We celebrate Christmas as Christ has come as the light, and the light has dwelt among men. God with us. The opening of John’s Gospel echoes Genesis in eternity past, as Christ is described as The Word:
”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.18 No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
Jesus, came into the world, bringing light, the hope of salvation for fallen man. This was not a reaction, this was God’s sovereign plan from the beginning.
William Tyndale on Christ Who Took on Flesh
William Tyndale was an English reformer who lived from 1494-1536. He was a biblical scholar and pastor who is also considered the father of the English Translation of scripture. God used Tyndale to bring access to His Word when having a personal copy of the Holy Scriptures was unthinkable. Tyndale said this about his motivation to bring God’s Word to the common man:
“If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost. (Speaking to religious leaders of the time.)
He would give his life as a result of his translation of scripture – which brought the first printed English translation of the New Testament. He was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536, and prayed with his last breath, “Lord, open the eyes of the King of England.” The “Great Bible” would be authorized for print in England 4 years later to be placed in every Parrish. Tyndale believed that God was not distant, He has come close by giving His Son, Jesus and His Word. Today, on Christmas, we celebrate both. We celebrate the Word come to us, and the Word given to us.
It is through this context, we read Tyndale’s words about Christ coming to dwell with man. God stepping out of eternity to bring salvation to man. Let’s read about Christ who Luke 2:11 says, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
May you be encouraged and blessed by Tyndale’s writing on our mediator, the Man, Jesus.
Tyndale on Christ Coming in Flesh (From his work: The Obedience of a Christian Man)
God is not far from us, neither is He cruel or fierce, as men imagine, but is loving, gentle, and merciful. For He hath showed Himself to us in Christ, which is the very image of God, and the brightness of His glory. He that knoweth Christ, knoweth God. He that seeth Christ, seeth the Father.
Christ is God’s Word, and God’s Word is His promise. And God’s promise is life everlasting. Therefore Christ is the way and the door unto the Father, and no man cometh unto God but by Him. For God will be known by Christ only, and not by the law, nor by the deeds thereof.
God is a Spirit, and all His words are spiritual, and His promise is spiritual; and therefore they that believe them are spiritual. And the flesh profiteth nothing, save only to drive us unto Christ, that we might be saved by Him.
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And this giving was not to make Him a lord and tyrant, but a servant and minister.
Christ humbled Himself, and took upon Him the shape of a servant, and became man. And that He did, not for Himself, but for us. For He was rich, and for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.
If God had come to us in His majesty and glory, who could have endured His presence? If He had spoken unto us in His high power and might, who could have borne His voice? But He came unto us in all meekness and humility, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was found in shape as a man.
He became flesh, that we might know Him. He became poor, that He might make us rich. He became weak, that He might make us strong. He became mortal, that He might make us immortal.
And Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. He came to seek that which was lost. He came to call sinners unto repentance. He came to heal the sick, to comfort the afflicted, and to bind up the brokenhearted.
In Christ, therefore, God is not dreadful, nor terrible, but gentle and loving. For Christ is the mirror wherein we behold God’s mercy, goodness, and kindness toward us. And whatsoever we see in Christ, that same is the Father.
Christ is not ashamed of our flesh, nor abhorreth our nature. He took upon Him our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. He knew hunger, thirst, weariness, sorrow, and death; yet without sin. Therefore He is a merciful High Priest, ready to help all that come unto Him.
And this humility of Christ diminisheth not His glory, but setteth it forth the more. For the greater the stooping, the greater the love. That the Son of God should so abase Himself for man is the greatest declaration of mercy that ever was showed.
Now when a man knoweth this mercy, and feeleth this kindness of God toward him, his heart is inflamed with love again. And love cannot but obey. For faith worketh through love, and love maketh obedience sweet and willing.
Therefore Christ’s coming looseth not obedience, but establisheth it. He freeth us from bondage, that we might serve God with a free heart. He healeth the conscience, and a healed conscience delighteth in the law of God.
Wherefore let no man seek God elsewhere than in Christ. For in Christ God is found. In Christ God is known. In Christ God is reconciled unto us. And he that hath Christ hath all.