Good Friday is the Reason for Christmas*

  In addition to The Savior Who Comes Near that I've been studying this Advent through LGG, I also had the desire to supplement it with a little booklet called, "Joy to the World" comprised of selected readings from John Piper. I just felt the need for some more traditional scripture readings because the LGG study had taken a somewhat non-traditional approach. This morning, however, John Piper came at me sideways with a non-traditional scripture himself!

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. [Heb 2:14-15 NIV] 

 That's some pretty deep stuff, but my brain is not operating on a deep level this morning (I have a migraine and a pretty high body pain level), so God used it to teach me something very simple:

Jesus became human so that He could die.

 And I'm not just talking about the whole esoteric concept of Jesus eventually dying for our sins, I mean that he literally became human so that He was able to die. As God, Jesus is eternal - He cannot die. He will never die. But we needed someone to die in our place, someone without sin, and that was never going to be one of us. We had proven that through 42 generations of humanity. Every last one of us had sinned, and it wasn't getting any better. The only one who could live a life without sin is God, but the issue was that God cannot die as the sacrifice that we needed. So, God had to become man. Fully God and yet fully man. The mystery of the Hypostatic Union.  

 It's so simple, but it's so deep, and honestly it adds a twinge of sadness to the joy of Christmas. I'm so very glad that Jesus came, that He loved us so much that He was willing to become human for us. But the reason that He had to become human, so that He could die for us, just breaks my heart. That this precious, miracle baby laid in a manger was born so that He could take my place in death - it's bittersweet. 

Here's the Thing: I am so very grateful for Jesus' sacrifice, both in becoming human and in dying on the cross and everything in between. I just wish that it hadn't been necessitated by my sin, my poor choices, my rebellion. 

* Piper, John. Joy to the World: Daily Readings for Advent. Desiring God, 2011.