Today is Christmas Day. Who or what are you worshipping today? How about people in your community? Gifts? Family? Food? A ‘baby?’ Even if we understand that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago, do we fully understand the depth of why we worship and celebrate His birth?
[Listen to Podcast version here.]
The Birth
The New Testament gives us two ‘birth narratives’ concerning Jesus of Nazareth: Matthew chapters 1 and 2, and Luke chapters 1 and 2. However, even with the excellence of explanation we see in those birth narratives – millions of people still miss the primary point of Christmas.
Here’s the point –
“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’ Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:1-10
The truth of Hebrews 10:5 – “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me” – helps us understand better what we read in Luke’s ‘birth narrative’ –
“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.’ Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:26-35
Mary was a young girl – probably mid-teens. She was surprised by what the angel told her, but she wasn’t naive. Mary knew that to conceive a child meant sexual relations between a man and a woman. “Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?” The word ‘know’ in this context means to know in an intimate, physical way (sexual). Mary had not had sexual relations with a man (she was a virgin), so she didn’t see how the angel’s words could be true.
The angel then said – “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” This is a truly remarkable statement! God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary to let her know that He had chosen her to be a human ‘vessel’ to bring the Son of God into the world. God would accomplish this without the natural process of a human man having sexual relations with Mary. Mary was espoused (engaged) to Joseph, but Gabriel warned him about what God was doing before they had marital relations.
- The Holy Spirit will come upon you
- The power of the Highest will overshadow you
That’s the supernatural process God used to ‘prepare a body’ for His Son to be born to Mary. Once the virgin Mary became pregnant through the supernatural process, the Son of God whose name would be Jesus entered into her womb.
“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
We have evidence that supports the Son of God being in Mary’s womb from what her pregnant and older relative Elizabeth said when Mary visited her after becoming pregnant –
“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.” Luke 1: 39-45
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about Mary being pregnant and ‘mother of my Lord.’ Mary would give birth to Jesus, even as Elizabeth would give birth to John – who became known as ‘John the Baptist.’ The lives of the two children would intersect years later in a prophetic way. John was the man Isaiah the prophet had written about hundreds of years earlier –
“… as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Luke 3:4-6
John baptized Jesus of Nazareth in the River Jordan and witnessed another supernatural miracle – more evidence for the reason the Son of God came from Heaven to earth –
“When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22
Many people celebrating Christmas today are focused on the ‘baby Jesus.’ Some see him as a cute little child who holds a special place within Christian beliefs and practices. They get some time off work and school, spend time with family and friends, put up the Christmas tree, exchange presents, etc. Some enjoy the story of Mary and Joseph and how God spoke to them through the angel Gabriel, and how there was ‘no room’ for them in. the inn – so Mary gave birth to baby Jesus in a manger. Churches and communities put out ‘nativity scenes’ that focus on the ‘baby’ Jesus.
However, for many people that’s as far as they go with the Christmas story. That’s a big mistake. We must go much further if we are to understand what God did by ‘preparing a body’ for the Son of God to enter. That’s why the birth narratives need to be studied together with other Scripture to fully understand ‘what God has wrought.’ That includes the writings of prophets and apostles.
The Sacrifice
The angel Gabriel told Joseph – “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).” However, Gabriel didn’t tell Joseph HOW Jesus would save His people from their sins.
This is what Gabriel told Mary about Jesus –
“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:32-33
However, Gabriel didn’t tell Mary HOW Jesus would gain the right to ‘reign’ over Israel forever. We need to read further in the Gospels, Acts, and Apostolic letters to learn how Jesus would do that.
We see the idea of a ‘sacrifice’ and ‘sacrificial body’ at the beginning of the historical record –
“So the Lord God said to the serpent … ‘And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:14-15
We see this prophesied event fulfilled when Jesus was –
- Incarnated
- Crucified
- Raised
- Ascended
It was through that supernatural process that the Son of God fulfilled an eternal purpose – “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Jesus was ‘manifested’ (φανερόω – reveal, make visible, make known) through the ‘Incarnation’ (ἐξέρχομαι – to come out of) – “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ (Matthew 2:6)
The ‘Incarnation’ of Jesus is far more than His ‘coming out’ of the womb of Mary as a baby. Jesus ‘came out of Bethlehem as ‘a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ The Eternal Son of God came into the world to ‘come out’ as a Ruler of His people, but how would He do that?
Sacrifice!
“For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7
“And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Ephesians 5:2
Philippians chapter two includes some of the most powerful and insightful Scripture to help us understand the sacrifice God’s Son made on our behalf –
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11
The Eternal Son of God ‘humbled Himself and became obedience to the point of death, even the death of the cross.’ The importance of the ‘death of the cross’ was that it was a ‘blood’ sacrifice. As Moses wrote in Leviticus –
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11
That’s the key to why God prepared a ‘body’ for His Son so that He could shed His ‘blood’ for the sins of His people. Even though Israel spent centuries offering blood sacrifices to God, the writer to Hebrews said “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” The ‘blood’ of God’s Son was Superior, Greater, Better than all of the blood sacrifices that preceded His death on the Roman cross. Hebrews also explained that the Jewish priests offering blood sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem could never ‘take away sins.’ Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that –
“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Hebrews 10:11-14
From Incarnation to Crucifixion to Resurrection To Ascension
The Son of God ‘came down from Heaven’ to ‘come out of Bethlehem’ as the ‘Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ His miraculous birth to a virgin – the Incarnation- was the beginning of what God determined to accomplish on earth. Jesus of Nazareth would grow from childhood to adulthood and die on a Roman cross. However, He didn’t stay in the grave. Jesus rose from the dead! He conquered death –
“Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.” Acts 13:29-31
How does the death and resurrection of God’s Son affect us?
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Romans 6:8-10
What about the ‘ascension’ of Jesus Christ after His resurrection from the dead? As Paul wrote in Philippians –
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
And in Ephesians –
“… and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:19-23
His Return
God ‘put all things’ under the feet of Jesus Christ. He is in Heaven now, but He will return to earth to rule and reign –
“Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:6-11
We will one day ‘rule and reign’ with the Son of God (e.g. Revelation 5:10; 20:4, 6; 22:5). However, until that time comes we have work to do. As Jesus Christ told His disciples before He ascended back to Heaven – “you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
An important aspect of being a ‘witness’ of Jesus Christ is to emphasize that His humbling Himself and becoming ‘a man’ through the virgin birth was far more than just becoming a little baby that people see in nativity scenes each Christmas season. We must understand that God prepared a ‘body’ for His Son so that He could offer Himself as a ‘sacrifice’ to save His people from their sins –
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Faith and Self Defense © 2024
Faith & Self Defense 