Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Second Mid-Week Advent Service, December 11, 2019

 Norma A. Boeckler







Mid-Week Advent Service, 
December 11, 2019

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson






The Hymn # 81                O Jesus Christ Thy Manger
The Order of Vespers p. 41
The Psalmody Psalm 2 on page 123
The Lection - Isaiah 40 KJV
The Sermon Hymn #76     A Great and Mighty Wonder

God's Wonder - The Two Natures of Christ

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer p. 44

The Collect for Peace p. 45
The Benediction p. 45
Hymn #562           Round Me Falls the Night  


Isaiah 7:10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The Hymn - Two Natures in Christ



"O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is"
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676

1. O Jesus Christ,
Thy manger is
My paradise at which my soul reclineth.
For there, O Lord,
Doth lie the Word
Made flesh for us; herein Thy grace
forth shineth.

Paul Gerhardt is different from the theologian. This Gerhardt has a t on the end of his name - as in TLH. Our hymnal does a fine job of featuring his great hymns.

Hymns are written to teach doctrine or praise God. Gerhardt does both with moving hymns. He was a tutor for children for many years, so that brought out his gift of teaching with pictures rather than Latin philosophical terms.

The Two Natures of Christ are united in the One Person. Many errors have come from denying this basic Biblical mystery, revealed by the Holy Spirit, such as the Isaiah ch. 7 and ch. 9 passages.

His manger is a Paradise because the Word lies there, the Word in the Flesh, Immanuel, God with us. Our souls rest with Him in that humble but glorious location, forever part of Christian teaching. The Word was made flesh for us, to impart grace to us

2. He whom the sea
And wind obey
Doth come to serve the sinner in great
meekness.
Thou, God's own Son,
With us art one,
Dost join us and our children in our
weakness.

The divinity of Christ is expressed in the power of the Word in the Flesh to order the sea and the wind. Even though He is Lord of Creation, He comes to dwell with us in meekness. Reflecting the Gospel of John in many places, the Son of God is one with us, and comes to us in weakness, for us and our children.


3. Thy light and grace
Our guilt efface,
Thy heavenly riches all our loss
retrieving.
Immanuel,
Thy birth doth quell
The power of hell and Satan's bold
deceiving.

Jesus is the Light and the source of grace. He did not grow into His divinity, nor was He adopted into that divinity. When He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, His Two natures were united as One Person. As the Apostle Paul teaches, the faith of Jesus is gracious given to us so that we are justified by faith. His riches remove our poverty through sin. His Virgin Birth defeats the power of Hell and Satan's lies.
4. Thou Christian heart,
Whoe'er thou art,
Be of good cheer and let no sorrow move
thee!
For God's own Child,
In mercy mild,
Joins thee to Him;- how greatly God must
love thee!

This very touching verse draws its power from Gerhardt's life, losing his congregation for refusing to compromise with Calvinism, losing his wife and all his children but one, living from charity without a job or call, and finally having a tough, ungracious congregation. His family was so dear to him, but he did not let those terrible losses (and the injustice against faithful Lutherans) make him think God had abandoned him. Luther calls those experiences times of persecution, when Christians feel abandoned, and yet great spiritual abundance follows, as Gerhardt proved.

5. Remember thou
What glory now
The Lord prepared thee for all earthly
sadness.
The angel host
Can never boast
Of greater glory, greater bliss or gladness.

This is another verse for times of grief, sorrow, and sadness. On the other side of the balance is the glory prepared for us. Not one angel in heaven can boast of greater glory, bliss, or gladness.
6. The world may hold
Her wealth and gold;
But thou, my heart, keep Christ as thy true
Treasure.
To Him hold fast
Until at last
A crown be thine and honor in full
measure.

This is even more true today than after the Reformation. We know of vast sums, billions, held by dishonest charities and politicians, using the needs of others to give them incredible wealth and luxuries. The unbelieving world has all that, but our hearts hold the great treasure - Christ. He is the Treasure that we should hold fast in our hearts and collect a crown in the Celestial City, in heaven.

