Now that advent has dawned, the time of year has come to warrant talk of Christmas. Favourite traditions, favourite films all evoking memories of Christmas past.
2013 was probably my most memorable Christmas Day as my first child was born during the early hours. However a close second was December 2009 and singing 'O Come all ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant' as the opening hymn to mine and my husband’s Christmas wedding.
The Incarnation: stirring up our worship
As nativity rehearsals are in full swing at home, church and school, I am struck anew by the lyrics and timeless truths our Christmas carols proclaim:
'Come and behold him, Christ the Lord. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing. Very God begotten not created.'
This is pure doxological boasting of the beauty and significance of the Incarnation: the Son of God, Christ the Lord come to be God with us. Fully God. Fully Man.
The Incarnation of the Son of God stirred the worship of angels, wise men, and shepherds: 'Come and behold Him, come let us adore him'. And in these moments, with the candlelit carol services, our hearts join in their praise.
However, if we're honest, our response doesn’t always echo the godly fear and awe of the shepherds or the praise of the angels. Our distracted, busy, productive hearts can miss the call to come and behold. Our God is gracious to sing to us through Christmas carols, His word and the ancient writings of those who have gone before.
The importance of beholding
Athanasius, wrote On The Incarnation in the 4th century as a defence and doxology for Christ’s Incarnation. His point is clear and simple: come and behold Him.
Behold the love of God in Christ. The love of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit that served as both the motivation and purpose of the Son of God become man, to draw us into eternal loving relationship forevermore. The Incarnation of the Son of God humbling himself to assume human flesh. Fully God, fully man. The humanity and divinity of Christ never separated, neither confused. This was Athanasius’ defence amid a world of Christological heresy. Proclaiming and praising Christ as incarnate Son of God, as eternally fully God, assuming full humanity, to live, die and rise as fully God and fully man forevermore.
To avoid, distort, undermine who Jesus is, to miss beholding Christ is to rob Him of the glory He is due and rob ourselves of the comfort joy, and salvation that is found in Him alone.
'Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, O come let us adore him.'
For in Him alone, through and by Him alone did the Father anoint and send to the world His gift of saving grace. There could be no other. He came from heaven to do as a man on earth what only God can do.
As Athanasius says, 'It was not for another.'
'It was not for another to turn what was corruptible to incorruptibility except the Saviour himself, who in the beginning created the universe from nothing'
And it was not for another to recreate again the 'in the image' for human beings except the Image of the Father.
Only He who was fully God, eternal image of God, could condescend as the incarnational image of God to restore and re-make of us precious in His sight, in His glorious image.
So 'come and behold' Christ incarnate this advent. Our incarnate Saviour, now risen and ascended as fully God and fully man forevermore. Advocating for you, knowing every human experience, emotion imaginable yet without sin.
What doesn't the humanity of Christ mean?
The humanity of Christ strips away all our protests that we are not understood, that we are alone and isolated in the battle. In the body of man, He battled every day with sin, evil, the devil and He conquered death and darkness in that body, flooding our hearts with light and allowing us 'to come joyful and triumphant', 'to behold Him and adore Him.' Take courage today that He battles still with and for you in your fight against sin, advocating for you, still fully God and fully man enthroned in heaven.
'The Incarnation did not make God's heart closer to us or more loving towards us than He was before.'
And His motivation and purpose remains evermore the same. The love of God within Himself poured out in love for His children. For you. Hear His words through Athanasius:
'By the love for humankind, and goodness of his own Father, he appeared to us in a human body for our salvation. For this purpose then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God comes into our realm, although he was not formerly distant. Now he comes, condescending towards us in his love for human beings and his manifestation, having mercy upon our race, having pity upon our weakness, condescending to our corruption.'
The incarnation did not make God's heart closer to us or more loving towards us than He was before. He was not formerly distant. The Son of God came down to outwardly show us the eternal love, mercy and compassion of the Father for his children, for you and for me.
Draw near to Him
'So come all ye faithful tonight'
Come to the one who came down for you, as fully God and fully man to draw you into his loving saving refuge, and keep you in eternal, joyful, loving union with Him, enjoying the love of God as Father, Son and Spirit forevermore.
Come and see how the Incarnation of Christ is not just for Christmas. It is a soul-saving, soul-sanctifying truth for every season, and every moment within. A truth, a promise, a steadfast reality and hope to cling to through the mountain peaks and darkest valleys of this life. And until the day we behold Christ face-to-face, He calls us to strengthen our hearts with the power of His incarnation and all His self-humiliation has, is, and forever will achieve for us.
Athanasius continues:
'The achievements of the Saviour effected by his incarnation are of such a kind and number that if anyone should wish to expound them he would be like those who gaze at the expanse of the sea and wish to count its waves.
'As one cannot take in all the waves with one's eyes... so also one who would comprehend all the achievements of Christ in the body is unable to take in the whole... for those that elude his thought are more than he thinks he has grasped.
'Therefore it is better not to seek to speak of the whole... but rather to recall one thing, and leave the whole for you to marvel at. For all are equally marvellous and wherever one looks, seeing there the divinity of the Word, one is struck with exceeding awe.'
Let's take up Athanasius' encouragement and bow before the majesty and magnitude of the Word become flesh, to treasure one small truth gleaned from this incredible doctrine and come let our hearts adore Him, Christ the Lord.
