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Christmas Fast & The Nativity of Jesus Christ

 

The Need for the Incarnation

 

Christmas Coptic Articles Index

The Glorious Feast of Nativity:
7 January or 25 December?

God's Continuing Love Enfleshed
Incarnation of the Word - Full Book
The First Coming…Preparation for the Second Coming
The Genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ
The Nativity of Christ: A New Covenant
Incarnation of the Word Jesus
The Shepherd of Shepherds
The Star of Bethlehem
Wise Men Still Seek Him
The Need for the Incarnation

The birth of our Lord Jesus Christ has become a turning point in the history of mankind; making it feasible to classify incidents into pre and post Nativity. It has also marked the birth of humanity; for in the Nativity was the Incarnation, and in the Incarnation was Salvation and through Salvation we received adoption becoming heirs to the Kingdom.

The Imminence and the Indispensability of Salvation

The Incarnation basically means that God became man; taking a body from the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). The most important reason for the Incarnation was to resolve the redemption issue bringing man back to his first rank of which he had fallen off because of sin. God had created Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden commanding him to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning him that the day he would disobey, he would die "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Through his wickedness, Satan enticed Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit. In doing so, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and broke the law. Consequently Adam had to die and perish in order to satisfy and fulfill God’s justice; otherwise God would breach his own claim of justice and credibility.

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However, Adam’s death would have caused a number of ramifications, and would have been:

  1. Against God’s Mercy. Adam was the victim of Satan’s enticing and tempting.

  2. Against God’s Dignity. God created man in His own image and made him ruler over all his creatures. How then would God’s image be torn up so easily?

  3. Against God’s Wisdom. God created man with wisdom to enjoy His love, blessings and sonship. How dare Satan deprive man of these free gifts? St. Athanasuis contemplates on this saying; "it was better for man if he was not created than to be created to face this fate."

  4. Against God’s Power. God had not created man to desert him and leave him without protection against Satan; for the power is God’s and not the devils; "Thine is the power" (the Lord’s Prayer).

Thus, it is only through the unity of the Divinity with the Humanity that all the specifications required from a redeemer would get to be fulfilled. These specifications are:

St-Takla.org Image: I should glory in the Cross - The Cross of the Millennium - Artwork by Frederick Hart صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: أما أنا فحاشا لي أن أفتخر إلا بصليب يسوع المسيح - صليب الألفية للفنان فريدريك هارت

St-Takla.org Image: The Cross of the Millennium, artwork by Frederick Hart - with the verse: "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6: 14) - Designed by Michael Ghaly for St-Takla.org

صورة في موقع الأنبا تكلا: صليب الألفية، للفنان فريدريك هارت، مع آية: "حاشا لي أن أفتخر إلا بصليب ربنا يسوع المسيح" (غلاطية 6: 14) - تصميم مايكل غالي لـ: موقع الأنبا تكلا هيمانوت

Divinity: Through His divinity and infinite righteousness, the redeemer would pay off the punishment for our infinite sin.

Humanity: Through His humanity, the redeemer would represent man who had sinned and had been sentenced to die in order to pay the price which is death itself. "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16).

 

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Redemption Resided in the Incarnation

Because man sinned against the infinite God; his sin was limitless demanding limitless punishment which could not be atoned for through man’s limited capacity for repentance. Man’s nature had become corrupted by sin; and so required a limitless atonement. Who is limitless except God Himself? God Himself had to take upon Himself the redeeming and atoning act in order to rescue man from this eternal death.

Terms of Redemption

God’s justice demands that the redeemer be:

  1. Pure, Holy, and without Sin. Man has certainly fallen short of these qualities because "they have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one" (Romans 3:12).

  2. Omnipotent. It requires someone stronger than the enemy to defeat him. Only God is stronger than Satan, the accuser and manipulator. He is the only one who could pay off man’s debts and remove his unlimited sin. No one is omnipotent but God.

  3. Of Human Nature. The verdict was decreed against man. Therefore neither an animal nor an angel was eligible to revert it. The former is not human and the latter is a spirit.

  4. Willing to die for Man. For God to fulfill His ultimate justice He would not impose atonement. It has to be a voluntary, unconditional love act. Thus the imminence of the Incarnation becomes evident. It is impossible for man to be redeemed from his fallen nature except by God Himself. Through His Incarnation, He becomes representative of man, mortal like him and through his Godhead He remains omnipotent and sinless.

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The Blessings of the Incarnation

  1. Adoption. "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Galatians 4:4,5).

  2. Partakers of the divine nature. "those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit" (Hebrews 6:4).

  3. Blessed in Him. Our new man has become renewed in the Creator’s image "since you have put off the old man with his deeds" (Colossians 3:9) and our human nature has become blessed in him after He has given our nature the spirit of power and victory. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (Acts 1:8).

  4. God's proximity to us. God became close to man "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life" (1 John 1:1).

  5. Establishment of Peace on Earth. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" (Luke 2:13,14).


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