The Appearing Of Our Savior Christ Jesus

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…”

Every December we remember or remind ourselves of the birth of our Lord. This is known as the Advent of Jesus Christ. The word advent means the appearance of someone or something notable or exceptional. So the Advent of Jesus Christ is the coming or appearing of Jesus in the world. We also refer to the birth of Jesus as the Incarnation. The Incarnation is a reference to the Word becoming flesh (John 1:14). Jesus as the Son of God (meaning God the Son) took to himself our humanity. He became flesh. He was found in fashion as a man (as Philippians 2:8 states— KJV). Our Lord is Deity in flesh.

The Incarnation of our Lord is a fundamental doctrine of the Scriptures. The Incarnation also refers to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35). There has been a great deal of debate and speculation concerning the Virgin Birth. The focus of the Virgin Birth is, of course, not Mary but on Jesus. The Scriptures state that Mary is blessed and favored (Luke 1:28, 45). Mary herself acknowledges that God is her Savior (Luke 1:46, 47), and she also calls herself the“servant of the Lord” (Luke 1:38). There is no indication anywhere in all of Scripture that Mary is anything other than a servant of God and a sinner like the rest of us. In fact, we find her and her children worshiping and praying with the early church under the leadership of the apostles (Acts 1:14).

We tend to focus only on the birth of our Lord around Christmastime, which is surely a mistake. We should be able to speak from the birth narratives of our Lord at any time. In fact, we find Paul mentioning the appearance of Jesus as our Savior in 2 Timothy 1:10. Paul mentions our Lord in this way as the fulfillment of God’s goal in redemption in 2 Timothy 1:10. We also know that the coming again of our Lord is part of God’s great plan of redemption, but Paul does not speak of the Second Coming here in this text.

Paul’s aim was to encourage Timothy to not be ashamed of both the Lord and Paul as a prisoner because of the Gospel, and also to share in suffering for the Lord as Paul was (vs. 8). Paul had just stated that God has given the believer the spirit of love, power, and self-control and not of fear (vs. 7). This matches verse 8 when Paul says that this suffering and sharing in and for the gospel is “by the power of God.”

Second, Paul tells us that God has saved us and called to a holy calling. This holy calling is a change of life. It is a new, transformed life. The nature of God’s power is seen in our salvation (who saved us), and its purpose or result is a new life (a holy calling). God’s call is always holy, but here the intent is that we might be holy as a result of his call (Eph. 1:18; 4:1; 2 Thess. 1:11; 1 Pet. 1:15, 16; 2:9, 10).

Third, the judicial basis for this salvation and calling is “not because of our works” (vs. 9). There is nothing anyone can do to merit this salvation that God provides. It is not on the basis of our works of righteousness (Tit. 2:14; 3:5). It is only on the basis of his mercy.

Thus we see, fourth, that the motive to accomplish this salvation is “because of his own purpose and grace”(vs. 9). Any saving that God does is according to his plan and is always by his grace. Salvation is never the result of our accomplishments, but always by God’s sovereign purpose and for his eternal pleasure (see Rom. 1:17; 3:20–24, 28; 8:28; 9:11; 10:5, 9, 13; 11:6; Gal. 2:16; 3:6, 8–14; 6:14; Eph. 1:11, also vv. 3–14). God’s plan and purpose are not haphazard or arbitrary but fixed and definite. It is eternal because God is eternal. Since salvation is by grace (Eph. 2:8, 9), it is never by works. Grace is something given to us and never earned by us. Grace also precedes our works. In fact, it is because of grace that we can now do those works that God commands.

Again, even the doing of the works is impossible to us apart from the grace given to us. This is why Paul says in our text that God gave us this in Christ Jesus before the ages began (vs. 9). “Before the ages began” refers to the eternal ages past. God saw his plan as accomplished in his Son before it even began in time. The eternal ages (including time) are always eternally present to God.

So before time everlasting, God did all this for us in Christ. It is the “time” part that relates to us. Verse 10 says that all that God purposed and planned has now manifested itself “through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus.” So when our Lord is born in Bethlehem, all of these great truths we have been discussing come to fruition. The reality is realized. Paul looks back behind the coming into this world of our Lord Jesus to the eternal counsels of God, and he also now looks forward to the accomplishments of Jesus who came into the world.

What are those accomplishments? He tells us in verse 10. First, our Lord Jesus “abolished death.” By his first coming, our Lord Jesus Christ has utterly defeated death. He has put it out of commission. Death has been rendered ineffective. Eternal death no longer exists for the believer. Spiritual death has been vanquished. Second, our Lord has, on the other hand, “brought life and immortality” to us. This has been secured for us through his resurrection, but here Paul speaks of the gospel has brought this about. The light of the gospel has shone into our hearts. When we are saved by God’s grace through faith (his gift to us), eternal life is ours. Immortality is far beyond endless existence or conscious endless existence. It is the very life of God in us. This life must overcome death finally and will ensure our eternal existence.

So Christmas is so much more than the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem’s manger. It is the fruition of God’s eternal plan, but it is not the end of the plan. There is far more to come as Paul suggests in the words “life and immortality.” It is so often taken for granted by us that it was through the gospel that this has been made known to us. The Bible declares the truth, but we cannot receive or believe the truth unless we have been saved by grace through faith. This is why we find unbelievers unable to “see” what we see. We see because of the “light” given to us.

It is the light of the gospel; the light that the gospel brings that enables us to see. We are blind without God’s light. Calvin writes in his Geneva Catechism about the conception of our Lord in this way: “he put on our flesh in order that having become the Son of Man he might make us sons of God with him; having received our poverty in himself, he might transfer his wealth to us; having submitted to our weakness, he might strengthen us by his power; having accepted our mortality, he might give us his immortality; having descended to the earth, he might raise us to heaven.” God has done glorious things for us in the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, likewise men, worship him.