Summary

Who is He? Word on the Week 21st December 2024.
‘Who is He in yonder stall at whose feet the shepherds fall’? When light breaks in on us and we ‘see Jesus’ the God/Man we can join in the chorus of Hanby’s hymn –
‘Tis the Lord! O, wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
‘At His feet we humbly fall –
Crown Him! Crown Him, Lord of all!

But light has not broken in on many. Even in the singing of carols ‘O come let us adore Him’ gets interpreted to ‘O come let us ignore Him’.
And yet you cannot close your eyes to Jesus. The masterstroke of taking flesh and identifying with His creation is not something you can dismiss. It is here that Jews, Moslems, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others come to grief.
The thought that the second member of the Trinity became one of us except for sin is a stumbling block for many.
Conversely, get this right and the glory of God bursts in on you and demolishes doubts in its wake!

J.I. Packer, the theologian, reckoned it was from an inadequate belief about the incarnation that caused difficulties with other points in the Gospel. He believed that doubts about the virgin birth, miracles, the atonement and the resurrection stemmed from an inadequate view of Jesus’ birth.

So ‘Who is He’?
As the second person of the Trinity there was never a time when He did not exist. As Scripture puts it the Father loved the Son from before the foundation of the world (John 17 verse 24). And it is at the right time that Jesus became man (Galatians 4 verse 4) without ever ceasing to be God.

In the days when giving lifts in the car to hikers was common it was my practice to ask them what they thought about Jesus. The evasive nature of the replies showed there was little thought expended on the person and work of Christ. It was often the virgin birth that was the problem.
We can read of it predicted in Isaiah 7 verse 14. ‘A virgin would conceive by the Holy Spirit and the son to be born would be named Emmanuel which means ‘God with us’. The prophecy could scarcely have been plainer but, as my father often said, ‘There are none so blind as those who will not see.’
For those who do see, Jesus portrayed our invisible God (John 14 verse 9). Not in his actions only but in his nature which at the core was agape love. That is love for the enemy who actively persecutes you (Romans 5 verse 8).
So Who is Jesus? He is Lord of all.
‘Tis the Lord! O, wondrous story!
‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!
‘At His feet we humbly fall –
Crown Him! Crown Him, Lord of all!