God gave us the greatest gift by giving us His son so
that we could be properly reconciled to Him.
The Law may tell us what is right and wrong, but on our own power we
cannot stick to this law. God could have
done this any way He wanted, but He starts this phase of His plan by sending
His One and Only Son as a baby born by a virgin. Worldly opinion wanted a strong, conquering
hero. God sent us a miracle instead.
One of the names Jesus was to be given upon his birth was
Immanuel, which means God with us.
Isaiah 7:14 (NIV) says, “Therefore
the Lord himself will give you a sign:
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will
call him Immanuel.” Matthew 1:23
(NIV) says, “The virgin will be with child
and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel – which mans,
‘God with us.’”
Jesus was indeed God among us. Let us follow along with what John tells us
in the first chapter of his gospel.
Verses 1-2 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He
was with God in the beginning.” God
used words to form the world. This Word
is also Him. In verse 14 we find, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” So the Word, God, became flesh among us as
Immanuel, Jesus.
But why all the controversy over this? John explains this in verses 10-13 which say, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the
world did not recognize him. He came to
that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of god – children born
not of natural descent, nor of a human decision or a husband’s will, but born
of God.”
The darkness, sin, of the world has clouded the view and
warped our knowledge of God. It led us
to being unable to even follow His Law on our own power. So when He came, many did not believe and
many still do not accept this miraculous story.
But there is more proof about the birth of Christ and what he did than
proof for many other historical events of that time. Those who did not believe worked overtime to
convince others it never happened. Herod
went to the extent of killing every male child two and under in Bethlehem in
order to kill the King of the Jews that the wise men came looking for. Herod was scared this special child would
usurp his authority. Today many are
scared that they will have no freedom if they accept Jesus and all his rules.
It took me some time to accept Jesus because I preferred
what seemed logical to the world rather than believe in a miracle that sounded
like a fantasy story. I was thirty-three
when I finally accepted Jesus.
Amazingly, due to God’s amazing grace, I felt far freer after accepting
him. It did not matter how illogical or
fantastical His gift to us looked. It
was given to us because He loved us even when we were still sinners. He could have pulled off this gift giving any
way He wanted. Instead He chose to send
us Jesus as a baby born to a virgin. He
did it just the way He said he would hundreds of years prior to the event via
His prophets. He told us what to expect
about the birth of Jesus, so there was no excuse not to know it when it
happened.
What really matters is He came to reveal more of God to
us and show us the true way of reconciliation with Him. He came to show a world full of sinners the
way to His grace and mercy, which we accept by faith. His grace is free for the taking if we accept
Him. It is our gift from God.
So to me Christmas is the celebration of the greatest
gift God ever gave us, Jesus, who brought us grace. This grace brought to us through God’s great
love and mercy is the way we can be children of God. There is no other way. When giving gifts this season remember this
greatest gift of all.
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