"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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