Well, December is upon us again, and that can only mean one thing: Christmas is almost here! Personally, the buildup leading to this awesome holiday has already been quite stressful for me this year. With holiday parties, expectations of gift-giving, and all the commotion that our culture creates at this time of year, it can be so easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in what the world thinks of Christmas. After all, who doesn’t like setting up the Christmas tree and watching Elf?
These things are great, and give us time to be with family and friends that we love, but you can easily miss the whole “reason for the season”. If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard that phrase time and time again every year, and I personally would always gloss over it. This is because I didn’t see how it applied to me. If I go to church services in December and sing about Jesus’ birth, isn’t that praise enough to satisfy my soul for one more Christmas?
The answer to this is such a strong no. When people talk about the “reason for the season”, this isn’t just so you are able to cross God off your list after singing a few Christmas songs or reading over the Bible story once (although you definitely should do that, Matthew 1:18-2:12 and Luke 1:26-2:21 are two great pieces of Scripture that detail this event). The point of the Christmas season is to celebrate and remember the event that happened over two millennia ago, and this isn’t something that we should take lightly. If you grew up in the church, this is a regular story, but it is so critical that we don’t take this for granted and overlook it.
With that being said, I’m going to do a little bit of digging into the Christmas story so that we can all just marvel in how awesome of an event this truly is.
So…what actually happened?
Here’s Christmas in one sentence: Jesus was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem, the Son of God, yet still a man, in order to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament and fulfill God’s ultimate plan. Let’s break this down a bit, because the rest of the Bible has a ton to say about this.
Born of a virgin
This part of the Christmas story is well-known, so people always tend to gloss over it, but if you take a second to think about that, this is crazy! I mean, it is physically impossible for this to happen, especially considering that this took place two thousand years ago. If you think about it, giving birth and being a virgin are basically contradictory.
When Mary heard she was going to be conceiving a child, she pretty much said the same thing. “And Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’” (Luke 1:34). This sounds crazy, but when asked about this, as well as her cousin Elizabeth being pregnant despite her previously barren state, the angel Gabriel gives a wonderful response: “‘For nothing will be impossible with God.’” (Luke 1:37).
If you think about it, both Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s births were miracles! Jesus was born of a virgin mother, while John the Baptist’s mother was barren and too old to have children. Why would God perform these miracles, besides just to display the fact that He has power above nature? This is because Jesus’ virgin birth is the only way that he could be considered the Son of God, even in a human form.
Son of God, yet still a man
This is a pretty confusing concept, because we can’t truly understand how Jesus was 100% human, yet still 100% God at the same time. The math really doesn’t add up!
However, this idea is so important, because this is the only reason that Jesus’ death and resurrection was as radical life-changing as it is. If Jesus wasn’t born as a human on this earth, and experienced all the things that we have to deal with in life, He wouldn’t truly understand us, and He would never even be able to die on the cross in the first place. The book of Hebrews explains this in the best possible way, so I’m going to let Scripture speak for itself on this one. Read over this passage a few times and let it sink in why Jesus’ human form was so crucial for God’s plan of salvation.
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Hebrews 2:14-18).
In addition to all this, Jesus’ death and resurrection power is completely dependent on Jesus being the Son of God. If Jesus was just “some other guy” that was on this earth to glorify God, his death would not have the ability to save all of us from our sins. The reason Jesus was born of a virgin, as discussed earlier, is so that he could be preserved as God’s one and only Son. This gave Jesus the power to cleanse all of our sins and bring all believers to heaven after they have given their life to the Lord.
Honestly, there is so much of this that I still do not understand. After lots of research, I was left just baffled, because I never thought about how important this concept is. I would encourage you to do some research on your own on this topic, whether you explore some commentaries or go straight to Scripture and let God help you interpret what it means and why this is so important. (If you do decide to do some research, please share it with me! I would love to keep learning about this!)
Fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament
The Old Testament is so full of prophecies, some of which have been fulfilled long ago, and some of which will be fulfilled when Jesus comes again. Crazily enough, Jesus fulfilled about three hundred of those prophecies! This really gives me perspective on how connected and seamless the BIble in its entirety is. I’m going to share a few of these prophecies with you, as well as New Testament proof that Jesus and his birth fulfilled these.
2 Samuel 7:12-13 - “When your [David’s] days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 1:1 - “The book on the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
Isaiah 7:14 - “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Fulfillment: Luke 1:31-32 - “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
Micah 5:2 - “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 2:4-6 - “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.”
How does this apply to us?
All of this is amazingly cool, and it is beautiful to see how intricate God’s plan is. I love seeing His promises come together in the most perfect way, and the more you study the Christmas story, the more fascinating it becomes!
There is still one big question: what do we do with this all? I know we talked about remembering the “reason for the season”, but we celebrate Christmas for more than just remembering. Christmas is all about learning about God, and celebrating His perfect and wonderful plan. This is a season of praise and thanksgiving as we share the story of Jesus Christ’s birth to people that have never heard it, or have heard it but never really understood it all.
While we enjoy the fun and festivities of the next few weeks, make sure that every day, you take special time to acknowledge and celebrate how the Son of God humbly came down and revolutionized our world in the form of a baby. Pray to God and praise Him for His unique plan, sing worship songs that tell of the story of Christmas, and invite someone you know to your church’s service.
It’s extremely easy to take this season for granted, but I hope this gave you a little more insight, and the inspiration to learn more about this topic. Don’t forget to share your findings with me, and we can learn more about all of this together!
Wishing you all a restful and joyous Christmas!
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