The Greeks built a large wooden horse and abandoned it with a lone soldier who explained to the Trojans that it was an offering for Athena to atone for previous desecrations of her temple by the Greeks. Several people warned the Trojans, but in the end they 
pulled the horse into Troy as a trophy of their victory. Of course, in reality, the “Trojan Horse” was filled with elite Greek soldiers, including Odysseus, who crept out of it in the middle of the night and opened the doors of the city to the whole Greek army – thus conquering Troy through a smuggling operation.
It struck me, as I’ve been meditating on Christmas and Psalm 23 in particular, that Jesus was the ultimate smuggler. His death was the ultimate Trojan Horse. The devil accepted the body of Jesus as a trophy of war, thinking it signaled his victory. But in his fully human body Jesus carried into death two elite warriors that ensured the defeat of sin, death and the devil forever: 1) his perfectly righteous human life and 2) his full divinity.
Jesus had to be fully human to serve as our representative and substitute. This is why Christmas matters so very much. The miracle of the incarnation was not so much the virgin birth as the virgin conception.
- The Creator of the universe was concealed for several weeks in a microscopic embryo!
- The One who spoke the cosmos into being could not speak until he learned to make sounds with his human vocal cords!
- The One who defines holiness had to overcome every temptation we face in order to fulfill all righteousness.
Because the Son of God became the Son of Man Jesus was able to smuggle his perfection and divinity into a human body and when that body was consumed by death on the cross, the grim executioner of humanity swallowed his own defeat. For death holds two weapons – sin and the law.
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
The Law establishes God’s standard and is a club that beats everyone to the ground – for God’s standard is nothing less than perfection. The Law knocks a man down, consistently revealing God’s untarnished righteousness and how far we fall short of it. Then death delivers the killing blow using the sword of sin, for “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). These are the twin weapons of death that have brought down countless hosts of men and women throughout history.
On the cross and through the resurrection, Jesus disarmed death. By smuggling into his human body both perfection and divinity Jesus knocked death’s weapons from his hands. Jesus’ perfect human life satisfied the the demands of the law and his full divinity gave his sacrifice infinite value.
- For the one who belongs to Jesus by faith death no longer has a sting, for the sword of sin fell on Jesus and will not fall on us – “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)!
- The club of the Law cannot be wielded against us for Jesus’ righteousness has been credited to our account – “in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us” (Rom. 8:4, NIV).
Christian believers, therefore, face death as a defeated foe. He still reigns until Jesus comes back to throw him into the lake of fire, but his claws have been removed, his weapons taken. “Where, O Death, is your sting?” is our taunt. Death cannot harm us – all he can do is send us home.