God With Us
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” -- Matthew 1:21-23
This Christmas, the one aspect of all the mystery and intrigue surrounding Christ’s birth that has most grabbed and held my attention has been the concept that Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.” I can’t get over it. It is everywhere. There is so much beauty and truth in this one thought, and it leads to more and more facets of God’s grace the more I consider it.
Jesus is God with us in so many ways: in His birth, life, death, and resurrection, in suffering, in our loneliness, in our sanctification and perseverance, in bearing fruit, in worship, in truth, in our inheritance, in love. As I have explored and considered Jesus being God with us in all these aspects, it has become all the more clear to me that the fulfillment of the promise of Immanuel is central to the meaning of Christmas.
To imagine my life without Jesus as Immanuel is nearly impossible. If Jesus never came into the world to be “God with us,” we would all be without God. Jesus was, and still is, the one and only way. The world would be completely different today if Christ had never left His heavenly home and humbled Himself to be born, live, die, and rise again on earth. What would people be like? From where would they draw their morals? Would there even be a United States of America? How would everyone define reality? In who or what would people place their hope if they lived a truly hopeless existence?
I praise God that He did send Jesus, that He was born, lived, died, and was resurrected here on earth.
The birth of Jesus was God coming into the world, coming to be a part of His creation for the first time in history. Jesus was born just like any other baby comes into the world. He was fully man. But the difference was that He was also fully God. He lost none of His divinity by becoming flesh. His position and power were the same. He just took on a different role. I often wonder how He could have the inexperienced newness of a baby and at the same time be the omniscient Ancient of Days, how He could have been dependent and helpless, and at the same time omnipotent and self-sustaining. “The first time that you opened your eyes, did you realize that you would be my Savior? And the first breathe that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?” These questions are ones our finite minds can’t even begin to grasp. However, in faith I believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man. He came into the world to share in our sufferings and experiences, so that He could truly say, “I know what you are going through. I have been through it, and you can get through it, too. I empathize with you and I can help you if you will let me.” Of course, that is just one aspect of it. Above all, He was born to die so that we might live. Amen.
Merry Christmas,
Laura