THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"The World Turned Upside Down”
Rev.
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prca.orgDear radio friends,
Today, and for the
coming weeks, we hope to turn our attention to the wonder of God’s love in the
birth of Jesus Christ our Savior, to the wonderful truth of God’s grace—that He
gave His own Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. We are going to be
directing ourselves to that miracle of Bethlehem where God’s own and eternal
Son took upon Himself our human flesh in order that He might make a perfect
payment for the sins of God’s elect children—so that they bear them no
more. And that He is the One through
whom we have received the gift of life eternal, life forevermore.
Perhaps there is no
aspect of the gospel that is so distorted, twisted,
and misunderstood as that of Christ’s birth and the reason for that birth in
All of these
answers are utterly false.
The Scriptures
declare to us that the birth of Jesus Christ had to do with what God would
do. And that, in that work, God would
cast down the proud, the mighty, and the rich; and that He would exalt the
lowly, the weak, and the poor in spirit.
The Scriptures declare that the birth of Jesus Christ has to do with
God’s grace, by which He topples man and all of his pride and sin and whereby
He alone is exalted as the God who saves and who alone can save through His Son
Jesus Christ.
The virgin Mary saw this.
She saw it in a flash. Our text today is taken from
Luke 1:51-53,
which is part of Mary’s song, called the Magnificat. We call
it the Magnificat because that is how she began her
song of praise: “My soul doth magnify
the Lord.” She stands, at this moment,
before Elisabeth her cousin. And all the
wonder of the purpose of God in the giving of His Son in human flesh comes to
her. Here she stands before her cousin
Elisabeth, who has greeted her as the mother of her Lord, as the one who now
bears within her womb the very flesh and blood of God’s Son. She has greeted her exaltingly. Then Mary responds in a song of praise to
God. And in that song she sees that the
birth of Jesus Christ has to do with what God is doing. God will bring down the proud and the
exalted. He will exalt the lowly. In other words, God will turn topsy-turvy the
judgment of man. He will turn the world
upside down.
The words that we want to look at are found in
Luke 1:51-53.
“He [that is, God] hath shewed strength with
his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree. He hath
filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” As I said, in those words, by the Holy
Spirit, it became clear to the virgin Mary. It became crystal clear. By grace she caught a glimpse of God’s
purpose in the giving of His Son.
The birth of Jesus
Christ is, after all, the central moment of time and history. The Bible declares that it was for His birth
that all else was before it. And the
Bible declares that it was because of His birth that all since has transpired. Jesus Christ was born (
Gal. 4)
in the fullness
of time, the focal point of all time.
Now, what was God’s intent in doing this? Why did God give His Son to be born in our
flesh? What was in God’s heart when He
did so? It is into this that the virgin Mary is given a glimpse. Her eyes are opened through the Old Testament
Scriptures. For, if you read her song
(Luke 1:46ff.),
you will see that Mary’s song of praise there is, in reality,
but a compilation of various Old Testament Scriptures and Psalms. But they are arranged in such a way as to
show that to Mary it is now clear.
It is not only
clear to her that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. She was to be the mother, the human agent of
bringing forth into this world, of the very Son of God in flesh. That, in itself, was staggering, utterly
staggering, to her. But
more. Her words show that she
realizes the purpose of God’s doing this.
God is going to do this for His glory and honor, to show that salvation
is entirely of Him.
She is very clear
as to what God’s purpose is. She sees
that God, in the giving of His Son into flesh, has calculated to bring low
man’s pride and to exalt His own grace as the only way of salvation. It all, so to speak, comes together. She sees that God is bringing man low and
exalting Himself. She may not have been
able to express that truth of the exaltation of God and His Son in all of its
wonderful theological terms and insights, but she is seeing, nevertheless, what
all of the people of God have seen concerning the coming of God’s grace into
the world.
Isaiah saw it. In
Isaiah 2:17
we read “And the loftiness of
man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord
alone shall be exalted in that day.” The
apostle Paul saw it. He writes in I
Corinthians 1
that no flesh should glory in His presence, but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. In other words, Mary, Isaiah, and Paul, and
all who love the Lord see the birth of Jesus Christ as being theocentric. Theo-centric
means God-centered. It is all about what
God will do and how God shall glorify Himself.
And so she cries out: “My soul
doth magnify the Lord.”
Is that what you
see in the birth of Jesus Christ? You
see much more than just the humble beginnings of a great human being. You see that it is more than just trying to
promote understanding and peace among men.
But do you catch a glimpse of the truth of what God is going to do to
glorify Himself as the Savior?
