HIS MANGER – MY HEAVEN

2 Cor.8:9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

The birth of Christ gives us a glimpse to the depths of God’s plan of redemption. All of us were born bound by the ramifications of the fall of our first parents. The fruit of that first sin was in us, in our nature, as well as all around us in the curse that pervades all of creation. The fall of man effected not only Adam and Eve but every one of their future children, descendants, and even creation itself. When Christ took on human flesh the first glimpse of God’s redemption plan was unveiled. Christ was born in a human body to take the curse on mankind that we can inherit the blessing of God. That’s what today’s verse is all about. Jesus took the curse of poverty that we may receive the blessing of God. Here is how Ambrose, Augustine’s pastor, describes redemption and the birth of Christ.

“He was a baby and a child, so that you may be a perfect human. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that you may be freed from the snares of death. He was in a manger, so that you may be in the altar. He was on earth that you may be in the stars. He had no other place in the inn, so that you may have many mansions in the heavens. “He, being rich, became poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich.” Therefore his poverty is our inheritance, and the Lord’s weakness is our virtue. He chose to lack for himself, that he may abound for all. The sobs of that appalling infancy cleanse me, those tears wash away my sins. Therefore, Lord Jesus, I owe more to your sufferings because I was redeemed than I do to works for which I was created.…”

So this Christmas take another look at the manger. The manger is a picture of the coming crucifixion. It was the very reason that He came. He took upon Himself my condition; my sin, my sickness, my poverty, and my distress that I may experience heaven. Righteousness replaces sinfulness, peace replaces worry, love replaces fear, health replaces sickness, and life replaces death. He was born in a manger that I might have my home in the place I called heaven.