God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION

THIS DAY

When people argue about the exact date – year, month day – on which Jesus Christ was born we need to remind ourselves that this is not the important question. The important fact, the fact we celebrate, is the fact that there was a day in the history of the world on which Jesus Christ actually was born.

He is not a myth.

He is not the product of human religion, a desperate fabrication of our empty hearts.

Nor is he an after-thought of God, a ‘plan B’, frantically brought into play when a ‘plan A’, whatever it was supposed to be, failed.

This day, this day on which the eternal God became a human being, was always in God’s mind …

God saw this day even as he created the universe, the earth, and all that is on it, including us …

God saw this day even as he created us free to choose him or reject him, knowing that we would do the latter …

God saw this day even as he barred us from his presence because of our sin, prohibiting our access to the tree of life …

God saw this day even as he bore with our wickedness generation after generation …

God saw this day when he saved one family from global destruction ...

God saw this day even as he announced blessedness to us through Abraham's seed …

God saw this day even as he spoke through David of the hatred and the malice we would direct towards this Son …

God saw this day even as he spoke through Isaiah of this man of sorrows who would suffer the punishment necessary to bring us peace with God …

On this day, when God’s time for the salvation he had been planning for us since before the creation of the world had fully come, ‘God sent forth his Son, born of a woman'.

On this day, what God had planned before the beginning of time is now revealed and implemented through the appearing of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

On this day, God comes to us, God reveals himself to us. In a final way, beyond which there are no more chances, no further revelation.

Here, on this day, we celebrate and remember that God is a God of infinite glory far beyond our grandest imaginings: so full of grace that he bears with and deals with our sin against him, and so full of truth that he disperses our dark ignorance of him. And all of this through this child, born on this day.

Here, on this day, in this child, we see and we know God.

Here, on this day, God, who is invisible, became visible.

Here, on this day, God, who is spirit, became flesh.

Here, on this day, God, who is the Creator, became part of his creation.

Here, on this day, God, who is unknowable, became known.

Until this day, no one had ever seen God, but this Child, born on this day, has made him known.

And why is this so important? Because it is only by knowing this Child, born on this day, that we can know God, and knowing God is the only way to have eternal life:

'This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent' (Jesus).

Scriptures: Genesis 2:17; 3:15,22-24; 6 - 9; 12:3; Psalm 2:1-3; 22:1-18; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Ephesians 1:4,9-10; 3:2-6, 10-11; Galatians 4:4; 2Timothy 1:9-10; John 1:14, 18; 17:3.

Copyright Rosemary Bardsley 2008, 2021