in order that He may make Himself real to us in His love and sympathy and power. III. T h e P urpose The purpose is threefold: ( 1) The primary purpose is redemption. “To redeem them that were under the law.” Jesus Christ came to this world to die. In the prophecies, the gospels and the epis tles, the supreme purpose of Jesus Christ in coming into' the world is to make atonement for sin. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” strikes the keynote of His mission. Redemption means a buying back, and the question is pertinent. From whom or what was man brought back ? Origen taught that man had sold himself to Satan, and the death of Christ bought him back from Satan. But the difficulty with that is that man had no right to sell himself to Satan, and Satan had no right to purchase. If such a sale was made, it was a fraudulent transaction. The purpose of the Incarnation was “to redeem them that were under the law,” and in the phrase “under'the law,” there is at least an intimation of the answer to OUr question. By his sin, man has come under the laiv of condemnation. The righteous law of God has found him* guilty and holds him for punishment. The death of Christ satisfies the demands of the law, and thus buys him back to liberty. Without this satisfying of justice Gód cannot be merciful; for mercy excludes justice, and justice ex cludes mercy. The moment a judge begins to be merciful he ceases to be just, and the moment he begins to be just he ceases to be merciful. The Incarnation through the death of Christ makes it possible for God to be “just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” If God should be merciful without the satisfaction of justice, He would cease to be a God of justice, and would thus for feit His throne of righteousness. In a word, He would cease to be God. In many a prison of Europe is the record opposite the name of a poor debtor or criminal : “Debt paid by John Howard” ( “Fine paid by John Howard.” And when the law was satisfied because justice had been vindicated through the kindness of another, thè court of justice could be merciful and release the prisoner. For the court to do so without the satisfaction of justice would be to discredit the law, and forfeit all claim as a court of justice. It would be the destruction of the court. And for God to be merciful without the satisfaction of justice would be the destruction of God.
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:4-7). This Scripture gives, first of all, the fact of the incar nation. “God sent forth His Son.” Jesus speaks of the Son of Man as “He that came down from heaven.” He was preexistent to His birth. “They shall call His name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us” . (Matt. 1:23). “A child shall be born, a son shall be given, and he shall be called the Wonderful, the Coun sellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” The birth of Jesus, was, therefore, the incar nation of Deity. Let us consider: (1) The Preparation for the Incarnation | | | “When the fulness of time was come.” - (1) There was a political preparation. Rome did not care about religious opinions. She simply wanted her revenue, and there was, therefore, religious liberty in a large measure all over the world. War had ceased. The temple of Janus was closed. (2) There was a linguistic preparation. The Greek language, in process of formation for centuries, had reached the very perfection of language, that the Gospel might he written and preached over the world through this perfect medium. (3) There was a religious preparation. The Jews were scattered to the four winds and had carried with them the Old Testament Scriptures and the traditions of their fathers. (4) There was also a demonstrative preparation. The world had grown bad. You have only to look at the ruins at Pompeii to see a picture that Paul drew of the heathen world. The world of painting, the world of literature, the world of music, the world of culture had become putri- fied, and it had been demonstrated that culture, artistic refinement, military power, and civil government did not make people morally better. II. T h e P rocess “Made of a woman [not of man], made under the law.” There was in Jesus Christ the union of the human and the Divine—just as Divine as if He were not human, and just as human as if He were not Divine. We have the accounts of the deification of men in pagan mythology. But I do not remember any account of a god becoming a man, to help man. Whoever heard of Jupiter or Mars or Minerva coming down and attempting to bear the burdens of men? The gods were willing enough to receive the gifts of men, but Christianity is unique in the fact that; our God became a man with human infirmity; emptied Himself of the glory of heaven, in (2) The Process of the Incarnation; (3) The Purpose of the Incarnation. I. T h e P reparation
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