A Baby. A Manger. A Cross. A King.
A BABY...
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.
Matthew 1:21
A MANGER...
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Luke 2:12
A CROSS...
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24
A KING...
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 19:16
Each year as we approach Christmas...with all the lights, cooking, gifts to buy and just overall hustle & bustle, its seems like the very reason we celebrate Christmas is lost to most of the busy world....
For my sake, for your sake, let's take a moment together to Be Still. To Quiet our hearts before this Season really even begins and reflect a bit on what was that night in the manger, what was that day on the cross and what is yet to come.
It may seem strange that God would chose to send a tiny baby....and to chose to send his very Son, who himself is God in flesh, to a lowly destination like a stable. Honestly, time has personified the stable a bit, there was nothing glorious about it, despite the fact that it held the King of Kings. Why would God do this? When Christ came the first time...His mission wasn't to be a King. It was to be a servant. He came in the ultimate act of humility. He came as a love offering for humanity...for us.
From his birth in a stable to his death on a cross, Jesus lived out the ultimate act of humility. Humbly, he came to earth to live as one of us. The Bible indicates to us, He was fully God and yet, fully man. His very name itself, Immanuel, means God with us. A mystery to us indeed....essentially, he became one of us so that He could save us. How amazing that He would come down from his throne to dwell among us in order that He might draw us to Him!
Why this? Because someone had to pay the price...the price for our sins (the things we do think and say that are against God's will). When God created the heavens and the earth, things were perfect, people were perfect. He made Adam and Eve in His very likeness (Genesis 1:26). God also gave man a free will...and man chose to turn away from God. Ever since then, that sin-nature has been passed on to every human ever born. (Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned") Once Adam and Eve sinned, their sin separated them from God - they could no longer be in the presence of God and walk and talk with him in the garden as they had before (Genesis 3:23) In the same way, our sin separates us from God...it separates us from Him now and it will separate us from Him in eternity. Separation - that's exactly WHY God sent Jesus to earth. It has always been God's desire and intention to dwell among His people - from the Garden of Eden to the Israelites as they wandered in the desert - He has desired to be with us. Yet because He is holy, and we are sinful, there was always a problem. He was unapproachable to us because of his perfect Holiness - there was a separation - thus God sent a way for us to be able to come back to him, to the place where we were created to be, to the place where we really belong - in true fellowship with him.
His solution for the separation: A baby. A manger. Then a cross.
Because Jesus came to live as one of us, and yet was without sin...He became an acceptable substitute to God to stand in our place and bear that separation for us (Hebrews 4:15, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin") - He willingly stood in that separation 'gap' between God and us when He was on the Cross. HE bore that separation (Matthew 27:46, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?") so we wouldn't have to!!! In his Love for us, God made a way for us to be made right with Him again, to come to Him in fellowship again, to be with Him again, where we were intended to be all along!
When you put your trust in Jesus and ask him to bear that punishment of separation (that wrath, that guilt, that shame that prevents you from fellowship with God), He opens His arms so wide and fully embraces you as a child of God. When you ask Him to stand in that gap for you, to be your personal Savior, when you acknowledge him as the ONLY WAY to get to the Father (John 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.") at that very moment you cross from death to life. (John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life" ..... Romans 5:10, "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!)
From DEATH to LIFE....what a contrast....He takes us from where we are: dead, without hope, wallowing in our own sinfulness --- and brings us to Life through the Perfect Righteousness of Jesus that covers those who put their trust in Him for Salvation!
That free will that Adam & Eve had....we still have it - God has laid out clearly His plan for mankind in the Bible. Jeremiah 21:8 tell us "This is what the LORD says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death"---- We get to chose: Death or Life. We all get to live eternally, but where you live it is the difference: in death, in paying for your sins and eternally separated from God (aka. hell) or in Life...living forever in fellowship with the God who made you, loves you, and desires to have you dwell with Him in Glory forever.
A baby. A manger. A cross.
A KING....
Hebrews 9:28 says "So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
That's where the King part comes in .... JESUS is coming back...and this time, he's not coming as a humble Savior --- He's coming back as a Conquering King, Sword in hand, ready to Judge! "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Jude 1:14-15.
We will all face Him....Either as Savior or as Judge.
This Season, let us reflect on the Reasons behind that manger birth...that ultimately, he might stand in that separation gap for those who love Him, and not only be just a baby in manger who we think about once a year, but that He would be become our very hope - our Savior & Redeemer - Our King.
A KING.
Matthew 24:30
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
A BABY.
A MANGER.
Luke 2:7
And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger.
A CROSS.
Acts 2:23
This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you...put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
A BABY....A KING
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....On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Matthew 1:21 and Revelation 19:16
