"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
-John 1:14
The true message of Christmas is that God became a man so that ultimately He could offer salvation to all mankind.
Christmas – the very word evokes feelings of joy over an event which took place around 2000 years ago in a village six miles south of Jerusalem.
The date itself is unimportant – no one knows the exact day on which Jesus was born but what we celebrate is an event, not a date. Through the total submission of a young virgin “Mary “to the will of God (Luke 1: 38) God was able to demonstrate His love for us by sending His Son (John 3:16) and introducing Him into the world as a helpless, dependent baby (Luke 2:7). This child when grown to maturity, would through His sinless life (John 14:30, I Peter 2:21-22) and atoning death (Rom 5:11) remove the sin of the whole world (I John 2:2) and open the way for every man, woman and child to come into eternal communion and fellowship with God (John 17:3) (Eternal Life)
When God originally created men He gave him dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26-28, Psalm 8:4-8, Psalm 115:16) and having divested Himself of His authority, after the fall God no longer had direct control over man’s affairs. That being the case, for the Word of God to have authority in the earth, the Word had to be spoken by man. This meant that God had to find men who would hear His voice in their hearts and then speak His Word through their mouths. No one man was capable of receiving all the revelation that God needed to give about the coming of His Son, and in practice, it took thousands of years for God to find enough men (Prophets) to speak forth everything that needed to be spoken to create the seed. Each word spoken by God through the mouths of men (Prophets), was like a small part of the spiritual DNA needed to create Jesus. When all the individual words had been spoken and collected together by God the seed was complete. The seed was the Word of God (I Peter 1:23).
As God had declared hundreds of years beforehand through His prophets, that He would send His Son to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14, Matt 1:23, 25, Luke 1:34) in a little village “ Bethlehem “( Micah 5:2), when the fullness of time had come (Gal 4:4). God sent the angel Gabriel to a young virgin - Mary who was betrothed to be married to Joseph, announcing that she was the one chosen to provide the physical body for Jesus.
Mary was a godly woman who had faith to believe the angel’s message that God Himself would supply the seed and that she would become the mother of His Son (Luke 1:31,34,35). Her response was perfect, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”(Luke 1:38). The Holy Spirit then took all the inspired words spoken about Jesus throughout history through prophecy and implanted them in her womb providing the seed by which Jesus was conceived (I Peter 1:23)
So the seed – The Word of God, became flesh (John 1:14- And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth).in Mary’s womb and in accordance with God’s laws, it brought forth after its own kind (Gen 1:11, 12, 24, 25). Mary brought forth Jesus - the Word of God. It was the need to create the seed with which to impregnate Mary that was responsible, at least in part, for the long delay between the day on which Adam sinned and the day on which Jesus was conceived.
The virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the cornerstones of the Christian faith. No one but Mary has ever had a virgin birth, but even that birth took a seed to make it happen. We must conceive to give birth. Put God’s Word in your heart today, and get ready to receive your miracle.
Mankind produces offspring in his own likeness and image (Gen 5:3). Therefore, if Jesus had just been the natural product of a man and women, He would have had a sin nature (Rom 5:12) and therefore, could not have been our sinless sacrifice. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Is 7:14). This had to happen to give Jesus the pure life of God instead of the corrupted blood of man.
The angel Gabriel told Mary that her cousin Elisabeth was in the sixth month of a miraculous pregnancy too. So Mary went to see her. Elisabeth was aware that Mary was engaged but not yet married. But as soon as she heard the salutation of Mary the babe – John the Baptist – who was just a six month old “fetus” leapt for joy in his mothers womb and she was filled with the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:41) and prophesied about Mary being with child, carrying the Messiah. Elisabeth referred to Jesus as her “Lord” (Luke 1:43). She placed a blessing on Mary for believing what the Lord had told her and then reassured her that it would surely come to pass. (Luke 1:45).What an encouragement and confirmation this must have been to Mary. She had already rejoiced in her spirit (Luke 1:46-47). She believed Gabriel and experienced the Holy Spirit overshadowing her and conceiving Jesus. Now she rejoiced with her soul too.
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born in a stable because no one would give His parents a room in the inn. Jesus was the Creator and His creation had no room for Him. Yet, I believe the Father delighted in the setting in which Jesus was born. After all, a room in the greatest place on earth would still have been a shambles compared to the splendors of heaven that Jesus had left. Nothing could compare, so why try? Besides, love and humility motivated this awesome act of God becoming man (Phil 2:8). Jesus said Himself that He was meek and lowly of heart (Matt 11:29). He’s a humble God. He could have come in some spectacular way. He could have been born in the greatest palace. He could have forced everyone to believe on Him, but that’s not His way. Jesus loves us and wants us to have faith in Him. But we cannot please God without faith (Heb 11:6).
The angels were praising God – announcing the incredible news to the shepherds that the Saviour – the long promised, long awaited, Christ – had finally been born (Luke 2:14- Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. )
Prior to Christ coming to the earth, God dealt with mankind through the Law. The Law was a system of rules and regulations with appropriate punishments for disobedience. The only thing wrong with that system was that we all broke the Law. Therefore, we all came under the curse instead of the blessing. There was no peace because of our sins. Jesus ushered in a new way for God to deal with mankind. We can now be clean and free of all sin, not because of our performance, but because of our faith in Jesus.
The war is over. The peace treaty has been signed in the blood of the Lamb. There is peace and goodwill toward us from our loving, heavenly Father.
Christianity is supernatural in every respect. God became a man, allowed Himself to be put to death as our sacrifice, then rose from the dead and now lives forever. Those who believe this and trust in His sacrifice are “born again” and have the same nature and power as God. Christianity is supernatural. All other attempts to explain God’s relationship to man are superficial.
