The Babe in the Manger

12.14.09
J.A. Matteson

"And the Word became 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 1:14

The symmetry of a Christmas time snow flake; the refraction of the suns rays off an ocean breaker at sunset; the orderliness of the seasons; the wonder of life; the nurturing bond between mother and child; the transcendent innate sense of morality within the human soul of right and wrong; the beauty of mathematics seen in the irreducible complexity of creation; the enduring ache within the human heart for significance and immortality; the inner awareness of sin; the inner witness of a Creator; the foreboding awareness of the passage of time and ones mortality.

To all of these things and countless others the Word speaks, the Word knows, the Word acts, the Word precedes, the Word follows. The Word transcends all things and is before all things, ordains all things and maintains all things. The Word to the Greek philosophers was the order and logic that held the universe together, and to that extent they were correct in their understanding although incomplete in their conclusion.

By divine revelation the Apostle John borrows from the opening passage of Genesis and introduces a literary paradigm shift of understanding—he personifies the Word, offering insight into the triune Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God comprised of three persons. In contrast to the Greek understanding of the Word as an impersonal abstract force—atheistic in essence—the Apostle raises the understanding of his readers that the Word is in fact order and logic and that these are reflective of the personal characteristics of their Author who is a Person—the one and only true God, Yahweh.

Christmas bares witness to and celebrates the incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus (Yahweh is salvation) Christ (the Anointed One/Messiah/Savior) is the second Person of the singular Godhead, fully God, fully man; born of a woman, Mary, by the incorruptible divine seed of His Father; sinless, performing the Law of God perfectly and as such worthy as the spotless Lamb of God to atone for the sins of the world, and as noted by the Apostle, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form…” and “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him” (Col. 2:9; 1:19).

To this great mystery believers through the ages have marveled, pausing in awe at the miracle of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The babe in the manger being fully God while being fully human did not cease to exercise His divine prerogative as Creator for, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities -all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16-17). The condescension of Divinity into humanity has been and will continue to be the most marvelous and joyous event in human history for by it God supplied expression of His heart to redeem His people from their sin through the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of His Son.

In contrast to all other religious teachers Jesus Christ is unique, for He alone made claims to deity, validating them by the witness of prophetic Scripture, attesting miracles, and the resurrection; He alone is able to forgive sin as that is a divine prerogative; He alone has been appointed as Judge and will come again as He left—in bodily form. All other religious leaders were mere mortal men, sinners, and the scant remains of their bodies remain decayed in the ground. Buddha, Mohammad, Confucius, Lao Tsu, the Caesar’s, Joseph Smith (Mormons), Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses), L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology), and Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science) are all dead. Only Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, came into the world by means of a miraculous virgin birth, was resurrected from the dead, and ascended out of the world, remaining seated at the right hand of the Father as a testimony that His atoning work is complete.

Let us therefore hold the significance of Christmas near and dear to our hearts throughout the year, giving thanks to the Father for sending His only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And let us share the Father’s gift of His Son to all near and far as the Holy Spirit gives opportunity.

Copyright (c) 2009 Immutable Word Ministries ("...the word of our God stands forever...." Isa. 40:8).