Monday, December 11, 2006

CHRISTMAS GRACE

We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty Himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill treatment, malice, and misunderstanding; finally, a deaththat involved such agony--- spiritual, even more than physical---that His mind nearlybroke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely men,who, through his poverty, might become rich. The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--- hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--- because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear. J I Packer, Knowing God.

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