Mary is seeing that
the coming of Jesus Christ into the world is entirely about what God will do
and has done unaided, calling for none to help Him. She says, “He hath shown the strength of His
arm,” or “He has shown His might.”
Christmas is not about what man is going to do. It is not about what man ought to do. It is about what God has done. The Christian gospel to the world is not,
first of all, this, that we say, “Now you should be at your best, you should
put into effect in society a spirit that will bring peace.” But the Christian gospel or the Christmas
gospel declares what God has done. God
has done something sure.
Notice, when Mary
sings she uses the past tense—of something that has been accomplished. “God hath showed.” “God hath scattered.” “God hath put down.” “God has filled.” She uses words pointing to the past. Yet she is speaking of things that are in the
future. She speaks of the Christ-child
who has just been conceived in her womb.
Perhaps she is in the first month of her pregnancy. All of these things are yet to be
accomplished. But yet she confesses that
in her womb is the key to all that is in the future. In her womb is the mighty God, the One
through whom God has willed that He will triumph and of what He will do.
She sees that in
the giving of His Son, God is turning the world upside down, that God has made
a complete reversal of man’s thinking, that God has
put all of man’s notions down, and God has placed Himself on high. Mary sees the world turned upside down, in
her thought and in her judgment, by the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
The table, she
says, has been turned on man’s estimations in three ways. For we note three things that she speaks of,
three things that proud man would boast of:
Man’s wisdom, man’s power, and man’s wealth.
Mary says, “He has
scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.” The imagination of one’s heart is a
figurative expression of man’s pride, haughtiness, and arrogance—when man, of
himself, thinks himself to be something. The expression comes from
Jeremiah 3:17,
where men are said to walk
after the imagination of their evil heart.
That is when a man, apart from God, apart from trust and humility before
God, would say, “We know. We can solve
our problems. Belief in God is an old
thing, for weak people. Obedience to God
is not necessary. We can discover the
truth by ourselves, for ourselves.”
It is then that men
begin to imagine that they are great. An
imagination is, of course, something that is not real. They begin to imagine that they are great. That is not real. That is not true. That is an imagination. Men begin to say, “We are the experts. We are the brainy people.” They are puffed up. They are proud of their learning. And they begin to dream that they are able to
figure out the way—the way out of all of the world’s chaos and problems.
In Jesus’ day this
mentality of the proud imagination of man simply filled the world. There were the Greek philosophers. And then the Roman
clone-philosophers after them.
Then there were all the great men in the day of Jesus Christ. Man was saying, when Jesus was born, “We are
man. We will put God on the dissecting
table. We will discover what is truth and what is not.
We are great.”
But in the coming
of God’s Son, God hath scattered, says Mary, the proud imaginations of
men. God hath blown this all away. God has exposed the folly of man. Man, in the birth of Jesus Christ, is exposed
for who he is, for God has sent His Son to be the Savior. Therefore, God is declaring through the gift
of His Son that man, of himself, cannot know truth, cannot solve his
problems. For God has reached down in
grace in order to instruct, through the gift of faith in Jesus Christ.
God has scattered
the wisdom of man, blown it away, when He gave His own Son to be born. God has made man look silly in the coming of
His Son. Man has said, “We are
sufficient. We know where we came from. And we know where we are going.” God gives His Son in
There is one way to
truth: Through this Son, Jesus Christ,
God’s Son in the flesh, the only Savior and Redeemer.
But Mary says, Not
only has He put down the wisdom of man, but He has put down the might of
man. Mary says, “He hath put down the
mighty from their seats.” Seats refers to thrones.
It is a reference to the status of a man, to the power of a man, to the
influence of a man, to a king who would boast of his power, to a corporate
executive who would boast of wealth and influence, to politicians. God has put this down.
Man
says, “Not only are we wise, but we are powerful. We can control, we can manipulate, we can
bring things to pass that we desire.” At
last, the Bible says, that this pride of man, this boasting of his power, is
going to be expressed in the antichristian kingdom, the Antichrist who is going
to declare that he is God and that he, by his power, can accomplish what he
wants.
But God, in the
sending of His Son, has put down the mighty.
God has dethroned him. God has
declared that all human might is worthless and vain. In the giving of His Son, God is declaring
that, no matter how man would strive to establish himself, he is but dust, a
sinner, and he falls under death and cannot save himself from death.
