Grace & Peace to you all.
I hope this holiday season brings you great memories shared with family and friends. This year remember to celebrate the One who hung on the tree and not just what may be under the tree. The Christmas holiday and Jesus' birth are great but it's the end of the story that really matters and causes us to rejoice. It was on that tree that He bore our sin in His body and was bruised for our iniquities. It is through Jesus that we're justified, have peace with God, & have gained access by faith into God's grace. And It was for this very reason that He was even born on that "Silent Night, Holy Night".
For "God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God". II Corinthians 5:21
Immanuel
Isaiah 7:14 says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."
This prophecy about the Messiah states that his name will be Immanuel. The Hebrew name consists of two words; El "God" and Immanu "with us". Immanuel literally means "God with us." This is significant because
Jesus would literally be God in flesh:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....and the Word became flesh and dwelt[tabernacled] among us... -John 1:1, 14
He[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. -Colossians 1:15
For in Him [Jesus] all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. -Colossians 2:9
in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He[Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high -Hebrews 1:2-3
So, we can see that a prophecy of Jesus being "Immanuel" is dealing with him being God, the Word, in flesh. This was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus otherwise known as the incarnation of the Word.
This same Word existed before and created the universe. It's important to remember that the Word[Jesus] was not just a man, but rather He "became" a man.
Genesis 1: 3, John 1:1, 14, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2-3 all speak to this
[Be Like The Bereans!] but I would like to highlite Micah 5:2-3:
And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you being least among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall come forth for Me, One who is to become Ruler in Israel,
He whose origin has been from of old, from the days of eternity.
Therefore He[God] will give them[Israel] over until the time when she who is in labor has given birth;
You see it is true that on that first Christmas if you would, Jesus entered into humanity as the Messiah, God with us, with the mission of saving His people from their sins; but His incarnation was not His inception. He existed before "in the beginning"... If we miss this, we're putting the cart before the horse.
So this year as you celebrate the newborn King, and the star that lit up the sky to proclaim His birth; remember that He was the one who said Let there be light and created that star.
Merry Christmas,
Steve
