All photographs courtesy of Unsplash
‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,’ Isaiah 7:14
This Bible verse reminds us that the birth of the Messiah (Christ) by a virgin girl was not unexpected. God had promised from the very arrival of evil into the world that the solution would be in the form of a child born of a woman without the aid of a man i.e. the birth of a child through a virgin girl.
The child from the virgin girl was to be a sign. God was indicating that something special was happening, something of great significance. This was one sign that could not manipulated by humans. Only God could perform this miracle.
All of the names of this child have incredible meaning - Jesus, Christ and Immanuel, and there are many more! Jesus means ‘God the Saviour’. Christ means ‘the sent one’ or ‘the anointed one’. The third name means ‘God with us’. The child of the virgin would be God becoming flesh, God was visiting His people.
The big question is - why? Why would the Creator become like one of His creatures? Why would such a powerful being as God become man. He was like us in every sense apart from the ability to sin. What I mean is He was physically, emotionally and intellectually a man. He was not an imaginary person or someone who was play acting, he was real. He felt exhausted at times, he was weary with sorrow, he was hungry from time to time, he was misunderstood, he was thirsty and even at one stage, homeless.
Being God the only thing he was incapable of doing, was sinning (that is doing, thinking or saying things that are wrong and evil). He was the only sinless person ever to live on earth. The rest of us are included in the statement - ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,’ Romans 3:23. The significance of His sinlessness becomes apparent when we consider the end of His life. He died on a cross, condemned to death in spite of having done nothing wrong. The Bible teaches that He was dying ‘for our sins’. This would be irrelevant if He had sins of His own to answer for. His coming to earth was for the purpose of dealing with evil and offering salvation and forgiveness to every human being.
The statement by the Angel to the Shepherds helps us as we think about His purpose for coming to earth. The announcement was ‘unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord,’ Matthew 2:11. The fascinating thing is that the baby is called a Saviour on the day He is born. Very thought provoking.
I must close. I’ll be back soon but in the meantime I hope I’ve made you think.
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