The Great King’s Wine

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of my life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.”

This is a sobering biblical truth. For example: “For [Christ’s] sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paraphrase: No pain, no gain. Or:

Now let it all be sacrificed, if it will get me more of Christ.

Here’s another example: “Although he was a son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The same book said he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).

So learning obedience does not mean switching from disobedience to obedience. It means growing deeper and deeper with God in the experience of obedience. It means experiencing depths of yieldedness to God that would not have been otherwise attained. This is what came through suffering. No pain, no gain.

Samuel Rutherford said that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there. Charles Spurgeon said, “They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.”

Do you not love your beloved more when you feel some strange pain that makes you think you have cancer? We are strange creatures indeed. If we have health and peace and time to love, it can become a thin and hasty thing. But if we are dying, love becomes a deep, slow river of inexpressible joy, and we can scarcely endure to give it up.

Therefore brothers and sisters, “Count it all joy . . . when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).

John Piper 

Why Was Jesus Sinless?

 

PRAY OVER THIS

“And Mary said: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.” Luke 1:46-50

 

PONDER THIS

Jesus was a Lamb without a spot, without blemish. He was the virgin-born Son of God. The Great I AM became a Lamb. The Infinite became an infant, and God lay in a manger.

Why was He born of a virgin? So that He could be sinless. Why did He need to be sinless? So that He could make a blood atonement. The Bible says it is the blood that makes atonement for your sin. There needed to be a sinless sacrifice that no child of Adam could satisfy, because in Adam all die. The bloodline comes from the father. While Mary was the earthly mother, God the Father was the heavenly Father, and the blood that flowed through the veins of Mary’s Lamb was the very blood of God.

He was a special Lamb and a slain Lamb. He came as He did, born of a virgin, to be what He was, sinless. He was born of a virgin that we might be born again. He was made the Son of Man that you and I might become sons and daughters of God. Thank God for that.

How does it make you feel when you consider all that God has done so that you might be reconciled with Him?

How does the humility of God in the nativity narrative challenge you?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to a friend in the faith about how God exemplified humility as He became an infant and spotless lamb. Challenge one another in how you can grow in humility like Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Was Born Sinless

BIBLE MEDITATION

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus” (Luke 1:30-31). Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you…” (Luke 1:34-35). Luke 1:30-35

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? And why would a virgin birth even be necessary? I’ll tell you why.

When God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden, He gave Adam dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26). They were to rule it (Psalm 8:6-8). Yet by choosing to believe the serpent rather than God, they sinned and yielded their God-given authority over to Satan, the ultimate con artist. Instead of ruling as God intended, they became slaves of sin (Romans 6:16). And to everyone who came after them, they passed down the same sin nature: “For since by man came death…. For as in Adam all die….” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

But why does all that require Jesus to be born of a virgin? How is it connected? Because if Jesus had been born of an earthly father, he would have inherited the same sin nature as his natural father, a son of Adam, and been just as much a slave to sin as Adam was—and as we all are until we are born again.

Jesus came to earth as a man, but not one with Adam’s sin nature. Because the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of God overshadowed her, Jesus was born with the sinless nature of His Father, God.

Our authority on earth was lost by a man, Adam. Jesus came as a man, born of a virgin, to redeem us and to win back that lost authority. This is the reason for the virgin birth.

ACTION POINT

Read Philippians 2:5-8 and meditate upon what Jesus Christ did for you.