A BIRTH THAT SECURED THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD
“The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
-John 1:14
Merry Christmas!
Have a hope-filled day remembering Jesus' coming to the earth and anticipating His future advent to restore all things!
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The incarnation of Jesus has huge implications.
God not only came to the earth, He came to an ethnic people group, Israel. He not only came to a nation, He came to a specific town, Bethlehem, the city of David. He not only came to a town, He came to a family. He not only came to a family, He came to an individual. But He didn't just appear to an individual, He dwelt on the inside of her. It could have been truly said to Mary,"Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27)
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The incarnation and birth of Jesus proclaims that God wants to dwell with us and in us.
But this miraculous birth is not the end of the gospel, you see. Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection doesn't bring to end the multifaceted promises all throughout Scripture of the Messiah restoring Israel, ruling the nations, and His glory covering the earth. In fact, it secures and confirms these oaths. (See Luke 1:68-75)
Consider these promises, from the "macro" down to the "micro":
God promises to make a new heavens and earth.
God promises to reign over the nations.
God promises to save and redeem Israel.
God promises a King on the throne of David (Jerusalem) forever.
God promises to be the Father of all the families of the earth.
God promises to save individuals by the work of Jesus alone.
God promises to dwell in believers by His Holy Spirit.
Our personal salvation through Christ and His indwelling Holy Spirit, as the most individual and humble work of this multi-faceted good news, proclaims that there's great hope ahead in the other categories too:
Jesus will bring His kingdom to the earth.
Jesus will shine His light to all nations.
Jesus will confirm His oaths to Israel.
Jesus will reign from Jerusalem.
To be clear, I'm not saying these points to minimize the birth of Jesus we are now celebrating. Rather, I'm actually trying to enhance our view of what His birth represents and accomplishes. We cannot find full joy in Jesus' birth if we only treat it as a narrow event of the past. Each of these elements of the good news are inseparable from one another, and when we see them more clearly, it expands upon the meaning and glory of Jesus' miraculous birth.
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Jesus was miraculously born of a woman that He Himself had created.
In Jerusalem's back hills of Bethlehem, the uncreated God of glory who stretched out the heavens and earth now took on an overlookable and lowly dwelling place inside of His own creation.
A woman whose breath He upheld by the word of His power now sustained Him as a little baby.
But Mary wasn't the only one experiencing a promise fulfilled through the birth of Jesus.
There was much more culminating in that holy moment.
A son was now being born who had been long-awaited from Eve, Abraham, and David (just to name a few).
We can trace the aforementioned promises (for the earth, all nations, Israel, the city of Jerusalem, and individual believers), all the way down through human history and lineage. At each level, Jesus became the incarnate solution to His own promises:
👉 The One who created and spoke to Eve, became her promised seed.
Adam and Eve—representatives of all humanity and an Eden-like earth,—knew that one of their offspring would crush the head of the serpent.
At Jesus' birth, the Creator had now became incarnate to His own creation, as foretold in Genesis 3:15.
Jesus is a "better Adam" who will give resurrection life to all who believe in Him. (See 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 45-49, Romans 5:12-17)
Jesus made Adam and Eve, yet now at His birth He is born as their seed.
👉 The One who created and spoke to Abraham, became his promised son.
Abraham and Sarah—representatives of the nations, and of the people of Israel—knew God had promised them a descendant who would bless all the nations of the world. At the time, they were hoping for a miraculous birth themselves. But, wether they knew it or not, they were waiting for a miracle bigger than Isaac alone. They were really waiting for God’s Son, the Christ. (See Galatians 3:16).
At His birth, Jesus now became this truly waited for son, which is what Luke 1 proclaims: "He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” (Luke 1:54-55)
Jesus baffled the Jews with the mystery of His deity when He said, "Before Abraham was born, I AM." (John 8:58)
Jesus made Abraham and Sarah, yet now at His birth He is born as their son.
👉 The One who created and spoke to David, became his promised heir.
David—a representative of Jerusalem and an unending kingdom—knew God had promised him a son who would sit on his throne forever, and shepherd the kingdom of Israel. But again, like Isaac, Solomon was only a foreshadow of the son David was truly waiting for.
Jesus' birth now heralded in hope for the house of Israel as the true heir of David's royal throne (See Luke 1:31-33, 68-73).
Jesus again mystified the Pharisees about His deity-yet-humanity. If the Christ is David's son, how can David then call Him, Lord? (See Matthew 22:41-45)
It's because Jesus is "the Root and the Offspring of David." (Revelation 22:16)
Jesus made David, yet now at His birth He is born as his heir.
👉 The one who created and spoke to Mary, became her promised child.
And finally, we come to Mary—a representative of individuals like you and me—who knew that God had promised her a very special son:
"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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 . . . The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God." (Luke 1:31-35)
She responded by saying, "Let it be to me according to your word.”
God followed through on His word throughout all generations, and at last"the word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).
Jesus made Mary, yet now at His birth He is born as her child.