Christmas Presence

Jesus Christ, like God the Father and the Holy Spirit, is eternally existent.  During His earthly ministry, He once declared, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), denoting His divine eternal nature.  Yet three decades earlier, an angel had announced to shepherds in fields near Bethlehem, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  (Luke 2:11)

It is God who supplies the faith and Holy Writ to reconcile such seemingly contradictory statements, and also to believe that His Son, creator of the universe, came incarnated as a baby delivered of a poor, humbly trusting young woman in a dirty manger.  The Father made it possible for people to approach His glory via the Son, a way that wouldn’t kill them on the spot. (Ex. 33:20) From the early shepherds who spread the news of Jesus’ birth, to the disciples who recorded His ascension, knowledge of God as He really is took a huge leap because “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among [them].” (John 1:14)

Before Jesus returned to the side of His Father in Heaven, He promised that everyone who believed in Him would be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Helper.  (John 14:26)  The conception and birth of our Savior started a chain of events that made it possible for all believers to live in communion with the Spirit and draw wisdom from the Bible, henceforth comprised of two testaments that present an integrated understanding of Jesus, the Christ.

“The doctrine of the incarnation is emphatically at the center of Christianity, that the Son of God came down.  No seed ever fell so far from a tree into so dark and cold a soil as the Son of God did.” –C. S. Lewis

BLESSED CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR 2016!