Just a few words about Christmas!!

All too often I think we forget that Jesus is really and truly God Almighty. And what an enormous thing it was for Him to become man. I think sometimes we think of Jesus as being God but not really God the way that God the Father is God. We also think of Him as being man but not really man the way you and I are man.

The enormous and incomprehensible truth of the Gospel is that the man Jesus of Nazareth really and truly is the same Almighty God who once said “let there be light”.

There are many people who believe that when the Old Testament talks about “The Angel of the LORD” it is speaking specifically about the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. If you look at instances in the OT where The Angel of the LORD appears it is very interesting. He appeared to Moses in the burning bush (which, interestingly enough, is where we get the name “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” from). He also appeared to Sampson’s parents before Sampson was born. God the Son steps into the picture whenever the people of God need deliverance. God the Son is the redeemer... He always has been!

And this God became man for us. As Michel Card would put it ‘eternity stepped into time...’ And he still has his human nature even now in heaven. As another Christian artist puts it ‘once, for all eternity, God became a man.’ What an awesome God we have. At the name of Jesus let every knee bow.

And as if laying His glory aside and taking on flesh and blood wasn’t enough this great God of ours surrendered to the cruel nails of a Roman soldier. He ‘even let his blessed body be nailed to the cross’... Why? To ‘cancel the bond that stood against us’. I know it’s the old, old message of the Gospel but let us never get tired of hearing it. Jesus died for you, and for me. He paid the price! He took upon himself the sins of the world and stilled God’s wrath. He secured for us the peace of God and newness of life. It’s done! It is His finished work! We no longer need to live in fear and doubt. But rather to walk in the newness of life that he secured for us and on our behalf.

Well everyone have a great Christmas, and yes, remember the reason for the season.