Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14 ESV)
As you begin to read through more than a dozen specific, prophetic promises of God concerning His promised Messiah, you begin to realize that our Redeemer’s birth was no cosmic accident or collection of coincidences. We learn that God’s promised Savior would be of the seed of Eve, of the lineage of Abraham, from David’s line, and today that His conception would be supernatural.
Included in Isaiah 7:14, we learn that the very name of the child the virgin would conceive and bear would be Immanuel. Transliterated from the Hebrew word עִמָּנוּאֵל as ‛immânû’êl, according to Strong’s Concordance the word means “with us (is) God.” Later in the New Testament, we learn that Immanuel means “God with us” (see Matthew 1:23). Not only would the conception of the promised One be supernatural, as in a virgin by divine intervention would conceive and give birth to a child, but the child that was born (the Son that was given) was the eternal Son of God.
Orthodox Christian teaching has consistently upheld both the virgin birth and the divinity of Christ. This Christmas season, I hope you’ll take a few moments and marinate and meditate on this profound truth. When Jesus stepped into creation, the very One by whom and for whom all creation exists, left the splendor of heaven and entered into His creation to rescue us from sin and death (see Colossians 1:16-20).
Out of the countless billions of people born into this world, only Jesus was supernaturally conceived and delivered. Jesus is unique among every other person born in the history of the world both in the way in which He was born and in that He is God. Today as you rejoice at the incredible, true story of the Biblical Christmas, rejoice in God’s incredible plan. That our Creator would not just shout His love from heaven but proclaim it in His birth, life, death, and resurrection.
I challenge you to carefully and prayerfully reject any attempt to dimmish, redefine, or disregard the incredible, miraculous nature of Jesus Christ. Because He is truly God, it is both right and logical that we should worship Him and give thanks for His incarnation and our deliverance in Him.
Heavenly Father, thank You that with You nothing is impossible. To think that the eternal Son of God put on flesh and stepped into the world He created is beyond our ability to truly understand. We pray that You would help to open our hearts and minds to the depth and beauty of Your plan of redemption. Thank You for not leaving our rescue or the fulfillment of Your promises up to chance. We thank You our Immanuel for coming to be with us so we could forever be with You. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Resources:
What does the Bible teach about the Trinity?
How as Jesus fully God and fully man?
