Christ, The Savior Is Born

 

Merry Christmas, one and all! I pray that everyone is having a blessed and safe holiday. In light of Christmas’s arrival, I would like to focus on the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I enjoy the angel’s message to the shepherds in the fields with their flocks that night: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people,” Luke 2:10. Listen to how inclusive the angel’s words are. The angel, God’s messenger (see Luke 1:19, Hebrews 1:7) brought these men something. Good tidings of great joy. Tidings may simply be rendered “words,” and these good words would provoke great joy in those that received them. Furthermore, the good tidings that of great joy was being given or delivered to, “all people.” This translation is kept intact, with the article “the” inserted in some translations, in every Bible I’ve looked through. The scope is universal; the good tidings of great joy was to be given, delivered or brought, to all people. All people would have access to this amazing message of joy. But what was the message?

 

“For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” Luke 2:11. The good tidings of great joy were personified in the Christ, Israel’s Messiah and the world’s Savior. The Lord had come, incarnated as a Man, a Jew of the tribe of Judah, of the house of David. The many, many years of anticipation in the Jewish mind had reached fruition that night; the Seed promised to Eve in the garden had been born, a Seed uniquely of a woman, since God the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she became pregnant by God’s direct interposition. The angels praised God with this amazing revelation, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Luke 2:14. The NU-text, used by translations like the NIV, renders the end of the verse, “toward men of goodwill,” or, “on those whom his favor rests.” The context appears to suggest that it is God’s good will toward man, not man’s reception because of their good will, that the angels celebrate. Remember verse 10, and how the angelic messenger declared that the message, the Christ, is given to all. While we were yet sinners, enemies of God and of grace, Christ died for us. The NKJV or KJV’s rendering sounds more accurately rendered in my opinion, but I digress.

 

The Christ is indeed a reason to be jubilant. The shepherds heeded the angel’s message, found the Christ as they were told, and shared the good tidings with others. The NKJV says that they came “with haste,” Luke 2:16. They believed God’s messenger, and wanted to see the Savior first hand. The natural result of seeing Him was to share word of His coming (including His purpose) with others. The Savior had arrived! The wise men likewise, following the star to where Jesus was, fell down and worshiped, Matthew 2:11. They brought expensive gifts and worshiped, even when Jesus was an infant. They knew, even then, that they were in the presence of deity, veiled in the flesh as He was. Likewise Simeon and Anna, prophets both, found Jesus in the temple when He was but eight days old, and rejoiced to see Him, Luke 2:29, 38.

 

The Bible is all about the person of God, building to and culminating in His incarnation as Jesus the Christ, the Savior of mankind. God’s demonstrated His love toward us in a way that could not be misunderstood; it was sacrificial, selfless, and altogether worthy of our love and worship. The shepherds, the wise men, Simeon and Anna were but a handful of people irrevocably changed upon meeting the Christ when this babe was but a newborn!

 

John, writing in his old age to fellow believers, gives personal testimony of his time spent with Jesus. John says that, concerning the Word of life, “the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us,” 1 John 1:2. John’s witness is personal. He had seen the Christ, both before and after His death and resurrection. He spoke with Him, ate with Him, learned from Him, handled Him. The purpose of his witness is twofold. One: he wishes for men to have fellowship with him through the witness of Jesus Christ, that we may be born again through faith in Him, verse 3. This also entails walking in Christ’s commandment to love the brethren, which enables fellowship between Christians. Also, that we may have fullness of joy, knowing who Jesus is, what He accomplished for us, and still accomplishes in us until the summit of our perfection when we see the Lord face to face, 1 John 1:4, 3:2.

 

Now we, His children through the rebirth, have fullness of joy and a witness for the good tidings of great joy that is found only in Jesus Christ! God’s Christmas gift of His only begotten Son is a never ending gift, whose worth only reveals itself more and more perfectly as we know Him better, and are led by the Spirit to walk with Him. My prayer is that His saints walk with Him, and delight in who He is, and what God has done for and in us. I pray also for the lost, that the light of Christ, who is the image of God, may shine on you and lead you out of spiritual darkness, into the light of freedom our Lord provides. Merry Christmas, everyone! God bless.