The Pattern of Scripture
Advent.
If you look back to its Latin origin, you’ll find it means “to come” or “the arrival,” and is usually used in reference to something or someone important.
Christians celebrate Advent, the arrival, of Jesus at Christmas.
The extraordinary, humble birth of Jesus altered the course of history, but if you read the Bible as a whole, you’ll find that the nativity is a picture of a pattern. The Bible records a repeated pattern of this God who comes for His people.
God created mankind to inhabit a garden blooming in perfection. Adam was given one prohibitive command: to not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As we know, Adam stood idly by as his wife was deceived and then consciously followed her into sin.
Genesis 3 is one of the most fascinating chapters in all of Scripture to me. Adam and Eve, once clothed in the glorious presence of God become dressed in shame and fear, cowering from the One who had given them all things. Imagine their terror as the animals they had tended began to growl. The sun that had brightened their faces now scorched with heat. Think what it must have been like to look forward to talking with God, but on that day, for the first time, they heard His footsteps and hid.
The Father that had cherished strolling with His children in the cool of the day, knew what they had done, and chose to come again.
But watch these details- He didn’t come running to them in anger, His sword drawn. He didn’t come shaking His crowned head in shock. And He didn’t come as a parent concerned about how to correct His children.
Even in these striking truths, don’t miss the biggest one: He came.
He came to His people.
Why?
Because they were His.
He came to them because He loved them.
God did not abandon them. He met them in their chaos and destruction and calmly told them the consequences of what they had done. The snake was condemned for his deceit. The woman would struggle against her husband and endure overwhelming pain. The man would work all his days and the ground would battle his efforts, now growing thorns and thistles.
Even worse, God was no longer able to be with His people the way He designed. He would never remove His eyes or hand from them, but He would no longer walk with them in the cool of the day. He could not dwell amongst them because His holiness is pure. His goodness is so radiant, it cannot be shadowed by sin.
For You are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with You.
Psalm 5:4
As He stood in the garden pronouncing curses on creation, this holy God did something unimaginable: He promised to come back.
Adam and Eve were not allowed to live in the perfect garden anymore. They were sent out to endure the just consequences of their sin against the One who made them. Their lives were hard, marked with suffering and sadness, as all the generations that came after them have been. Thousands of years marched on as humanity continued to rebel and worsen the effects of sin.
Good and faithful Father that He is, He lined the pages of Scripture with this recurring theme: seeking and saving the lost. He seeks out the vulnerable, the sinner, and the weak. We can read about His interactions with them over time and see that He never abandoned them.
God marked history with His grace. Throughout Scripture, we see stories of Him coming to the aid of a sexually exploited slave girl, caring for a widow and her son on the brink of starvation, raising a shepherd to kingship, and defending His people from military conquests. His eye was always on the people He made and His heart moved toward them.
No person or country was excused from their sin. Consequences were just payment for each action, but the closer you read, the more you see His goodness in it all.
As He moved in the lives of individuals, families, and nations, He consistently whispered the promise of a future Savior who would make everything right.
The Birth of The Promise
At Christmas, this is why we hush around the memory of a dirty stable.
God did what He promised to do.
He came for us.
He did not come as we thought He would- as a mighty warrior or captivating leader. The God who bellowed out galaxies and bent to form Adam from the dust, stooped down to wear that same flesh.
He did not show us His throne room shining with glory and innumerable angels roaring His praises. In His unfathomable goodness, He chose a filthy barn to reveal Himself. The odor of animal manure and sweaty travelers must have matched the stench of our sin. But still He came.
He chose to be wrapped in flesh and swaddled in rags, calling outcast shepherds to celebrate that first Advent. Their awe must have rivaled the expression of hosts of adoring angels who have always marveled at the great love He has for His people.
This is why we rejoice!
Christmas Eve is the remembrance of that beautifully messy night. The night God came to dwell with His people.
His love for us could not keep Him afar. The time had come for Him to draw near again.
Even more than the garden where He strolled with Adam and Eve, this time He became a man to live amongst us, his perfection guiding His life until His murder.
The perfect God who breathed out stars was slaughtered. For us.
And even more than that, He chose it.
God chose to come near again, knowing He would wear the very thorns He cursed the ground with. He stood in the garden with Adam and could have justifiably abandoned them for their betrayal. But instead, Jesus cursed the fallen creation AND promised to come again to it.
There is no God like Him.
Christmas is the reminder that He never abandoned us. And the promise that He never will.
Christ’s death and resurrection secured our salvation from sin. But His entire story has not been fulfilled yet. Just as God ended His final stroll in Eden to leave for a time, Jesus was taken to Heaven for a time.
Now we wait. Again.
We wait for Him to come again, knowing that He fulfills all promises in His time, just as He always has.
Christmas carries with it celebration for what Jesus has already done and the longing for what He will do.
It is the beautiful mixture of contentment and hope. Christians hold this fusion of joy for what has been and aching for what will be.
Jesus will come again to make all things new. Sadness, death, loneliness, pain, sickness, grief, poverty, abuse, and sin still run rampant amongst us, but it will not always be so.
Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
All those who love Jesus as Lord will be saved from the eternal curse of sin.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Galatians 3:13
Jesus came into a chaotic world as a swaddled infant, His purpose decided and His will definitive. His mission was not up for debate, and He lived with that same intensity, completing what He intended to do from the dawn of time. From the manger, His eyes were focused on the cross.
This gives us great hope because we know if He has fulfilled such a great promise once, He will do it again.
The Second Advent
No matter our circumstances this December, for the Christian, joy will not come from the people gathered around or the gifts under a tree, it comes from the finished work of Jesus. He secured the future for all those who will love and follow Him.
In His patient goodness, He is granting time to allow others to know Him.
While we long for the day that our faith will be made sight, we joyfully continue in the waiting so that all those who would believe will do so.
We live in a unique time in history. The first Advent has come and the second Advent is coming.
I don’t know what your heart brings with you as you gaze upon the manger this year. Maybe you are dancing with joy. Or maybe this year brought hardship you could never have imagined.
Perhaps you stand in the stable singing loudly. Or maybe you find yourself kneeling next to a trembling shepherd, overcome with loneliness and pain.
Regardless of what thoughts, emotions, and burdens you carry into this sacred space, come anyway. The King beckons you. Come witness for yourself that He crossed heaven and earth to draw near to you.
This Christmas, turn your eyes from the ache of the world to Jesus, who fulfilled His age-old promises, just as He said He would.
His great love compelled Him to draw near.
And thus, He has come to save the world.
The Eternal God has come to dwell with us. With me. And with you.
Rejoicing with you,
