God's Answer to the Slavery of Self-Salvation

Tullian Tchividjian post:  He Came…You’re Free

I hope and pray that today is a day of restful reorientation for those of you who are being crushed under the weight of trying to make it on your own.

For those who feel the acute pressure of thinking you have to change your spouse if you’re going to be happy, you have to be on top of everything if you’re going to make it, you have to infallibly protect your kids if they’re going to turn out OK, you have to control what others think about you if you’re going to feel important, you have to be the best if your life is going to count, you have to be successful if you’re ever going to satisfy the deep desire for parental approval, and so on and so forth…Christmas is for you.

The Incarnation frees us from what Paul Zahl calls “the law of capability”—the law, he says, “that judges us wanting if we are not capable, if we cannot handle it all, if we are not competent to balance our diverse commitments without a slip.” Because of Christmas, we are now endowed with the strength to admit that we can’t make it on our own–that we’re weak and needy and restless. Since our identity is now anchored in Jesus’ strength, our weaknesses don’t threaten our sense of worth and significance–our security. We’re now free to admit our faults and failures without feeling like our flesh is being ripped off our bones.

The Incarnation of Christ serves as a glorious reminder that God’s willingness to clean things up is infinitely bigger than our willingness to mess things up. The arrival of God Himself in the flesh sets us free from the pressure we feel to save ourselves from loneliness and lostness, despair and dejection.

In short, Christmas is God’s answer to the slavery of self-salvation.

Whether it’s by trying harder or giving up, being good or bad, pursuing wisdom or foolishness, sacrificially giving or selfishly taking, we suffer under the weight of looking to ourselves for life’s answer.

Christmas celebrates the glorious truth that no matter how hard we try, we can’t do it. Apart from the Incarnation we are left to our own devices. But Jesus came to liberate us from the pressure of having to fix ourselves, find ourselves, and free ourselves. He came to rescue us from the slavish need to be right, rewarded, regarded, and respected. He came to relieve us of the burden we inherently feel to trust in ourselves in order “to get it done.” Because Jesus came to secure for us what we could never secure for ourselves, life ceases to be a tireless effort to establish ourselves, justify ourselves, validate ourselves.

Because of Christmas, we have nothing to prove or protect. We can stop pretending. We can take off our masks and be real. We hold the wining hand. We have nothing to lose.

The liberating power of Christmas frees us from trying to impress people, appease people, measure up for people, or prove ourselves to people. The Incarnation frees us from the burden of trying to control what other people think about us. It frees us from the miserable, unquenchable pursuit to make something of ourselves by using others.

The Incarnation is God’s shout: “You’re free!”

As Everything, he became nothing so that you–as nothing–could have everything.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Absolutely Confident

Mark Batterson post:  UNANSWERED PRAYERS

One of the topics I write about in The Circle Maker is unanswered prayer. It’s a tough topic. I think it may be the #1 reason people stop praying!  They give up because of disappointment and discouragement.  God doesn’t answer a prayer the way they want so they lose faith, lose confidence, lose heart. And they stop asking altogether!

The other day I was meeting with a pastor friend, Amos Dodge. He reference a verse right before the Christmas story that I’d never noticed before.  In Luke 1:13, an angel says to Zechariah, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! For God has heard your prayer.”  He rebukes the fear of unheard prayers!   While we don’t always know if God will give us the answer we want to prayer, we can be absolutely confident that He hears us!  The goal of prayer isn’t getting what you want. The goal is WHAT GOD WANTS.

Some prayers go unanswered because they aren’t what’s best for us. Some prayers go unanswered because they don’t glorify God. Some prayers go unanswered because they aren’t part of God’s will. But while God doesn’t always ANSWER our prayers the way we want, we can be confident that He HEARS our prayers! And Father knows best.

