The Christmas Wrappings

God’s gift of life to us came in a special wrapping. When Jesus walked on earth, His flesh was a wrapping around that gift.
Jesus’ death on the cross not only atoned for our sins, but did away with His flesh in order to reveal His Spirit, the eternal Lord. On the cross the wrapping paper came off. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of Jesus came to be in us, “the promise of the Father”. The Spirit of God came to be inside of every human being who receives Him.
The letter of the Old Covenant was a wrapping covering Jesus Christ. That letter was done away when He was revealed. Behind the letter was the reality. When we see our presents under the tree, we first see the wrapping and the gift card out in front. But when we take the wrapping away, we begin to see the gift itself. The card just says, “It’s coming! You’re going to see it! Wait!”
But we can keep Jesus wrapped up just as someone might keep a gift wrapped up because the paper and ribbon are nice. If we are too conscious of the letter and do not look behind it, we may miss the real Person and be worshippers of the wrapper.
The Word made flesh is not the end. Even in Jesus Christ, walking the earth, something was still wrapped. His flesh was a wrapping. Actually, the gift package was double-wrapped.
First, Jesus said, “The Law said this…but I say…; because I am the Maker of the Law and greater than the letter.” Saying this, He removed one wrapper.
Then He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” Another wrapper was going to be taken away.
What will you do? Will you worship the wrapping paper? The real thing was still inside — the promise of the Father, “I will give you after those days a new heart. I will put My Spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in My statutes.” (Ezek. 36:26,27). That is the real thing.
God’s people waited a long time for their Messiah. When Jesus came, the disciples thought that now everything was accomplished. “Here we have the King. Here we have the One of whom the Scriptures spoke. We have our gift.” But they were only seeing the wrapping.
The disciples ask, “Is this the time of the kingdom?” “Not yet. I have to go away. This body must disappear that you may have the real thing that was promised, that is the Spirit within you.”
Those thirty-three years of Jesus’ life are precious and wonderful. Nevertheless, we have to proceed in the revelation of God’s purposes. There are a number of books and Bible studies on the subject, “The Life of Christ”. They cover only from the manger to the ascension. That’s not the life of Christ! That’s just thirty-three years, and in one way it is the poorest picture of Jesus. It is the picture of the Jesus who was made of no reputation, the picture of Him as He took the form of a servant, the picture of the Jesus that came in the image of man.
And I have to confess that all my life I was told almost exclusively about the Jesus in the flesh. When I was a boy, we started with the manger and we studied the twelve year old boy, the baptism, the temptations, the miracles and parables, the death on the cross and the resurrection; then back to the manger!
Paul said, “Henceforth we know no man after the flesh. And even though we knew Jesus after the flesh, we don’t know Him anymore that way” (II Cor. 5:16). Too much consciousness of Jesus after the flesh is a hindrance in knowing Jesus, the eternal Lord, who was behind the flesh, under the wrapping.
The same thing can be said of the letter, the Law. Too much consciousness of the letter gives the letter the wrong place, so that the letter becomes an end in itself rather than a pointing finger to the real thing.
The letter points to Jesus. Jesus in the flesh was part of the promise, but the final fulfillment was that the Holy Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Jesus, would dwell in each one of us and cause us to walk in God’s ways.
Paul writes to the Corinthians, “From now on we recognize no man according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.”
What does he mean? In a way he is saying that he is glad he did not see Jesus after the flesh. He had something less to unlearn. He had one problem less. Problem? Not that knowing Jesus in the flesh is a problem. Don’t misunderstand me. BUT TO BE MORE CONSCIOUS OF HIS EARTHLY LIFE THAN OF THE ETERNAL LORD HIMSELF WITHIN YOU IS DANGEROUS. We tend to be static, you know, not dynamic and growing in the knowledge of Christ. To know only the historic Christ is a retrospective and static knowledge. To know Him as He is now is a dynamic and growing knowledge.
So Paul says he has one problem less. If he had known Christ in the flesh, he would try to erase that image from his mind and heart. Why? In order to give place to the unwrapped Lord within, the promise of the
Father. That flesh of Jesus has to fade away.
They said Paul didn’t know Jesus?? He knew the unwrapped Jesus, the inward living, the eternal Lord with the glory He had from the beginning before the ages.
Well which Jesus do you know? The body of Jesus was the wrapping of the Spirit. This is something like the tabernacle, with its outer court, the holy place and the holiest. When you get to the outer court, you think you have everything. Praise the Lord! You enter with joy, but then you find out there is the holy place. When you get in there, again you think you have everything. But yet there is the holiest place.
Now we are in the dispensation of no veils — no more outer wrappings. THE UNWRAPPED SPIRIT OF GOD IS RIGHT WITHIN US.
Of course, this has many implications. Paul speaks of “God, whom I serve in my spirit” (Rom. 1:9). Jesus said that true worship is the worship in the spirit (John 4:24). There is physical soul/body worship and there is a soul/spirit union worship.
There is physical worship where only the presence of the body in the pew is taken as important. We are there in body because we feel, somehow, that we should be. Oh, sure, we do it with feeling. We put our mind and thought into it. There is a good meeting. Nevertheless, if we go no farther than that, it could be another hindrance.
When we learn to worship in the Spirit, that is in a soul/spirit union, we are no longer controlled by our circumstances. We don’t need any music or candles or instruction - nothing. You could even sit in a tavern and have the closest fellowship with God even with all that carousing going on around you.
Of course, when you learn to worship God in Spirit, it actually becomes a spirit/soul/body activity with everything taking part.
Why all this teaching about taking off the wrappings? If we were Jewish people born under the letter, it might seem more justified. My concern is that we, who were born nearly two thousand years after Jesus tore off the wrapping of the veil are still living as though God’s Christmas gift is wrapped so well that we hate to open it.
We look at the pretty wrappings. We see the life of Jesus in the flesh and accept the death of His body as a judgment for the sins we have committed.
We might even carefully (so as not to disturb the ribbon and bows) remove some of the wrappings. We uncover a risen Christ, but only a Jesus who lives far away now but makes contact with us when we really need Him. But we do not get to the core of the gift.
When all the wrappings are removed, we come to recognize the beautiful love and depth of God’s gift to us in Christ - GOD ACTUALLY PLACES CHRIST RIGHT WITHIN US GIVING US A NEW SPIRIT NATURE. WE BECOME A NEW CREATION.

So when you open a present this Christmas or at anytime of the year, let it be a reminder of God’s gift in Christ. Enjoy the wrappings - the paper, the ribbon and bows, the card. But when you get to the core of the present inside of the wrappings, STOP, if only for an instant, and consider the precious Spirit of Christ within you, GOD’S GIFT OF GRACE.

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