Friday, February 14, 2020

2020.02.14 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 2:21-24

Questions from the Scripture text: How many days has it been since Jesus was born (Luke 2:21)? What needs to be done now? What do they name Him? Why? How many days has it been now in Luke 2:22, according to what (cf. Leviticus 12:2-8)? Where do they go now? To do what? Why (Luke 2:23)? What did they offer (Luke 2:24)? According to what? 
It’s amazing that Christ is circumcised, because circumcision was a sign of the removal of the flesh. It was a sign that we need a death sacrifice for forgiveness in order that God may justly take from us that wicked nature with which we came into the world (Colossians 2:11). It was a sign that we need God to give to us the new nature that believes in Christ, belongs to Christ, and behaves more and more like Christ (cf. Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28-29).

But Christ Himself did not need any of the things that circumcision signifies. He had no sinful nature to be cut off. He came into the world with a sinless human nature. What Christ did have to do for us was to keep the law in our place, and the law demanded signs and sacrifices. Even sacrifices that reminded us that what happened to the firstborn in Egypt is what each of us deserves to happen to us (Luke 2:23).

How important a thing it is, then, to have godly parents. And how necessary that our incarnate Lord would have them! For, in this passage are two parts of the law that needed kept for our sakes, but for which God the Son was reduced by His humanity to dependence upon Joseph and Mary.

Of course, it is also part of the wonder of the incarnation that in His divine nature, He is upholding them as they obey, by both His general providence (cf. Hebrews 1:3) and by the special grace of His Spirit’s work in them. But here is part of the means that He used to save us. A mother, and earthly adoptive father, who obey Genesis 17 when the Baby is eight days old and Leviticus 12 when the Baby is two weeks old. Who also obey the Lord’s messenger about what to name Him.

Jesus. The Lord saves. For He would save His people from their sins. And He did!
In what parts of His earthly life did Jesus keep the law on believers’ behalf? What did He need in order to do so? Who else, these days, need other believers’ help to obey God?
Suggested songs: ARP45A “My Heart Is Greatly Stirred” or TPH438 “I Love to Tell the Story”

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