Devotional on Christmas Day

"Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Isaiah 7:14)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We are indeed thankful for His Birth in History: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35.) Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from the world. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being ever born; He is a Being, Who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into human history from outside. His life is the Highest and the Holiest entering in at the Lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent.

I am profoundly grateful for His Birth in Me: "…for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you," (Gal. 4:19.) Just as Our Lord came into human history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the Kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "You must be born again" (John 3:7b). This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me.

God manifest in the flesh - that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption to become children of God.

Merry Christmas to you and your kin: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14).

Love you because of this Son of Love,
Lawrence