Hail, the Incarnate Deity

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Christmas Eve

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:1-7

Though he (Jesus) was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:6-8

Dear Lord Jesus, it’s Christmas Eve, the treasured day on our calendar when we celebrate the miracle and mercy of your birth. Luke took so much care to fix your birthday in the context of real history and a real world, but whether or not you were born anywhere close to December 25 is not important at all.

That you were born—that you actually came from eternity into time and space… that you lived in our place and died in our place… that you were raised for our justification and will return for our glorification—that’s what makes all the difference. Hallelujah, the gospel is true! No spiritual myth, nice story or redemptive allegory could save us. Hallelujah, the gospel is true.

We lift our hearts and hands to you today, for you were “Born that man no more may die (including us); born to raise the sons of earth (including us); born to give them second birth” (including us). For the certainty of your birth, we worship you. For the assurance of our rebirth, we adore you.

But we also praise you for the quietness of your birth. Any other king would’ve come with great fanfare, a royal entourage and muscle-flexing pride. But you came into our world in utter weakness and with profound humility. “No room in the inn” wasn’t an insult to you. It was your choice, your plan, the way of the gospel.

For you never considered your equality with God something to be held on to or selfishly hoarded. Rather, you made yourself “nothing,” taking the very nature of a human servant. And in your obedience, you took our judgment and died our death—the “Servant of the Lord” dying for rebels from God. Astonishing… this is equally the most humbling and liberating news ever.

“Mild he lays his glory by, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see… Hail, the incarnate Deity, pleased, as man, with men to dwell—Jesus, our Emmanuel! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

Jesus, we so look forward to the Day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that you are Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It’s going to be a loud and large day. But today, this Christmas Eve, we bow before you with quiet wonder, humble adoration and unsurpassed peace. Hallelujah, the gospel is true. Hallelujah, the gospel is true. So very Amen we pray, in your great and gracious name.

Why Baby Jesus Had to Come

Andrew Byers post:  Have Yourselves a Merry Dark Christmas

The soothing sound of a crackling fire in the fireplace, the aroma of piping hot wassail, the feel of a warm embrace from an old friend, the sight of children tinkering with shiny new wonders beneath a glowing tree . . . ah, Christmas.

But then, all of a sudden, a fight breaks out between those beautiful little children refusing to share their shiny new wonders . . . a relative mutters under his breath a jabbing comment about another relative's parenting skills . . . someone realizes there is a casserole burning in the oven.

Ah, Christmas.

In spite of the caricatured joy and yuletide cheer of this season, Christmas can be a dark, painful experience. For many, this will be the first Christmas without a lost loved one. For others, December 25 represents a nerve-wracking collision of volatile family dynamics. Oddly enough, no other day of the year more clearly highlights financial hardship than Christmas.

Unpleasant Surprises

Darkness and pain were central features in the Gospel accounts of Jesus' arrival. The surprises of the first Christmas were often unpleasant. Surprise, Joseph---your bride is scandalously pregnant. Surprise, Mary---your honeymoon will be spent in a barn. Think of making that uncomfortable journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem at full term in pregnancy and under the dictate of a distant dictator. Merry Christmas, newlyweds. Matthew's account is even darker. The first Christmas eventuates in a horrific spate of state-sponsored child murders. With the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph were forced into a refugee life. The sounds of that first Christmas event as we know it from Scripture included birth cries and the awful whimpers of mothers weeping over their missing kids.

Poverty and injustice marked the first Christmas. We should not be surprised if the chestnuts roasting on our open fires get singed, if dreamy scenarios fall short of expectation around that glowing tree, and if our silent night is actually quite noisy with angry shouts or mournful sobs.

He Had to Come

The darkness of Christmas, whether the first one or the one this 2011, serves as a reminder of why Jesus had to come . . . and why he will come again. The oppression of kings like Augustus and Herod demonstrate the need for a better King. And when the celebrated merriness of Christmas is interrupted by my children fighting over who gets to open the door with baby Jesus in the Advent calendar, they remind me why baby Jesus had to come. Family conflict over the Christmas feast reminds us that a new feast awaits at the second Advent of our Lord.

