The Plan Revealed

Does anyone noticing the wonder of Christmas know where this sense of wonder comes from? Do we understand the power of the Holy Spirit who puts hearts at rest, fills us with generosity, gives us this unusual joy that begins a few weeks earlier than the day? Do we know why our hearts are more deeply grieved at the losses of loved ones now more than ever? What is it about Christmas that brings out emotions, makes us smile at excited children, or even produces a ‘bah, humbug’ in attempts to avoid the delight of it?

I know Christmas is challenging for some. Those with limited budget, or no faith, or another faith, or the loss of dear ones, yet there is this thing in the air. Some call it the spirit of the season, or related to the delights of giving and receiving, but could it be that this is the Spirit of God reminding us that love came down? That He did not want heaven without us? That we, sinful and proud of our own goodness really know nothing about goodness until that Baby was born?

The reality of Christmas is that God loves us, yet He cannot welcome us to Himself because of our sin. Sin separates. It separates relationships, married people, fathers from their children, but most seriously, us from our Creator. What is He to do about that? Christmas is the beginning of a plan created long before humanity appeared:

He (Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (1 Peter 1:20)

While the Jews who knew the promise did not expect a baby, nevertheless that was how the plan unfolded, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:4)

Redemption’s blueprint was drafted in love: “This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) His plan to deal with sin removed the barrier for all who respond to this Babe who grew to manhood, and who calls as the Father sends: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

And for those who are called and who come, their lives are changed forever, and this is part of the wonder. The power of God, even is hinted to those at Christmas who know nothing or very little about the child born in a manger. For those who do, the Bible says:

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31)

And because of this, I see and feel the wonder this day, and most all other days...

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

PRAY: Lord, for many this season is only about gifts and glitter, a mad rush to measure up to the expectations of others — real or imagined. It can bring headaches too, and sad memories, pressures and no joy at all. For those who hurt or even hate this time of year, I pray that they will discover the plan of God that started before the world began, and was made known beginning with a baby in a wooden straw-filled manger who eventually cried “It is finished” from a blood-stained wooden cross.

He shares Himself with me . . .

We owned a piece of land that our children would inherit. Two of them agreed that it should go to their other sibling as his SHARE of the inheritance rather than selling it and dividing the money. The transaction was finalized this month and one son now enjoys his portion and plans to build a house and live there.

In the OT, the word share is also translated “portion” making a favorite verse because of my heart condition even more meaningful to me:

Psalm 73:26. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

As He desires, God keeps my heart working because He shares His life with me. The psalmists and others knew the wonder of this truth and responded to it with thanksgiving, hope and obedience:

Psalm 16:5–6. “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.”

Lamentations 3:24. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Psalm 119:57. “The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.”

The idea of God sharing with His people is a huge part of what it means to belong to Him. This belonging involves humility on our part (see John 13:8) and a response of generosity toward others (see Romans 15:27).

I share in the life of Christ because of the inheritance given to all His people — we are being delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 1 Corinthians 1:30–31 adds that because of Him, I am “ . . . in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” and therefore have no boast in myself. As the Bible says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

He shares with me His life, but also His death. Galatians 2:20 makes that clear:

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This means sharing both His comfort and suffering — all for the sake of others . . .

2 Corinthians 1:5–7. “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”

Part of the “suffering” is losing in order to gain. Paul said in Philippians 3:8–11. “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Sharing in His suffering is not the hardship I might suppose but part of having His life and of following Him. He shared my life and died to destroy the power of death. I share His life to fulfill that in my own life. I’m to share it as “a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” Not only that, sharing His life includes discipline, not that the sinless Jesus was corrected but it is through correction of my old habits that His righteousness will replace them. I’m not to resent His correction:

Hebrews 12:9–11. “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Sharing His holiness is a gift that is unwrapped when I cooperate with His way of tearing off whatever must go to reveal the treasure that is my portion from Him.