Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

      “Christmas is not in tinsel and lights and outward show. The secret lies in an inner glow. It's lighting a fire inside the heart. Good will and joy a vital part. It's higher thought and a greater plan. It's a glorious dream in the soul of man.”
                    --Wilfred A. Peterson

       "For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]."

                    --Colossians 2:9 (Amplified)
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               "So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:  'Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which is translated, 'God with us.'"
                         --Matthew 1:22-23 (NKJV)

     The mystery of the Incarnation flows from the infinite mind of God.  His ways are for surely above and deeper than we could even begin to imagine.  F.F. Bruce wrote, "He manifested the form of God in the form of a servant...  He shared the true nature of God."  The "I AM" was being revealed to mankind in a new and different way.  God did not change, but He presented Himself in the form of man.  The more I think of the Incarnation the more I am amazed.  It is incomprehensible.  "The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.  The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.  Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation."  (J.I. Packer)
     Scripture declares that He was born of a virgin.  Isaiah prophesied many years before, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." (7:14, NKJV)  The above verse in Matthew proclaims the validity of that prophecy.  Furthermore, Luke writes, "to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  The virgin's name was Mary. (1:27, NKJV)
     Because Jesus was virgin-born He did not inherit original sin.  He was the "second Adam."  No sin, and unlike Adam, remained sinless.  This virgin-birth "cannot be explained away.  It can only be accepted or denied.  It is history or the boldest fiction." (Encyclopedia of the Bible).  We see in the first three Gospels the emphasis being placed upon Jesus' humanity.  He was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7); there was the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15); He was anointed at His baptism in the Jordan (Matthew 3:13-17); and was tempted of the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).  "The New Testament writers never attempt to dissect the mystery of His person; it is enough for them to proclaim the incarnation as a fact, one of the sequences of mighty works whereby God has wrought salvation for sinners" (New Bible Dictionary).  Only Joseph and Mary alone knew the tremendous secret.
     This is the "mystery of godliness:  God was manifested in the flesh" so wrote the Apostle Paul.  Jesus, not less than man, was more than man.  He came to His own world as a visitor; He came from God, and went to God.  The Incarnation is not the diminishing of deity, but the acquiring of manhood.  The Son in person began to live a fully human life.  We can now relate fully to God for He became like us.

           D.C. Adkisson