What Child Is This?

By David Short

Who would have ever dreamed that the God of the universe, powerful enough to destroy the entire known world for their sins, would instead become flesh, become a child? Miraculously conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin, Jesus became the Savior of the world. Oh, what hope we have today because of that divine birth some two thousand years ago!

The Birth of Jesus

The birth of Jesus Christ was one of the greatest miracles God ever demonstrated. For a woman to be with child having never been with a man was impossible. Indeed, it was a holy invitro fertilization ahead of modern medicine. Mary was promised to Joseph, but they had not consummated the physical relationship. Can you imagine Joseph’s fear? Had his beloved Mary done something worthy of death? According to Deuteronomy 22, she was subject to a public trial and possible stoning.

Many years before prophets had foretold of Messiah coming, Isaiah prophesied in great detail what would come to pass: “Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This Immanuel would be none other than God Himself in the form of Jesus Christ. Joseph’s dismay at finding his young promised bride to be with child surely must have conflicted with a reignited hope. Could Mary be that virgin of whom Isaiah spoke?

Scripture declares Joseph was a just man and would have privately released himself from Mary. But as he “thought on these things,” God sent an angel to him in a dream and told him, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:20). Dismay now turned to apprehensive anticipation. How would their families, their village, their community, and the world receive this miraculous news?

The omnipresent God of the universe was dwelling inside Mary and would become the greatest man ever born on this earth. The incarnation of Jesus Christ fused deity and humanity in one infant body. He was a perfect, divine, sinless human being. The Word tells us, “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). He was God Almighty in human flesh, shining forth the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (II Corinthians 4:6).

What Child Is This?: The Mystery Revealed

The incarnation of Jesus has been a mystery to some, but to born-again believers, the revelation of who He is becomes crystal clear: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (I Timothy 3:16). This ancient mystery is the paramount gift to us. God in His mercy became like us, so that we could become like Him. Many believe Jesus is the Son of God, but they deny He is God incarnate. They label the oneness of the Godhead heresy and will not accept Him for who He truly is. He was and is more than just a good man or a second deity of a triune godhead. He is “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (I Timothy 6:15).

For thousands of years communication with man took on different forms as God tried to establish relationship with His creation. Yet sin continued to separate man from Him.

God demonstrated the greatest form of love when He became flesh to be born into a sinful and corrupt world.

God demonstrated the greatest form of love when He became flesh to be born into a sinful and corrupt world. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). The sole purpose of the incarnate Christ was to save His people from their sins. He was the only sinless sacrifice able to atone for the sins of the entire world.

John described the origin of the incarnate Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). Note the words “dwelt among us.” The Greek translation literally means “tabernacled.” In the Old Testament, God’s glory was housed in a tent-like structure. In the Gospels, John declared the glory of God was tabernacled, or housed, in the flesh of Jesus Christ. Jesus was flesh and blood—the visible, touchable, Almighty God.

David Short: The Church Today | Tulsa, Oklahoma | Pastor Barron Longstreth