Thank you, heavenly Father, for Jesus
We've now jumped from one leader trying to guide his people into the promised land to another.
Today we are looking at Jesus' birth. The most fundamental issue is that
Jesus is the son of God.
He was born of Mary, through the Holy Spirit. This is the most fundamental issue in the whole of Christianity. I'm sure you remember the story very well, so we'll look at what it means to us.
Firstly, why did Jesus come in the first place?
As we look at throughout all our study this year, God has made a plan. Basically it involves getting everyone to praise him, and look after his creation (including each other). God gave everyone the freedom to choose, to do good or bad, but what God wants is everyone to do good of their own free will. To do this he first had to let people know what was good and what was bad. He did this through his laws (that we've been looking at over the past few months).
But instead of people looking from another's point of view – how can this law benefit others, they looked at how to use laws to benefit themselves.
What was needed was someone who would explain to the people just what God wanted. It was supposed to be the job of the High Priest to do this, but the High Priest was also subject to failings. So God sent his son to do the job.
It wasn't a new idea God had. He didn't suddenly decide that he needed to change things. The Old Testament is full of prophesy pointing to the coming of a saviour. They just needed something to be saved from. It's a well known fact, that in times of hardship people turn to God. At the time of Jesus the Jews were under the control of the Roman Empire.
But that was just a minor problem, something to get people to think “it could be better”. What we really need to be saved from is ourselves, putting ourselves first, or in other words, sin. The problem is we are very good at kidding ourselves, explaining something as right when we actually know it is wrong.
It's for this reason God sent Jesus.
There was a very important point; that he was 'born of woman'. He was mortal. If God took away his protection he could have died (and did on the cross), but more importantly he was tempted like we are, but he always put God first. He worked to save everyone, to help them to know God and what God wanted. Because he had human nature like ours he had to struggle to remain perfect. He knew that he was to be that perfect lamb.
The birth and lineage through his mother, Mary, shows that he was destined for leadership. He was the descendant of King David, a man whom God had promised would have a son who would reign forever. God was again fulfilling his plan.
What does Jesus mean to you?