2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks
be to God for his indescribable gift!”
Really that is what Christmas is all about right? At Christmas we take a few minutes out of our busy lives, and celebrate the birth of God’s gift to us, Jesus Christ. This word “Indescribable” is used only one time in the New Testament. And it is used to describe only one thing. The gift of God to us, Jesus Christ. As I prepared this post my mind kind of swirled as I tried to put into words, the greatness of the gift Jesus Christ. Then it hit me “If the apostle Paul could not describe the gift, then surely I cannot describe the gift” After all if Paul could put it into words he would have, and if God’s gift could be described, then it would no longer be Indescribable, and the Bible would be wrong. And we all know that is impossible.
Turn to 6:1-4. This is a passage of scripture that I have not been able to get out of my mind for about a month. It is a passage that James MacDonald in the first chapter of his book “Gripped by the Greatness of God” breaks down word for word, and once I read it, I have been unable to shake it! This is a picture of Jesus Christ, before the Baby in the Manger, before the light brown hair, big smile surrounded by kids, and before bruised, bloody and hanging on the cross. The prophet Isaiah describes a look into the throne room of Jesus Christ before he descended to earth.
Isaiah 6:1-4 In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and
the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him were seraphs each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with
two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the
whole earth is full of his glory.” At
the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was
filled with smoke.
We know this is Jesus, as the Bible tells us that “No one has seen God at any time, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” (John 1:18) And the first thing we notice is:
1) High and Exalted
o This points to his position, higher than others, the place of Glory, honor, prestige. The focus point, the center off everyone’s attention. Jesus Christ sitting on the throne, the position of the Ruler, the King, High and Exalted! That is an image of Jesus Christ we are losing in our world today. “The man upstairs, our home boy, Some old codger with a white beard” NO! High and Exalted Ruler of all things The Lord of Lords!
2) Train or His Robe
o The train is the part of the robe that communicates honor. At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth at the Westminster Abbey the train of her robe went all the way back down the aisle almost to the door. The Train of the Lord of Lords filled the room!
3) The Angles
o I don’t have time to go into a bunch of details about them, let just say there were a bunch of them “calling out to one another” And what they were calling was “holy, holy, holy” Repetition of a word in the original language was used to show importance. This is the only word repeated 3 times in all of scripture and it is used to describe Jesus’ separation from the immorality, sin, and corruption!
o And they repeated over and over, for all eternity! “Holy, Holy, Holy! The whole earth is full of His Glory!”
4) The doorpost, and threshold shook, and the room filled with smoke
o The thunderous hymn of the angles, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY” the foundations shook, the door way shook at the great voices of those calling out their proclamation, of who Jesus Christ Truly is.
o And the temple filled with smoke, perhaps, to shield Isaiah, because He could simply not handle seeing any more.
Wow, a long way from the baby in the manger. I know this passage in Isaiah is probably not what you expected at Christmas time, but in order to understand why the indescribable is so truly indescribable we need to see this picture of Christ before he came down from heaven, before he left his high and exalted position, before he left the presence of the angels proclaiming His holiness, before he came into a world that would turn against Him, before the world would hate him, before they spit on his face, before they beat the crown of thorns into his head, before they stretched him out and nailed him to the cross, before he cried out “IT IS FINISHED!” It is Isaiah’s response that leads us to why the indescribable is indescribable!
Isaiah 6:5 “Woe to me!” “I
am ruined! For I am a man of unclean
lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the
King, the Lord Almighty.”
Isaiah when confronted with the reality of the true greatness, awesomeness, and holiness, of Jesus Christ He was instantly brought to the point of recognizing himself as he truly was “a sinner, lost, ruined unable to make it on his own, in need of a Savior! He realized that those around him where sinners, ruined and unable to make it on their own , and their need for a savior. And what is indiscernible is God’s love for the world that he would send his son, (himself) down from the splendor of heaven where he received the praise he deserves , to be born in a stable, be rejected by men, live a perfect sinless life, so he could offer himself as the payment for our sins, and suffer our hell, on the cross. What kind of love is this. Indescribable
The love of such a perfect God, for such a rotten, sinful people is a love that is indescribable. The price that Jesus Christ paid for us is indescribable; the gift of freedom from the penalty of sin is indescribable. The fact that, anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord SHALL BE SAVED! That is indescribable! If we confess our sinfulness, (as Isaiah did), that we are not “Basically good people who occasionally mess up”, but we are sinful people who’s good works are like filthy rags in the presence of the Almighty Creator! If we confess Jesus Christ is the ALMIGHTY LORD! (As Isaiah did) If we Trust Jesus Christ as our Savior we receive the free gift of eternal life! That my friends is INDESCRIBABLE!
How do we describe the indescribable? The apostle Paul couldn’t, I can’t, you can’t. But what we can do is Believe the indescribable, and trust as our savior the one who lowered himself from heaven to be born in a stable, be rejected by those he came to save, died on the cross, and rose from the grave, ascended (returned) to heaven, where he is preparing a place for you and for me.
I urge you this Christmas, today, right now, to get you life right with God, to place Jesus back on his High and Exalted position make Him the Lord of your life. And if you already have, share this indescribable gift with someone else. Merry Christmas to all!
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