Why the Incarnation? (5)

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have itmore abundantly.” John 10.10

Not what God intended
The Scriptures expose to the light what every unbeliever knows to be true about his life: that happiness and fulfillment are elusive, and disappointment and disillusionment are pretty much the norm in life.

Paul tells us that apart from God people have no hope in this life (Eph. 2.12). Everything on which they depend for happiness is either fleeting or inadequate, leaving them wondering aloud, “Is that all there is?”

What’s more, all people live in the fear of death (Heb. 2.15) and are stalked by the specter of judgment for their wrongdoings. Guilt and shame are the daily experience of all but the most hardened of heart. Many perhaps resonate with the bumper sticker that reads, “Life’s a bitch, and then you die.”

This is not what God intended when He created men and women. He made us to be upright, happy, full of joy, abounding in pleasure, and flourishing in good works. His purpose for us is to know and enjoy Him, and to serve Him in full and bounteous flourishing with all the gifts of personality, creation, and culture.

But sin has ruined the promise of our creation. Sin not only robs God of His honor, it robs human beings of their longed-for happiness. Unless something is done to take away our sin, we will never know the kind of happiness which God intends for us.

The way to happiness
Here, Anselm explained to Boso, is yet another reason why God had to become a Man. By satisfying the debt of our sins, Jesus has opened the way to happiness for all who believe in Him. Indeed, our happiness could not be achieved, Anselm explained, apart from the work of Christ in the Incarnation: “Therefore, consider it settled that, without satisfaction, that is, without voluntary payment of the debt, God can neither pass by sin unpunished nor can the sinner attain that happiness, or happiness like that, which he had before he sinned; for man cannot in this way be restored, or become such as he was before he sinned.”

The Incarnation is the reason for the joy and happiness of men, which we celebrate each year at Christmas. Most people have completely lost sight of the “reason for the season.” However, so powerful was the work of Christ’s Incarnation that untold millions of those who do not believe in Him share – if only for a season – in the happiness He has opened to us.

The penalty, power, and presence of sin
God became a Man, Anselm explained in Cur Deus Homo, so that human beings, trapped in a misery of our own creating, might be set free to know the happiness of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. That happiness, moreover, consists of two dimensions.

First is the happiness we may know here and now.

In this life those who come to salvation through faith in Christ are not immediately translated out of the world of sin; nor are they even completely freed from their own sinful tendencies. In this life we continue to know the blows and bruises of sinful behavior, both ours and that of others. The penalty of sin has been removed from us, but the power of sin continues to affect us, though we daily strive to make progress against it. However, in spite of this, believers who know their sins to be forgiven and who are pursuing a life of obedience to God through Jesus Christ can know true happiness, a deep-seated joy that not even the direst of circumstances can take away (cf. Hab. 3.17-19).

Our happiness now, while real, is but a foretaste of the eternal happiness which is yet to be, when we are finally translated from the power and the very presence of sin to live in glory with God forever.

And the greatest happiness we have, now and forever, is that of knowing God and living in His presence increasingly day by day.

As Anselm explained, “rational nature was made holy by God, in order to be happy in enjoying Him…It is, therefore, established that rational nature was created for this end, viz., to love and choose the highest good supremely, for its own sake and nothing else…Wherefore rational nature was made holy, in order to be happy in enjoying the supreme good, which is God.”

Human beings could not be happy as God intended, unless God became a Man in the Incarnation of the Son of God to take away our sins and restore us in His righteousness to the Father Who made us. His having done this in Jesus is the reason for “joy to the world.”

Next steps: Spend a day – on and off – meditating on the words to the Christmas carol, “Joy to the World!” Pay particular attention to the verbs that relate to Jesus. How does each of these verbs work to bring us happiness? Share the results of your meditation with your spouse or a family member.

T. M. Moore

We’re taking a 3-week intermission from our series on The Disciplined Life to review three archive series on the meaning of Christmas. This week’s study, Why the Incarnation?, is part 1 of a 3-part series on Christmas, As Advertised, and is available as a free download.

Subscribe to receive our daily Scriptorium studies on the book of Revelation. Visit the website, www.ailbe.org, and use the subscriptions box on the home page. In today’s Crosfigell, the monk Jonas leads us to consider how we should respond to tests the Lord allows to come our way. Sign-up at the website to begin receiving Crosfigell three times a week.

Sign up for ViewPoint Leaders Training, free and online, and start your own ViewPoint discussion group.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.