For the past several weeks, children around Granbury and the country and the world have been trying to listen in on the private conversations of their parents, hoping to gather hints about what might show up under the Christmas tree.
Mostly, their attempts — I think — have been in vain (at least they always were for me).
Similarly, it is generally vain for believers to conjecture about what the members of the Godhead might be speaking to one another at any given time. Periodically, however, God pulls back the curtain of the inner-workings of the Trinity and reveals how the three persons of God relate to one another.
In Hebrews 10 we have just such an example so that we know what Christ said as He came to earth. What were the last truths on the mind of Christ as He prepared for His advent? Hebrews 10 tells us.
In verses 5-6 there is a reminder of the need for redemption. In grace, God had instituted the sacrificial system in the Old Testament because of men’s sin — but that system was wholly inadequate to atone for sin.
God did not desire sacrifice and offering and in the various offerings for sin, God took no pleasure. That is, none of the sacrifices for sin was what God really desired from His people. Choose any kind of sacrifice: animal, grain, voluntary, or involuntary, God did not want any of them for their own sake. What God has always desired was a holy heart of devotion for Him (1 Sam. 15:22; Is. 1:11ff; Hos. 6:6; Amos 4:4-6).
But because man could not be holy, the sacrifices were a temporary appeasement of the wrath of God until a better sacrifice could be made. But every year and every day, the Jewish follower of God was constantly aware of his sin and inadequacy — and as Christ came to earth, that same awareness was on His mind and lips as well.
Furthermore, as Christ left the rights and authority that were His in heaven, He said, a body You have prepared for Me. Now there is something unique — God needed a body. In the eternal past, the Son of God — the second person of the Trinity — had no body and had no need of a body. But now He did, and the Father prepared it for Him. Why?
Why did the Father prepare a body for the Son? Because in order for Christ to atone for sin, He not only needed to be God, but He also needed to be man. He needed to live a sinless life as the God-Man so that He could atone for sin. Only as a sinless man would He be able to perfectly represent man and stand in man’s place before God and only as a perfect man could His righteousness be given to those who believe in Him.
So when Christ says, a body You have prepared for Me, it is a statement from the Son to the Father that Christ is aware that the advent is entirely about His death. The Son is saying to the Father — “I know the plan…”
Yet, Jesus says more than that to the Father. He also says, I have come…to do your will, O God. The Father was sending the Son to earth to go to the cross and the Son said, “I am happy to do that will.” The cross was His joy (Is. 53:11; Heb. 12:2; Phil. 2:5-8)!
Jesus did not come to earth to die simply because “there was no one else.” His coming to the cross was His eternal joy. Christ’s joy was to come to His own creation to redeem His chosen people, to fulfill the eternal plan of His father.
Is it any wonder that the angels were filled with their own joy at the announcement??!!
This is the story of Christmas according to Christ’s own words to the Father. In His mind and on His lips were a recognition of the problem of men’s sin and their inability to atone for it themselves, His awareness that His body was intended for His death, and His joy in fulfilling the will of the Father.
What’s your favorite image of Christmas? The manger? The angels? The shepherds? The wise men? Whatever it is, don’t forget that without the cross that image is meaningless. That’s what Jesus thought.
Words of Grace 