Today we are celebrating Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what is it exactly, that we are celebrating, and what does it mean?
John’s gospel begins, John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Jesus is the very Word of God. We hear God through our Lord Jesus. So the one who was with God in the beginning, the very Word of creation itself, was born a human being.
In Luke 1, we read that when the angel, Gabriel, came to the virgin Mary and announced to her that she would be with child, he told her that the power of God would overshadow her, that she would conceive and bear a son, and that He would be called the "Son of the Highest" (see Luke 1:32).
With the birth of Christ, God became human in order that humankind might be brought back to God. Yet, Jesus did not only take on a human body and become fully human, but a human in whom the very fullness of God dwelt. A human without sin. This is the mystery and joy of Christmas day.
Jesus Christ had no earthly father. He was always the Son of God and God the Son, and His coming into the world is what we call the Incarnation, or his taking on of a human body. God sent his Son, whom Joseph through a dream was told to name Jesus, to be born as a little baby.
100% fully human, and 100% fully divine. This is what we celebrate today, that because God himself came to earth in fully human form, we, as fully human ourselves can have a relationship with God the father.
We don’t need to go through any other person. We don’t need to follow a strict pattern of laws. We need to believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God himself and the Lord of all the Earth.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans he writes that “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). It is our faith in Jesus that justifies us before God, not anything else.
This is why we give gifts to those we love at Christmas, because God has given us the greatest gift that can ever be given – Jesus Christ. The first Christmas gift came from heaven. It came from God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). There are three short points to note about this marvellous gift.
Firstly, Jesus was a prepared gift. Our great and good God and Heavenly Father, who knows the secrets of every heart that has ever beat, prepared His Son, Jesus, before the foundation of the world. When Adam and Eve fell, it did not catch God off guard.
God was ready for what happened. The sacrifice for sin was prepared and ready. As Abraham told Isaac, "God will provide Himself a lamb" (Gen. 22:8). It was God, the Son, given by God, the Father, conceived by God, the Holy Spirit, who was delivered to the world as a free gift.
Secondly, Jesus is a personal gift. God’s Christmas gift of Jesus is perfectly fitted for everyone. This gift was to the whole world. No one who ever receives Jesus will ever say he doesn’t fit or will ever seek to exchange him for someone or something else. His batteries will never go flat
He is perfectly designed to meet every need of everyone in the whole world. Even though God’s Christmas gift is to all the world, he is also a personal gift to every individual of the human race.
Finally, Jesus is a perfect gift. Jesus is absolutely perfect in every respect. He was perfect in His pre-incarnate state - - before he ever took on a body. He was perfect in His virgin birth. He was perfect in his sinless life. He was perfect in his atoning death on the cross at Calvary.
He was perfect in his resurrection. He is now perfect in his presence with us now, and he will be perfect in his second coming for us and in ruling this earth in pure justice and righteousness forevermore. Thank God for this perfect, unspeakable gift.
So what gift can we give God in return for this amazing gift of his son. We give him ourselves – our very life, our everything. All our ambitions, hopes, and plans we give to the one who gave all to us. We abandon ourselves to the living God, born this day in Bethlehem.