God with us

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" --which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25a).

Immanuel—God with us. This simple phrase is the sum and substance of Christmas in all its wonder and glory. Think about it. God with us. The mere thought of such a thing boggles the mind.

God is eternal. God has always existed. God will always exist. All of human history is nothing more than the blink of an eye to Him. Psalm 90 says, a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by. The length of our lives barely shows as a dot on eternity’s timeline. All our years of childhood, all of our years as adults, all these long years are next to nothing when compared to God’s age.

God is all-powerful. He opened His mouth and said, "let there be"—and just like that, the universe was filled with light! God spoke, and the earth was made—oceans and atmosphere, mountains and plains. At God’s command, this world was filled with life—4,000 different kinds of animals, 9,000 varieties of birds, 19,000 types of fish, 250,000 varieties of flowers, 750,000 kinds of insects—in all, over a million distinctly different living species—of which man is but one.

Not only did God use His vast power to make this wonderful world, He has also changed the course of history through miracles. He cleansed the world of millions of sinners with a flood that covered every square inch of land. He provided a dry path through the middle of the Red Sea for the Israelites who were fleeing the Egyptian army. He made the earth stop spinning for a day so that Joshua’s army would have uninterrupted daylight until they defeated the Amorites. He caused a shadow cast by the sun to travel backwards ten steps to assure King Hezekiah that the Lord had the power to make good on His promises. Compared to all this, what do our accomplishments amount to—our high school diplomas or college degrees, the projects completed by our hard work? What have we done that could attract God’s attention or earn for us His approval?

And God is holy. God is perfect in every way. He makes no errors in judgment. He never jumps to conclusions. He never acts out of selfishness. He never fails to keep a promise. His every thought, word, and deed is motivated by a desire for perfection, because it is only when things are perfect that perfect love and perfect peace can be experienced.

It is incredible to think that such a God would ever consider coming into this world to be with us. We have spoiled God’s perfect creation. Every man, woman, and child has participated in bringing pieces of hell here to earth by our selfish behavior. Look at what our sin has done to this world.

Before Adam and Eve sinned, time was not something to worry about. God created humanity to live forever. But people who are created perfect by a perfect God are expected to behave perfectly. God warned them: you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17). But did that warning stop them? No. They chose to disobey God, resulting in this awful sentence of death: dust you are, and to dust you will return (Genesis 3:19). And this curse has been passed on to all of us; Romans chapter 5 says, sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned. Because of sin, death awaits each of us and we fear the ticking of the clock, because each minute shortens the time remaining to us. How could a timeless God be willing to subject Himself to a life of limited time?

Sin has made our world a victim of those who compete for power. Losing one’s life to the grasp of death is the ultimate loss of power, and people will do anything to feel powerful in other ways, in order to compensate. Some people lust for political power; they will do anything to exert control over other people, from lying in campaign advertising, to intimidating voters, to seizing control of government by a military coup, to waging war against countries who oppose them. And look at the cost of such actions: people living in fear, people maimed and dead, farmland destroyed and economies ruined, natural resources wasted on building instruments of war.

Nor does it stop there. The desire for power also shows up in the lust for money, because money can buy what we cannot take by force. Prostitutes sell themselves for money. Businessmen sell their morals in exchange for making a profit, by their willingness to lie and cheat and break promises. Husbands and wives trade away time with their families in exchange for long hours at work to get more money. People are reluctant to give money to the Church or to help the poor unless they can get a tax break for it. How could an all-powerful God tolerate living among people who are constantly competing for the opportunity to abuse having power?

