"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 1:23
His Birth in History.
“…that Holy One who is to be
born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).
Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not
emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is
not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom
the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God
Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest
and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was
an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
His Birth in Me.
“My little children, for whom I
labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19).
Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come
into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a
“Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God
unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth.
“You must be born again” (John 3:7).
This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence
of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is
formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins
to work through me.
God
Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so
profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus
Christ.
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