Luke 2:7 <\/b>\u00a0And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths
\nand laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.<\/p>\n
Amidst gift-buying and Santas and reindeer and \u201cfolks dressed up like Eskimos,\u201d what should be the center of Christmas?<\/p>\n
Luke 2:7 tells us. \u201cShe gave birth.\u201d Mary, a young girl, a virgin, a woman who had never had sexual relations with a man, gave birth<\/i>. The conception was a miracle \u2013 but there is nothing here in the text to indicate that the birth was anything other than the normal process of labor. Mary gave birth just as billions of other women have given birth: her water broke, she began to have contractions, she felt overwhelmed by the process going on inside her body; her back hurt, there was pain and effort and sweat and pushing and stretching and burning \u2013 and then, finally, amazingly, this new little creature came forth from her body; a new creature covered with mucous and amniotic fluid and blood and vernix \u2013 hair (if any) plastered to his head, that head possibly misshapen from hours of pushing, his skin bluish in color until the first breath, and first cry. Mary gave birth \u2013 and the baby, Jesus, came into this world just as you and I did, through His mother\u2019s strong efforts, bloody, slippery \u2013 and yet beautiful.<\/p>\n
The point of all this? Jesus was a baby \u2013 a normal baby, born in the normal way. <\/i><\/p>\n
Jesus was really human. Jesus was a baby who soiled himself, spit up, cried when He was hungry; He was completely dependent upon his parents for meeting His every need. He could do nothing for himself. With His little hands, he grasped fingers held out to Him. He couldn\u2019t communicate at first except by crying. He took months to learn to crawl, and more months to learn to walk, and to speak. Jesus was a normal, human baby with normal human needs.<\/p>\n
Jesus continued to exhibit normal human needs and problems throughout his life. The Bible tells us:<\/p>\n
Indeed, the book of Hebrews tells us he was \u201clike his brothers in every respect\u201d (2:17).<\/p>\n
Scripture is clear: Jesus was a real baby. Jesus was a real man.<\/p>\n
But Jesus was not only a man. He was \u201cImmanuel, which means God with us\u201d (Matthew 1:34). Jesus is truly God. How do we know this? The Bible shows this in three ways:<\/p>\n
1) While on earth, He claimed to be God<\/i><\/p>\n
a) Jesus said, \u201cI and the Father are One\u201d (John 10:30-31). His audience clearly understood him to claim deity \u2013 for they proceeded to try to stone Him for committing blasphemy! Now, there are many pantheists who would say something that sounds similar on the surface: \u201cAll things are God \u2013 all things are one \u2013 I am one with the universe.\u201d But that\u2019s clearly not what Jesus meant. The Bible never confuses God with His creation. Indeed, the very first sentence in the Bible makes a clear distinction between God and the created order: \u201cIn the beginning God created.\u201d Jesus is not saying, \u201cI and the Father are One \u2013 You and the Father are One \u2013 we\u2019re all One!\u201d He is saying, \u201cI am unique. I am God.\u201d<\/p>\n
b) Jesus said, \u201cBefore Abraham was born, I am\u201d (John 8:58-59). Here Jesus clearly claims to have existed prior to Abraham \u2013 who lived more than a thousand years earlier. But He is claiming even more than that. Why does Jesus say, \u201cBefore Abraham was born, I am\u201d instead of \u201cBefore Abraham was born, I was\u201d? Remember God\u2019s revelation of Himself to Moses at the burning bush. There God answers Moses\u2019 request to tell him His name by saying,<\/p>\n
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” Exodus 3:14<\/p>\n
So when Jesus says, \u201cBefore Abraham was born, I am,\u201d He is echoing the name of God. He is hinting at His equality with God. Once again, His listeners understand this and consider such a statement blasphemous.<\/p>\n
c) Jesus said, \u201cWhoever has seen me has seen the Father\u201d (John 15:24). This is an audacious claim. \u201cLook at Me and you will see what God is like.\u201d Only the God-man can say that.<\/p>\n
So Jesus clearly claimed to be God. Now, over the centuries, a number of men have claimed to be God. Today, we put most such people in mental institutions. So making the claim does not establish the point. That leads us to the next point: These other claimants to deity have not done what only God can do.<\/p>\n
2) While on earth, Jesus did things only God could do<\/i><\/p>\n Consider this last incident. Friends bring a paralyzed man to Jesus. They can\u2019t get in the door, so they climb on top of the house, open a hole in the roof, and let the paralytic down through the hole. Jesus looks at him, and the first thing He says is, \u201cMy son, your sins are forgiven.\u201d The scribes who are present think, rightly, \u201cWho can forgive sins but God alone?\u201d At that point, Jesus chooses to heal the man \u2013 to show that He had authority to forgive sins. He thus proves He is God by forgiving the man\u2019s sins, and then showing that those sins are truly forgiven by the physical healing.<\/p>\n We could point to many more incidents, but these alone show that Jesus did what only God can do.<\/p>\n 3) Other New Testament writers tell us that Jesus is God<\/i><\/p>\n Once again, we could point to any number of passages. We\u2019ll look at only two:<\/p>\n Hebrews 1:3 [The Son] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.<\/p>\n The second phrase is the easiest to understand: Jesus is the \u201cexact imprint of [God\u2019s] nature.\u201d He is exactly like God. Since God is perfectly loving, Jesus is perfectly loving. Since God is perfectly just, Jesus is perfectly just. Since God is perfectly holy, Jesus is perfectly holy.<\/p>\n Use that phrase to help you understand the first: \u201cThe radiance of the glory of God.\u201d Jesus is the glory of God shining forth! He displays God\u2019s attributes in ways that no one else does, in ways that nothing else can.<\/p>\n Finally the last phrase: \u201cHe upholds the universe by the word of his power.\u201d The entire creation is sustained by His might. He not only created all things, but without Him all things would cease to exist.<\/p>\n Clearly the author of Hebrews claims that Jesus is God.<\/p>\n For our second passage, consider four verses from John 1:<\/p>\n John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.<\/p>\n John tells us that Jesus existed before creation \u2013 but more than that, He was God from the beginning.<\/p>\n John 1:3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.<\/p>\n Jesus was the active agent of God in creation. Apart from Him, nothing has come into existence.<\/p>\n John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.<\/p>\n Jesus is man, but Jesus is God also. His glory is the glory of God. He, like God, is full of grace and truth.<\/p>\n John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known<\/p>\n Look at this verse carefully. When John says, \u201cthe only God, who is at the Father\u2019s side\u201d who is he talking about? Jesus! So he says, \u201cNo one has ever seen God the Father, but Jesus, who is God also, who is at the side of God the Father, has shown us what God is like. When we see Jesus, we see God the Father.\u201d<\/p>\n There can be no question. These passages say that Jesus is God.<\/p>\n Put these thoughts together now. Meditate on what it means for Jesus to be both God and man:<\/p>\n Those same infant hands which grasped Mary\u2019s finger were the hands that created the myriads of stars; that same voice that cried out moments after birth was the voice that named each of those stars.<\/p>\n So consider the tremendous truth of the incarnation. We get so used to the words \u201cImmanuel, God with us, God incarnate, God in the flesh,\u201d they role off our lips and we don\u2019t begin to fathom what they mean. Think, now think! The One who made the sun became infinitesimal compared to it. The One who had all glory and power and purity and praise became despised, poor, needy, helpless; the One who was before the world began became \u2013 a tiny, seemingly insignificant speck in that world.<\/p>\n Jesus is man, fully man. Jesus is God, fully God.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the mystery in Bethlehem\u2019s manger. That\u2019s the center of Christmas.<\/p>\n\n