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And going into the house [the wise men] saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
--Matthew 2:11
I love reading. And some of my favorite books are stories in which everything is going along normally when all of a sudden, there’s a twist. If you’d been living at the time of Jesus and heard the story of the gifts that were brought by the magi, you would’ve heard about a shocking twist.
You see, the gold symbolized His royalty; the frankincense, His deity. But the myrrh was an incredibly unusual gift – myrrh was a substance used to embalm the dead. Why would you bring that as a gift for a baby?
Well, looking back 2,000 years later, we know why. That tiny baby, worshipped by the magi, came here to die on the cross for the sins of the world, His body anointed with spices and myrrh before it was buried. Now I’m certain the magi couldn’t have understood this. But just as God led them into the presence of the King, I believe He superintended the giving of these gifts – the myrrh foreshadowing His death.
Many people love the image of the baby Jesus, just as they love Christmas. But they don’t like to focus on His death on a cross. If we want to find truth, though, we have to accept the whole truth, even when we don’t like to hear it. And for these wise men, the whole truth was lying in that manger – this God-King who would die so that we might be born again.
“Great Is the Mystery”
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
1 Timothy 3:14–16
When we hear the word “mystery” most people think of detectives and crime stories. But the Bible uses the word in a different way, meaning something that has been hidden and not previously revealed. The events surrounding the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are even deeper and more significant than most—it is a great mystery. There are many Old Testament promises regarding the coming of the Messiah, from Genesis all the way through Malachi. But while every one of those was true and was fulfilled, they only began to paint the picture of all that Jesus would do.
Much of the focus of Jesus’ life was on revealing truth that had previously been hidden, especially truth about the nature of God and our relationship with Him. In the upper room when Jesus told the disciples He was the only way to the Father, Philip asked to be shown the Father. “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” (John 14:9).
A lifetime of study by a finite human cannot begin to comprehend the greatness and glory of an infinite God. But we should devote ourselves to learning all that we possibly can because Jesus came in part to show us these great truths.
Today's Growth Principle:
The Christmas story is the beginning of the unveiling of God’s truth that we must learn.
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