Christmas: Mystery or Myth?

Peter, as an eyewitness, flatly denies he followed any myth. "We did not follow cleverly invented stories [muvqoi = myths] when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16). Paul forewarned Timothy that some would follow myths rather than the truth. "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine . . . they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths [muvqou]" (2 Tim. 4:3-5). Moreover, Paul insisted that any notion of a fable that was not fact, even if the religious context were Judaism, was to be rejected (cf., Tit. 1:13-14; 1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7).

Instead of claiming that Jesus is the "myth" of God incarnate, he claims that Jesus is God's mystery (Col. 2:2). Though Christ is identified with the mystery rather than with God in Colossians 2:2, verse 3 says that Christ is God's mystery because "in him [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Since Paul just affirmed the supremacy of Christ in his creative activity (1:15-20), and he goes on to affirm Christ as the complete embodiment of the divine essence (2:9), the wisdom and knowledge here are most likely divine wisdom and knowledge. In other words, all that is deepest in God is mysteriously summed up in Christ. There were false teachers who were trying to deceive the Colossian believers by claiming they were a better source of esoteric wisdom and knowledge (cf., 2:4, 8, 16, 18). Paul counters, in effect, by saying that Christ is the 'once-hidden-but-now-revealed-God' - the divine secret made known by his bodily presence. True spiritual knowledge lies nowhere else but in Christ who is God's wisdom (cf., 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:8

Why Did Christmas Happen?

By John Piper

Two times in 1 John 3:1-10 we are told why Christmas happened—that is, why the eternal, divine Son of God came into the world as a human being. In verse 5, John says, “You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” So the sinlessness of Christ is affirmed—“in him there is no sin.” And the reason for his coming is affirmed—“He appeared to take away sins.”

Then in the second part of verse 8, John says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” And the specific focus John has in mind when he says “works of the devil” is the sin that the devil promotes. We see that in the first part of verse 8: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” So the works of the devil that Jesus came to destroy are the works of sin.

So two times John tells us that Christmas happened—the Son of God became a human being—to take away sin, or to destroy the works of the devil, namely, sin. So Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18, 20), and “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man,” (Luke 2:52), and was perfectly obedient and sinless in all his life and ministry, all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 4:15)—in order to destroy the works of the devil—to take away sin.

HT: Desiring God

Advent Cards

I like the idea behind this Advent card idea, using everyday experiences to help us remember and reflect on the true reason for the season - "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6).

Photo Source: Ben Bell