(Matthew 1:20-23) “…behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfil what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

Once again the Christmas season is upon us even though the Lord Jesus was not born in December. These is a matter of discussion in itself but not the express purpose of this post. At this time of year everyone gives gifts and this is a reflection of course of the greatest gift given to man in the person of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Now when we consider the text of Matthew 1:20-23 there are several truths that we can reflect upon at this season of the year.

  1. The Messiah our Lord Jesus was no ordinary man.

John tells us in his gospel that the Lord Jesus pre-existed with His father from all eternity as the Living and abiding Word of God Himself, one exactly the same as God and equal with God in all of his eternal and divine attributes. (John 1:1-2) He was the eternal Word Himself who became a human being and tabernacled among us! (John 1:14) He was one “whose origins are of old” or “from days of eternity.” (Micah 5:2) He was fully human in every way yet without sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) At the same time He was fully God, “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.” (Hebrew 1:3) He was “the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and one in who “all of the fullness of the Triune Godhead dwelt in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9)

I well remember a story Billy Graham told many years ago now, it went something like this if my memory serves me correctly. At one time Billy was walking with his little son and by accident they happened to kick over an ant’s nest causing the ants to be disorientated and confused and staggering everywhere. Billy’s boy pointed this out to him and said; “Daddy, if only I could become an ant and show them what to do.” Billy replied; “son that is just like God who saw humankind lost and away from Himself and decided to become a man to show them the way back to Himself.” This in a nutshell is the story of Christmas.

2. The Messiah our Lord Jesus was supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit of God.

In this fundamental truth we clearly see that the blessed Holy Spirit has the same divine and eternal attribute as God Himself does and as the Lord Jesus Himself has and their ability to procreate life supernaturally without any human intervention. In eternity the Triune God (Elohim), being the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, were of one mind and heart together in deciding how they would provide salvation for man eons before the creation of the universe itself. All three have always existed as the One God, Triune in nature and together all three have foreknowledge of all things past, present and future. (Isaiah 46:10) The blessed Holy Spirit Himself supernaturally impregnated the womb of Mary and through this act as God the Spirit, the eternal Word Himself became a flesh and blood human being who came into this world to tabernacle among us. (John 1:14) 

3. The Messiah our Lord Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

A salvation that leaves a sinner wallowing around in the cesspool of sin is not Biblical salvation. The salvation found only in the Lord Jesus releases us from the power, the penalty and ultimately from the presence of sin itself. (John 14:6) (Revelation 1:5b)  The Lord Jesus Himself said; “For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) The apostle Paul wrote; “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that the Messiah Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1Timothy 1:15) Paul was mightily used of God but knew in his own heart that apart from God’s enabling unmerited favour he was a spiritual basket case and prone to sin. (Romans 7:14-24) Sin is the reason why the world is in the mess it is!

All of us by nature and by birth are great sinners and rebels in God’s sight. We are violators of His laws and commandments and in us dwells no good thing. (Romans 7:18) We are all sinners. (Romans 3:23) (Psalm 51:5) Yet we are told that “the reason that the Son of God was revealed was that He might destroy the works of the devil” and that the Lord Jesus was the one “who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God” (1 John 3:8) (Galatians 1:4) All sin, all sickness, all suffering and everything that destroys man and defiles creation is the devil’s work! At the cross the Lord Jesus exchanged places with us and though He was without sin God punished Him as a sinner that He might receive us as His sons and daughters who by birth are sinners. God was in the Messiah reconciling the world to Himself. This is the true message of Christmas. (2 Corinthians 5:21) (2 Corinthians 5:19)

When any person understands that God loves them, recognize they have sinned against Him, violated His laws and commandments and feel within themselves they have no hope for eternity but an everlasting torment in hell, they can have hope in the salvation God has provided for sinners., If they are willing to turn away from their sin and turn to the Lord Jesus for mercy pardon and cleansing through His atoning blood, they will receive the very righteous nature of God Himself and be justified before Him, not on the basis of good works or personal merit but on the basis of faith. (Romans 3:19-31; 5:1) (1 John 1:9) On the basis of the shed blood of the Messiah, which has fully and forever atoned for the sins of the whole world, a sinner can be saved from the power, the penalty and ultimately from the presence of sin at the resurrection of the body when the Lord Jesus comes back. (1 John 2:2) (Ephesians 1:7) (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) (Romans 5:9) This is the true message of Christmas!

4. The Messiah our Lord Jesus is God with us.

One of the many divine titles of the Lord Jesus given to us in the Word of God is “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” God himself has shown this to be true in sending His one and only begotten Son into the world so that whoever completely trusts Him to save them will not spend eternity in eternal torment but in eternal bliss. (John 3:16) He who is trusting in the Lord Jesus to save them from the power, the penalty and from the ultimate presence of sin and to rescue them out of this present evil age will not be disappointed.

As it is written in the Word of God; “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-13)

At this special time of the year God is not only with us but for us and in us if we have repented, believed on the Lord Jesus by faith to save us and are willing to be baptised, and have received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:27-29) Have you ever considered the fact that the Lord Jesus was born in a stable. Now a stable is smelly and dirty and there is usually cow manure everywhere and the smell is very bad. From the Biblical and spiritual perspective this is like the human heart which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and who can know this except God. (Jeremiah 17:9) Our lives apart from God are spiritually decayed; our own righteous efforts to live a good life are like a smelly, filthy, discarded woman’s menstrual rag in God’s sight. (Isaiah 64:6)

Now even though the stable into which the Son of God was born was smelly and dirty it was made clean by the presence of the Saviour of the world. His presence made that stable a holy place set apart and consecrated to God because His Son was born there. Even though we are conscious of our sinful tendencies and our total inability to please and to serve God apart from the enabling power of his Holy Spirit, if the blessed Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus lives in us then as far as God is concerned we are His temple and His dwelling place and “we have this treasure of His own divine nature and presence in these earthen vessels that the excellency may be of God and not of us!” (2 Corinthians 4:7) God looks upon us and does not see us with all of our faults and failures and spiritual imperfections but He sees in us the image of His beloved Son and because He is well pleased with Him He is well-pleased with us and delights to dwell with us! As it is written in the Word of God “We are accepted in the beloved!” (Ephesians 1:6)

Right now you may feel that your heart is like a stable spiritually but keep in mind that when you were born again by the Spirit of God that He came to dwell in you and to deliver you from all of Satan’s works. He has not finished with any of us yet and there is still a lot of smelly stuff that He has to clean up but we know that one day we shall see Him as He is for we will be like Him and to this end have we been predestined by God. (1 John 3:2) (Romans 8:29) At this Christmas season God is with us and for us and in us if we have made the Messiah our Lord Jesus the Lord and Saviour of our life. As it is written; “He will save His people from their sins.”