The darkness of this season is an occasion for worshipful gratitude and a catalyst for the eager expectation that Emmanuel will soon be with us face to face again . . . in light stronger than the brightest stars can muster.

A Thrill of Hope

Excerpt from Mike Cosper post:  All Oppression Will Cease, Even in North Korea

The world waits anxiously as the leadership transition unfolds in North Korea. It's premature to suppose that the death of Kim Jong-il guarantees improvement or hope for the oppressed people of that totalitarian nation. Uncertainty and regime change inside a violent leadership culture could result in tragic consequences for ordinary citizens.


...

Oppression Will Cease

The fact remains that a day is coming when in Jesus' name, "all oppression will cease." Even the oppression of totalitarians in North Korea.

North Korea is a glaring reminder of the brokenness of the world and the great evil that we are capable of carrying out. Machinized terror, systematic oppression, gulags, prison camps, and propaganda are all the product of a God-given imagination running horribly awry. Under the weight of that corrupted imagination the world groans in weariness. North Korea's rulers have drained the resources of a starving nation, pouring every dollar they could into the military, which stands as both a tool of oppression against their people and as bared fangs to the world that looks on in disgust. Yet that power is somehow cosmically undone by the birth of a child in a stable in Bethlehem.

As Placide de Cappeau de Roquemaure phrased it so brilliantly in his hymn "O Holy Night":

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
As yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Sin's entrance sent the world careening towards destruction, creating a rift between heaven and earth that required sacrifices, temples, and veils to protect us from the furious heat of God's holiness. The Christ child's entrance into the world set the two on a collision course once again, with the promise that the babe in the straw would reconcile them all, destroying death and sin in the process.

Cannot Defeat the Gospel

I can't help but think of Herod as we imagine North Korea at Christmas. The isolation of their people and the brutal persecution of Christians is like the murderous response of that other king when he heard of the birth of the Messiah. Like the later attempts by Roman emperors---indeed, all those made by despots throughout history---every attempt to crush the gospel has and will continue to fail. Christians in North Korea need our prayers and whatever help we can provide.

Jesus taught us to pray "on earth as in heaven," inviting us to look at the world through the hope-filled promise of reconciliation. It's through those eyes that we should look to North Korea, or Iran, or any other populace suffering under the crushing thumb of dictators. There is nothing so liberating as the news that we have a better King and an eternal hope. In spite of their screeching protestations, every tyrant's days are numbered. A King was born in Bethlehem who will one day bring justice and peace.

Merry Christmas, North Korea. We love you and we're praying for you. May the wondrous announcement of the birth of the One True King take root in your people, spreading a fearless hope in your hearts as you face the uncertain days ahead.

O Princeps Gloriae

Ray Ortlund post:  Oh, that we were there!

In dulci jubilo [with sweet joy]
Let us our homage show
Our heart’s joy reclineth
In praesepio [in a stable]
And like a bright star shineth
Matris in gremio [in a mother's lap]
Alpha es et O! [you are Alpha and Omega]

O Jesu parvule [O baby Jesus]
I yearn for Thee alway
Listen to my ditty
O puer optime [O best boy]
Have pity on me, pity
O princeps gloriae [O Prince of glory]
Trahe me post te! [draw me after you!]

O Patris caritas! [O love of the Father]
O Nati lenitas! [O gentleness of the One born]
Deeply were we stained
Per nostra crimina [through our offenses]
But Thou hast for us gained
Coelorum gaudia [the joys of heaven]
Oh, that we were there!

Ubi sunt gaudia [where are joys?]
If that they be not there?
There are angels singing
Nova cantica [new songs]
And there the bells are ringing
In Regis curia [in the King's court]
Oh, that we were there!

A Son Is Given

Poem script here:
http://christthetruth.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/a-poetic-anti-santy-ranty/