My Christmas Meditation

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; to Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior (Titus 1:1-4).

How is that for a Christmas passage on which to meditate today? Really heart-warming, isn't it? What, you missed it? Here, let's take a look.

The text is an introduction of Paul's letter to Titus. So we get that it's from Paul and to Titus. Fine. We get that Paul is a servant of God and an apostle of Christ. We understand that Titus is Paul's spiritual "child in a common faith". Good. And we receive Paul's relatively uniform prayer for grace and peace (the standard greeting of both the Greeks -- grace -- and the Jews -- peace) from God. Wonderful. So?

There is, however, stuck in the middle of all that, an amazing statement. Paul speaks of the reason for his apostleship. It is "for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth." This knowledge, Paul says, "accords with godliness." All good stuff. But wait! What is the basis of this knowledge? What undergirds this godliness? It is the "hope of eternal life". Oh, that's good. And what does Paul tell us about that particular hope of eternal life? (Here's where we come to the Christmas meditation.)

According to this passage, God's plan of sending His Son to obtain our salvation was "promised before the ages began". Promised to whom? He doesn't say. But what can we figure out? Well, all created beings fall in the category of "the ages". God alone is outside of time. Thus, to whomever He promised it, the promise would have to be to a divine being. And this suggests, then, that the Father promised the Son before He made anything a Bride. A fanciful conversation might have gone something like this:

"Hey, Son. Here's the plan. I am going to provide for you a bride."

"Great! Thanks, Father! A bride from what?"

"Well, we'll create a race of people and we'll select a group of them to be your bride."

"Wonderful plan!"

"But there's a catch. In order to best display our glory, we're going to have to allow them to rebel."

"Oh, okay. And then?"

"Well, then I'll send You down as one of them and have you live a sinless life and then die for their sin. Those that receive that substitute payment for their sin will be your bride."

"Great! Let's start!"

Now that is a Christmas meditation. Regardless of whether you buy my imaginative version or not, Christ knew in advance that He would come to earth as a human. He knew in advance that He would take on human form. He knew in advance that He would live here and be crucified here. And He chose to do it. That was His plan.

See? Now that is indeed a heart-warming Christmas meditation, is it not?

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Cor 9:15)