We celebrate Christmas because the God of the universe, out of His great love and grace, did come down to us, and walked among people in the humblest of circumstances - all because of His great mercy, love, and compassion for us.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:9-14).
3 Themes Concerning the Incarnation
Christ’s Divinity (John 1:9)
Christ’s Humanity (John 1:10-11)
Man’s Redemption (John 1:12-13)
Christ’s Divinity
Jesus who is God, has always existed and is not only a genuine, authentic revelation from God, but is also the ultimate revelation of God Himself as a number of OT Scriptures pointed to His coming as the Light. He is God and not only did John and others testify of His deity but He Himself affirmed to the Jewish leaders in John 8:58 as well as in John 18:36-37 and to His disciples that He was God.
He is the Hope and Comfort of Israel, but also the One who would bring salvation to all nations as a demonstration of His sovereign, gracious, and loving initiative to redeem the human race. God the Son, who was full of grace and truth, would perfectly reveal the character of God through the incarnation.
In John 1:9, we see that Jesus was the true Light and He wanted to bring light to all men. What does that mean?
Christ is light and He alone brings life, hope and joy, but also as the light He reveals what is in the darkness.
Christ’s light through the Spirit of God reveals the spiritual condition of all mankind, it pierces through and exposes the darkness of sin that pervades the hearts and lives of those who do not know Him. But it also gives hope to everyone, no one is beyond God’s saving Grace.
“God is love and manifested His perfect love when He came to save a world who didn’t even recognize Him and that was hostile towards Him.”
Christ’s Humanity
Since original sin had been imputed to every human being, every single person was guilty and under condemnation. Therefore, no person, because of their imperfect condition, could atone for or pay for another person’s sin, let alone their own sin and live. Out of the billions of people who have lived on this earth there was no one who could take our place and who in reality would die for the sins and the guilt of the human race.
This is the reason why the second Member of the Holy Trinity, God the Son, voluntarily left the glory of heaven and chose to become a man.
He dwelled among people like us and fully experienced the effects of living in a fallen world. He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, endured incredible ridicule, rejection, betrayal, suffering, and finally an excruciating death as an innocent man. He completely identified with us, but He did not share the guilt or disposition of Adam’s sin which was passed on to the human race. In the 33 years Jesus lived on the earth, He experienced every type of temptation, but never committed a single sin (Matt 3:15; John 8:46; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 1:19).
Instead of succumbing to any of the temptations He faithfully endured to the end, He perfectly obeyed His Father every moment of every day of His life on this earth.
By being the perfect human being and then paying for every sin that mankind would ever commit, He perfectly satisfied God’s justice, therefore, making peace possible between us and God.
He purchased our redemption and salvation as the God-man - 100% God and 100% man (1 Tim 2:5; Heb 5:5-10).
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed (John 3:19-20).
“God came into the world He created and almost no one recognized Him.”
He came to His own (the Jews) and they with all their religious knowledge and background chose not to believe in Him nor would they receive Him because they were waiting for nobility, someone with prominence and pedigree, from a notable town - not a blue-collar carpenter from Nazareth.
But God kept His promise anyway. Knowing full well that many would reject and spurn His love He came and manifested God’s perfect love for this World. Jesus, the Son of God, became a man and went to the Cross as the once and for all sacrifice for sin.
Become a Child of God
In order for God the Son to manifest His perfect love to the world, He would lay aside His glory (the real kenosis); a voluntary restraint of power; He would accept hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, and malice; finally, a death that involved such agony – spiritual even more than physical – that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they through his poverty might become rich.
“The God of the universe, because of His great love, did come down to us, filled with grace and truth, and walked among people in the humblest of circumstances. ”
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:12-13).
Once a person places their faith in Christ as Savior, once he or she receives Him and believes in who He is, they are adopted into God’s family as His child forever. He gives you the right or authority to become a child of God because this life does not come from natural birth but through the Holy Spirit.
Being born into a Christian family doesn’t make you a Christian. The origin of this new life is not dependent upon man or family line, how good you are, your power to follow Jesus, but is from God and therefore is eternal. We are justified before a holy God by faith in Christ. He is the greatest gift of all.
Once we have become children of God, we have legal standing and become heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17) and we know that nothing could ever separate from His perfect love. God knows each of us so intimately and even in your greatest challenges or failures He will never abandon you.
Jesus said, “you are the light of the world”- the question is:
what are you going to do with this light - hide it or allow it to be manifested through your life?
This year will you allow God to use your life as a light in this world?
