We get caught up in all the Advent things: Advent season, Advent devotionals, Advent candles, Advent conspiracy...In the end we forget just what Advent is. Unfortunately this happens time and again with words that we throw around in our theological and Christian jargon. Salvation, sanctification, justification, propitiation, eschatology, etc. We have a roundabout understanding of their meaning but when asked for a straightforward definition we stammer out unsatisfactory answers. In reality all these words have simple definitions but we rarely get down to the bare bones meaning. More than this though, each of these words plays into the definition of the others. Advent is no different.
Advent leads to Emmanuel, this arrival leads to God with us.
This is the season of the coming, the arrival. We celebrate the days leading up to the first step of the culmination of the salvation story: the incarnation of the Christ.
Hebrews 1:1-4
"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs."
Hebrews 2:9-11a
"But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source..."
"But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source..."
PS The book Hebrews should be on your Advent reading list.
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