And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
The Advent of Christ through the incarnation is a central theme of the Christian faith. It is the truth, that God, the creator of the universe, was invested with a human body to the end of the redemption of mankind.
God took on human flesh to reveal Himself to His crowning creation, and that there would be a restoration of peace and goodwill between both of them. It is a story of reconciliation, which came in the form:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
This is the story of Christmas.
The parting of ways between God and man dates back to The Fall in the Garden of Eden. Man would draw the line of separation between himself and his creator. He decides he would define good and evil on his own terms and choose his own spiritual and moral destiny without God in it. He is given the space. However, while we are free to make our choices, we are not free to select the outcomes. The worst was yet to come.
Man’s singular decision to go his own way began a spiritual and moral journey (in fact, a plunge) whose consequences and dimensions have consistently degenerated from generation to generation, to the extent that his heart would come to be described as being “desperately wicked above all things.” Man’s heart became one that drew the ire of a holy and just God.
This holy and just God is Love. Holiness and justice are fundamental elements of true love. As a holy and just God, God would make sure that sin is paid for; but as a merciful God, who knows that man cannot pay for his sin, He would assume the payment with His own life. Consequently, though the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Before death, on the strength of sin, began to bare its fangs in tearing man apart like a lion does a helpless sheep, love had already set the plan of redemption in the dateless past. That is before time began, God had put up His plan to get the love of His life, mankind, back to Himself, and through the ages, He raised holy men to foretell His redemptive plan.
The birth of Jesus was the beginning of the unveiling of millennia of detailed and precise prophetic indications that God, on account of His love for mankind, would send the Messiah. Paul states that there was a timeliness to it:
But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law.
While the historicity of Jesus Christ is rarely disputed in both secular and religious documentation, what comes under intense attack are among other things: the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. These two incidents are core to the course of redemption. Without them, there is no Christian faith.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
A virgin birth, as far as humanity is concerned, is impossibility; but where man’s possibility ends, that is where God’s possibility starts. Now, what was the essence or necessity of the virgin birth?
Jesus Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice as the payment for the sin of the whole world. If that sacrifice was to be acceptable and effective as a substitution, it had to have two fundamental characteristics:
First, the sacrifice must be similar to the one for which it is a substitute. Secondly, it must be fundamentally different, in that it does not carry the same flaw of the one that is substituted.
Let me use this illustration: when a light bulb dies and it has to be replaced with another light bulb, the new light bulb may look similar to the old one, but it will have a fundamental difference: It is alive and capable of giving light. You do not substitute a dead bulb with a dead bulb. You achieve nothing that way.
This means that it will take a man to redeem mankind, but that Redeemer-man must not have the nature that constitutes the destructive blight that separates mankind from God. That nature is the nature of sin. The nature of sin is transferred at conception when the seed of man produces another man.
Jesus Christ was a man without sin. This was made possible because the nature of sin was not transferred through conception by man. He was born of the seed of God.
The virgin birth made sure that the sin nature of man (dead bulb) was not imbued in Christ (live bulb) at conception. This made Him useful to be a true substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
For unto us a Child was born… this was made possible by the virgin birth!
That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.
The resurrection is akin to the virgin birth in that while one produces a physical body, the other produces a spiritual body. The resurrection attested to God’s acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Sin had been paid for and the sting of death was expunged. A just God was provided with a justifiable reason to set man free from sin and its consequences.
It was here that the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world would become the Son of God that gives eternal life. While speaking about the reality of the resurrection, Paul said,
It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
For unto us a son is given… this was made possible by the resurrection!
For this is how much God loved the world- He gave His one and only Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in Him will never perish but experience everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Saviour and rescue it!
The Christmas season may come every year, however its true meaning is only achievable when you celebrate the Christ of Christmas in your heart as your personal Lord and Saviour. This would produce a lifetime of peace and goodwill between you and God that extends to all eternity.
In addition, God also gives you the capacity to be a channel through which His love and gift of eternal life can be offered to others. You become a carrier of God’s peace and goodwill toward all people you have the opportunity to influence.
Though Christmas may largely have been corrupted into celebrations in secular merrymaking, the story has never changed, to wit, God gave the gift of His Son, who was born into this world as a child, lived among men, was hung on a cross and rose again the third day, so that man may be reconciled to Him. Are you reconciled to God? Is there truly peace and goodwill between Him and you?
This is the story of Christmas.
Thank you. Do not forget to keep living, loving and learning.
References: Luke 2: 1-14, NKJV; Isaiah 9:6. NIV; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 6:23; Galatians 4:4, THE MESSAGE; Hebrews 10:5, NLT; 1 Corinthians 15:44-49, NIV; John 3:16-17, TPT.
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