But
more. In the giving of His Son in
the way of lowliness and shame, God has also raised up His Son to all
power. In the giving of His Son God has
declared that all might, all authority, all power will be invested in His Son,
the Son who has gone to the cross to bear away the guilt of the church. Now enthroned at the right hand of the
majesty on high, He has all power, dominion, and glory. God will then turn man upside down. His strength before Jesus Christ is declared
to be worthless. And Jesus Christ, in
His power and in His glory, stands as the One who rules over all things,
accomplishing the purposes of God.
Then Mary says that
God has turned upside down not only the wisdom and the strength of man, but
also his riches. For, she says, “and the
rich he hath sent empty away.” The word
“rich” here is spoken in the moral sense—of those who would pride themselves as
being better than others. As the
Pharisee of Jesus’ day would pride himself in his morality and would say, “We
are the people of God. We have done
great things. We deserve…. We have earned…. Look, we are of good stock.” The rich here refer, then, to the
self-righteous, to those who believe that by their own goodness they can attain
to a right standing with God.
But they too are
put on their head. They are turned
upside down when they stand before the Christ-child. For before this Christ-child they are
declared to be sinners, whose own works cannot save them. And, as long as they hold on to their
self-righteousness, they go away empty from the Christ-child. So long as you believe that of yourself you
can attain your own salvation, that it is in your power, that you are better—so
long as you see yourself as being better than someone else—you must go away
empty from the Christ-child. If you
believe that you are basically OK, then you can have nothing in this
Christ-child. For this Christ-child declares in the gospel (
Rom. 3)
that there is none righteous, no not one; all
have gone astray; none seek after God.
This is why He has come—because His people have no merit, have no
strength, have no ability to save themselves. When this Christ-child is born, God is
declaring concerning men, concerning you and me, that we, of ourselves, are empty,
we are naked, we are undone sinners, we are
empty-handed before God.
This is what God
declares in the birth of His Son. Mary
sees it. Mary sees that man’s standards
are turned upside down. The wisdom, the
power, and the moral riches of men, all of them, are shown to be nothing,
absolutely nothing. God alone must be
the Savior—God alone in His wisdom, and power—and God alone, by His grace.
So, in the gift of
His Son, God has exalted the lowly. In
the sending of His Son, He has reversed the order of man. He has overturned the apple cart. Those blessed by the mighty Savior are those
who are made to know the truth of themselves as foolish, hopeless, and unworthy
sinners.
That is the whole
Bible. I love the way
I Corinthians 1:26-31
states that truth. We read, “For
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called.
But God hath chosen the … weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty; … He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord.”
In Jesus Christ God
gives true wisdom to the lowly. In Jesus
Christ He gives us to know the true condition of our heart as sinners. Through faith in Jesus Christ we are given to
know the true and the living God and the riches of His love and mercy, and that
we are created now in Christ to serve God.
Then we are wise. We are wise
when we know God, when we know that our purpose, our only purpose, is to serve
and to glorify God.
Apart from Jesus
Christ, you would not know this. But God
has sent His Son. And this is the
purpose of God’s sending His Son: that
you might be wise and know reality. But
God has also exalted His own strength.
He has shown that He is the God who, of grace, will come down to us who
are of low degree, to us who are nothing of ourselves. And He will, by the power of His grace in
Jesus Christ, redeem us, making a perfect payment for all of our sins through
the death of His own Son.
So, in Jesus
Christ, we receive the blessedness of righteousness, the assurance that God has
put to our account the perfect innocency and the
perfect obedience of His own Son Jesus Christ.
This is what God
has done in the gift of His Son. This is
why His Son was born—in order that man in all of his vaunted wisdom, vaunted power,
vaunted wealth would be put low, shown to be nothing; and in order that God,
and God alone, His grace, His mercy, His strength, be exalted in His Son Jesus
Christ. That God be declared great, and
that man be declared nothing but a sinner who must be
saved by pure, wonderful grace.
Do you believe
that? Or are you too wise for that? Are you too self-reliant? Are you too filled with yourself—proud,
powerful, and rich? The way of the
gospel of grace is that we are shamed over our own folly. We are exposed to ourselves as naked, weak
sinners. We are shown to be empty-handed
and void of all merit before God. And
then we see Christ, the power and the wisdom of God. We see that in Christ God has exalted Himself
in providing the way of grace, the way of salvation for the church.
Embrace this
Christ-child—this Christ-child who has turned man upside down—put man down and
exalted God. Blessed are all those who
trust in Him, who are wise, by grace, exalted and filled with His grace. Then bow at His feet and worship the
Christ-child.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank
Thee for the Word. We ask for its
entrance into our heart in this day. We
pray, O Lord, that we may ever be humbled before Him
who took our flesh and was born that we might live. In His name we pray, Amen.