Christmas is Saturday. It's a great time to take a fresh look at Christmas, particularly

in what Christ's birth represents in the big picture. As the Apostle Paul says of us,

us Christians, we are those, quote, on whom the end of the ages has come, end quote,

first Corinthians 10, 11, the end of the ages has come upon us and the end of the ages has come

upon us by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This is a big concept. It's a hard one, but it's worth

the time. Theologian Richard Gaffin has developed this point really well in a really good book,

His Magnum Opus coming out next year, titled in the fullness of time, an introduction to the

biblical theology of Acts and Paul. There he writes this of why the Apostle Paul was so amazed that

he and us are ones in which the end of the ages has come. Paul, Gaffin writes, is deeply conscious

of living in the fullness of time when at last God has sent his son and when the new creation has

all ready dawned. His vantage point in history is characterized by the fact that he is privileged

to be able now to look back on the climactic events of the history of redemption, the birth

and death and resurrection of Christ as having occurred. Using a sometimes cited analogy from

the Second World War, Paul knows himself to be among those for whom the great D-Day Kingdom

battle is over, for whom the era of conflict between the Kingdom of God and the Dominion of

Satan is in the past and has been decisively resolved. The redemption of God's people is an

accomplished and secure reality. Get that D-Day is done. V-Day is yet future in the Second Coming.

Nevertheless, D-Day that decisive battle is over. It's one. The Kingdom has dawned. In other

words, Gaffin writes, quote, God's revelation in his son in his incarnate person and work has a

finality that cannot be superseded or surpassed. That is the significance of the incarnation.

The new creation has arrived. The Kingdom of God has dawned. The future full arrival of the Kingdom

and the new creation V-Day to come is now inevitable and unstoppable because there is a finality

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