The Europeans say, and use this decoration - no cross, no crown.




The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #81
Text: Luke 2: 7
Author: Paul Gerhardt, 1653, cento
Translated by: composite
Titled: O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein ist
Composer: Johann Crueger, 1653
Tune: O Jesu Christ, dein Kripplein


Henry Eyster Jacobs - The Two Natures in Christ


Jacobs was the professor of theology at the Philadelphia Seminary - General Council, which was founded as an alternative to the Pietistic, ecumenical General Synod. I was interviewed for a position at this seminary, long ago. It is now United Lutheran Seminary.




Topics included
7. What topics are included in Christology, or that portion of Theology treating of the Mediatorial Office?
The Person, the States and the Offices of Christ. Chalcedon Symbol

8. How has the Church summarized its faith on this subject?
Most comprehensively in the symbol of Chalcedon:
“We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in Manhood; truly God and truly Man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the Father, according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us, according to the Manhood; in all things, except sin, like unto us; begotten before all ages of the Father, according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, ‘inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably’; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in One Person and One Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the Fathers has handed down to us.”
In its simplest form, this truth is stated in the Small Catechism, Creed, Article 11. The Divinity of Christ

9. What is the first thing to be considered in treating of the Person of Christ?
That He is true God, consubstantial, coequal and coeternal with the Father.
158
The proof for this is given above, Chap. 3, Sec. 17-23. For “consubstantial,” see same chapter, Q. 48. The divinity of Christ does not consist in divine gifts, but in His entire and complete oneness in all His attributes with God. 

The Humanity of Christ
10. What is the second?
That He is true man, consubstantial with us. The proof for this is found in that He has: A. The names of man Tim. 2:5; John 8:40; Acts 17:31. His favorite designation of Himself is “Son of man.” He is called “flesh” (John 1:14), “a child” (Acts 4:27), “Son of Abraham, David,” etc., especially in the genealogical tables of Matthew and Luke. B. The parts of a man Body and soul or spirit, and various parts of His body are mentioned. C. The experiences of men He was conceived, was born, grew, hungered, thirsted, was fatigued, grieved, wept, exulted, died. D. The acts of men. He went about, conversed, etc. 

Truth of the Humanity
11. Why did the early Church lay such emphasis upon the word “true”?
Particularly against the Docetists who maintained it was not a true body which Christ had, but only the appearance of a body. 

12. Upon what arguments did they base this error?
They said that angels repeatedly appeared in human bodies, and yet were not true men; that the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove without being a true dove. They quoted Rom. 8:3, “God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” laying especial emphasis upon “likeness.” 

13. How were they answered?
Angels assumed human bodies only temporarily, and for some transient purpose. Christ Himself declares the difference in Luke 24:39.
“Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having.”
The union of the Spirit with the dove was symbolical; that of the Son of God with man, personal. The former was temporary; the latter permanent. The emphasis in Rom. 8:3 is not on “likeness,” but on “sinful”. The meaning is the same as in Phil. 2:7, “He was”found in fashion as a man," i.e., to all outward appearances, He was nothing more than any other man — a child like other children, a Galilean peasant among Galilean peasants. This is not opposed to the truth of His humanity, but is contrasted simply with 

His State of Glory. Completeness of the Humanity
159

14. What is implied in His true manhood?
Its completeness or perfection. 

15. Who attacked this?
Apollinaris, in the Fourth Century, who sought to explain the personal union by teaching that the Divine Nature replaced a part of Christ’s humanity, viz., the rational soul; and the Monothelites of the Seventh Century, who taught that the Divine Nature took the place of a truly human will. Unity of Person

16. What is meant by saying that there is but one Person?
That “there is one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures” (Chalcedon). “Who although He be God and man; yet He is not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person” (Athanasian Creed). The difference between “me” and “thee” is never applied to the divine and human natures. There is but one “I” acting and speaking, thinking and feeling and willing through both natures. There is but one “Thou” whom the Father addresses and one “He” to whom the Spirit bears witness. 