Sin has made our world immoral, evil. No one can tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Some will tell you that what is right and what is wrong depends on the situation. Others will tell you that it is up to each person to decide what is right and wrong for his own personal happiness. There are those who claim that nothing you do is wrong, so long as it does not hurt another person. Political Correctness holds that the only thing that is cannot be tolerated is being intolerant of others. Governor Pontius Pilate summed up humanity’s confusion over morals at Jesus’ trial,when he said, What is truth? (John 18:38)

Of course, moral confusion results in conflicts. A man who believes that it is acceptable to use violence to influence government policy will be hunted and killed as a terrorist by those who have lost loved ones to such attacks. A woman who believes that shoplifting is okay if it is necessary in order for her to feed her children will not find common ground with the store owner whose ability to support his family is undercut by her theft. When a wife expects her husband to tell a white lie when she asks "how do I look?", conflict will result if she later scolds her children for fibbing. When an employer docks a worker’s pay for being late, trouble will follow if that boss takes off early for personal business. How could a holy God even think of spending time among people who are willing to ignore His expectations when doing the moral thing is inconvenient or demanding?

Yet, this is the blessing of Christmas: Immanuel, God with us. The eternal, all-powerful, holy God made each and every one of us as the unique beings that we are. And that same God sent His eternal, all-powerful, holy Son to come into this sin-cursed world to be Immanuel, God with us. The Lord did the unimaginable—the eternal Son of God came into our time-enslaved world to die. The all-powerful Son of God came into our war-torn world to destroy the power of sin. The holy Son of God came into our immoral world to gift us with His holiness.

How different our lives are because of Jesus! Without Jesus, people live lives of moral confusion, not knowing what is right and what is wrong. Living without clear moral guidelines results in constantly getting hurt because of making bad choices. But Jesus tells us what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will. Jesus enables us to tell right from wrong; He helps us to make good choices that please God, help others, and make us feel good about ourselves. When we follow Jesus’ moral teachings, we can lead happy lives.

Without Jesus, people live lives of constant cutthroat competition, trying to be more popular, more powerful, or more successful than everyone else. Such lives are nothing but constant frustration, because there will always be someone else who is more skilled, more influential, or who has more wealth, and there is never any rest from trying to get more so you can be the most powerful, the one most in control. Furthermore, such competition destroys relationships and leaves us facing the self-inflicted pressures of life all alone. But Jesus is the only one with true power. As He hung dying on the cross, He used the power of God to defeat the power of sin. God’s power destroyed your sin in Jesus’ body, as your Savior suffered at the Place of the Skull. Because sin’s power has been met and conquered, Jesus has freed you from having to live a life of chasing power. Instead, He invites you to take shelter in His power, the forgiving power of perfect love. Jesus said, You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it (John 14:14). When we trust that Jesus will give us whatever we really and truly need to be happy, we are freed from worrying about how to get ahead. When we make our relationship with Jesus our top priority by seeking His forgiveness and His help, we will no longer be alone because our sin will stop driving God away, and will stop driving others away as well.

Without Jesus, people live in constant fear of death. They spend inordinate amounts of money to hide wrinkles and gray hairs, reminders of their mortality. They take doctors and hospitals to court for failing to keep their loved ones alive. When they force themselves to go to funerals, their tears are unstoppable. They consult astrologers for advice on how to avoid danger, and they go to psychics for reassurance about what awaits their souls after death. But Jesus defeated death. Our sins put Him in the grave, but human sin is nowhere near the equal of the power of God. Jesus rose from the death of our sins to show us that the grave is not the end, not for those who worship the eternal Son of God. Because of Jesus, we do not fear death; our attitude becomes that of St. Paul who wrote, to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better. Yet if I live, that means fruitful service for Christ. I really don't know which is better. I'm torn between two desires: Sometimes I want to live, and sometimes I long to go and be with Christ. That would be far better for me (Philippians 1:21-23). When we attend the funerals of Christian loved ones, we can shed happy tears, knowing that they are now in a state of happiness and peace that we can only be jealous of.

Immanuel—God with us. This simple phrase is the sum and substance of Christmas in all its wonder and glory. It is a wonder that the eternal, all-powerful, holy God would even consider entering our dying, conflicted, immoral world to be with us. But praise God that He did! This is the glory of Christmas—that God loved us so much that He sent His eternal, all-powerful, holy Son to live with us, die for us, and destroy the power of the grave over us. Jesus is the gift of God that brings us happiness and peace today and hope for tomorrow. May you welcome this gift on this Christmas and throughout the year ahead.