17. What proof have you of this unity?
In Rom. 1:3, the same person is said to be “made of the seed of David according to the flesh,” and declared to be “the Son of God.” In Luke 1:3, that which is born of the Virgin Mary is called “the Son of God.” In John 1:14, “the Word,” who is declared in V. 1, to be God, is said to have become “flesh.” In Gal. 2:20, “the Son of God” is said to have given Himself for sinful man. Relation of Person and Nature

18. Is the person related in the same way to each nature?
The person, with the divine nature, has existed from all eternity. The human nature began in time. The person, therefore, was once without a human nature. But the human nature could not exist without a person. The person of the human nature, therefore, came not from that nature, but from the divine. Since the human nature entered into the world, i.e., was conceived and born and lived by the divine person uniting Himself with our race in the womb of the Virgin Mary, we say that the human nature has no personality of its own, but that the personality of the human nature is that which it has derived from the divine. The Greek theologians called this the doctrine of the anhypostasia of the human nature, which our theologians accept, although stating that enhypostasia is preferable. The unity of the person requires that we must hold to the want of personality on the part of the human nature. 

19. If we were to affirm that the human nature had a personality of its own, what would follow?
The doctrine that in Christ, there are two persons, as as well as two natures. Unity of personality could be taught, then, only by finding place for the destruction at some time of the human personality, and its being replaced by the divine. Double Generation


20. Since there are two natures, can we say there are two Sons, viz., a Son of God and a Son of Man?
160
No. There is but one Son, at one and the same time Son of God and Son of Man. That through which, He is the Son of God, is His eternal generation of the Father, “true God begotten of the Father from all eternity” (Small Catechism). See Chapter 3, 51-53. That through which He is the Son of Man is His conception by the Holy Ghost and birth of the Virgin Mary (Lukes 1:35; Gal. 4:4). We speak, therefore, of a double generation of Christ: one, eternal; the other, temporal; one, according to the divine; the other, according to the human nature. Incarnation


21. By what term is the act of the Son of God in assuming human nature known?
Incarnation.
John 1:14. “And the Word became flesh.” Heb. 2:14. “Since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same.” Heb. 2:16; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 9:5; 1:3.


22. Was this peculiar to the Second Person of the Trinity?
Only the Son of God assumed human nature. But the Father who sent the Son into the world, and the Holy Spirit who appears in the conception of Christ (Luke 1:35), just as in creation (Gen. 1:2), were also active. There was a special intervention of God in and beyond the order of nature established at the creation. God, who at creation established an order, in virtue of which men came into the world through certain means, can, at His will, dispense with such means, and provide for a virgin birth. To deny the possibility of this, is to question the existence and almighty power of God. To admit its reality is to admit the possibility of everything else mysterious and supernatural in Christianity. Consubstantiality of Humanity

23. The conception of Jesus being so unlike that of others, was the human nature that resulted also unlike that of other men?
“He was consubstantial with us according to the manhood; in all things, except sin, like unto us” (Chalcedon).
Heb. 4:15. “He hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Christ, therefore, experienced all the infirmities that are common to the race, as hunger, thirst, sleep, fatigue, tears, sorrow, pain; but no individual infirmities are ascribed to Him, as particular diseases which attack some, but do not affect all. Sinlessness of Humanity


24. How do you prove the sinlessness of Jesus?
A. From distinct passages of Scripture Heb. 4:15, quoted under 23; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26; John 8:46; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:22. B. From His divinity Sin is a personal matter. It is always a person who sins. But the person of Christ is God.
161
C. From the definition of sin “Sin is the want of conformity with God’s Law.” But the Law is the declaration of God’s will. God cannot will what is contrary to His will, i.e., Jesus could not sin. He was, therefore, not only sinless, but impeccable. Admit peccability, and the divinity of Christ is practically denied. 

25. But if Christ were impeccable, how do you explain His temptation? Is temptation possible, where a fall is impossible?
Temptation properly is only testing or proving. When gold is brought to the touch-stone or submitted to the blowpipe or treated with various chemical reagents, there is no possibility of any other result than that it will stand the test and be proved to be gold. We inevitably associate the thought of temptation with that of the possibility of a fall, from the fact that man’s nature is corrupt, and that even the regenerate are only partially renewed, and, therefore fallible, and likely, under the test, to show its worst features. The agony of our Lord’s temptation came not from the necessity of a great struggle in order that He might prove Himself victor, but from the fact that it was a part of His passion. That He, the manifestation of the absolute holiness of God, should endure the presence and be subjected to the humiliation of the conversation and suggestions of the lowest and vilest of all creatures, the source and head of all the crime in the universe, was an indignity that called forth all His repugnance to the great enemy. 

26. Was there any other particular in which the humanity of Christ was distinguished from that of others?
All the excellences and perfections of human nature He had in the highest degree. These He possessed as the sinless man, and as the one within whose body the Godhead dwelt in a peculiar way. Whatever physical attractiveness He may have had, and for which the old teachers cite Ps. 45:2, came from His holy character as it was expressed in His outward form. While the bodies of others contain the seeds of mortality (Rom. 6:23), that of Christ was by its own nature immortal, His death occurring by an act of His will (John 10:18), and not from inner weakness or external force, and His body, after death, being incorruptible (Acts 2:31). 

27. What was the purpose of the Incarnation?
The Redemption of the human race.
Matt. 20:28. “The Son of man came, to give his life a ransom for many.”
Heb. 2:14. “He partook of flesh and blood, that, through death, he might bring to nought him that had the power of death.”


28. Would the Son of God not have become incarnate if Adam had not sinned?
The doctrine that He would have come only for the completion of humanity, or to furnish a model of a holy life, or for any other purpose than to rescue men from sin, is without any authority from Scripture. God’s will or decree to send His Son into the world everywhere presupposes God’s foreknowledge of sin, and His determination to provide a remedy for it. Personal Union
29. In what two senses is the expression, Personal Union, used?
On the one hand, it designates an act (unüo), and is synonymous with Incarnation.
162
On the other hand, it refers to a state, resulting from the act (unio). 

30. In what does the state of union consist? In that henceforth both natures have but one person — the personal communion; and, as a result, the intimate and perpetual personal presence of each nature in and with the other. Attributes of Union


31. How has the Church guarded the statement of this doctrine?:
The Chalcedon Symbol (see above, 8) has denied this union negatively as: A. Unconfused There is no mingling of natures. Although there is a communion, they remain distinct. B. Unchanged One is not changed into the other. C. Indivisible i.e., with respect to place. “Nowhere is the human nature unsustained by the Logos, or the Logos not sustaining the human nature. The human nature is not outside of the Logos, nor is the Logos without the human nature.” D. Inseparable i.e., with respect to time. The union is never dissolved, but is perpetual. Items (a) and (b) are in opposition to the Eutychians; (c) and (d) in opposition to the Nestorians. The Eutychians confused the natures; the Nestorians divided the person. 32. How has the Athanasian Creed defined it?
“Who although He be God and man: yet He is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by taking the manhood into God. One altogether; not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ.”
Communion of Natures


33. What follows from this communion of the Person with both natures?
The communion of natures with each other. There is a perichoresis or pervasion or penetration of one nature by the other, or existence of one nature within the other. “The divine nature is said actually to penetrate or perfect the human, and the human to be passively penetrated or perfected by the divine; but not in such way that the divine successively occupies one part of the human after the other, and extensively diffuses itself, through it; but, since it is spiritual and indivisible, it at the same time as a whole perfects and energizes each part of the human nature and that nature as a whole, and remains entire in the entire human nature, and entire in every part” (Baier).
Col. 2:9. “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
John 1:14; Heb. 2:14.