More than Human?
Christmas cards and nativity scenes depict Jesus as a harmless child lying in a manger in a Bethlehem stable surrounded by animals and adoring worshipers.
However, the real story of Christmas only begins in Bethlehem; it doesn’t end there. Nor does it end tragically on a Roman cross thirty years later. The real Jesus Christ wasn’t just a harmless baby. In fact, he infuriated his enemies so much that they were obsessed with getting rid of him. And that effort goes on today.
In an aggressive move to take Christ out of Christmas, the American Atheists placed a billboard in New York’s Times Square urging us to, “Keep the Merry. Dump the Myth.” The billboard speaks of Jesus as mythical, but no leading scholar, Christian or secular, believes Jesus didn’t exist. In fact his life has influenced our planet more than any other person (see: “Was Jesus a Real Person?” )
This billboard is only one of many assaults on the identity of Jesus Christ. Hundreds of books, documentaries and articles have attempted to “dump” or alter the identity of Jesus Christ as depicted in the New Testament.
Although such attacks on Jesus have increased dramatically in the past few decades, they are really not new. Both the Jews and Romans of Jesus’ time attempted to marginalize him because they were threatened by his claims. He claimed to be from God. He claimed to be the only way to God. He claimed that eternal life was through him—alone.
Such radical claims incensed his enemies to the point that they wanted Jesus killed. He was making claims that only God could make (see “Did Jesus Claim to be God?”). Jesus certainly wasn’t merely a harmless baby to them.
His followers didn’t see him that way either. At first they wondered who he was. The more time they spent with him, the more they came to understand that he was the unique fulfillment of numerous messianic prophecies. God had promised through the prophets that he would one day visit Planet Earth.
Messiah?
The apostles came to believe that Jesus was this Messiah who would someday bring peace to Israel. Isaiah had prophesied 700 years earlier that, “a virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and his name would be called ‘Immanuel’, meaning ‘God with us.’”[1] Isaiah also gives us clues as to the identity of this child:
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[2]
According to the writers of the New Testament, Jesus is the literal fulfillment of this Isaiah passage, as well as hundreds of other prophecies written centuries earlier. Incredibly, biblical scholars tell us that Jesus fulfilled more than 300 Old Testament prophecies regarding his birth, life, and death (see “Was Jesus The Messiah?”).
Creator?
It stretches the imagination to think that the baby in the manger depicted in nativity scenes is the same person who flung the stars into space, engineered DNA, and created the power of nuclear energy. However, according to the apostles, that is exactly who he was. God the Son, Creator of the universe, had left his Father in heaven and visited Planet Earth.[3]
The apostle Paul (formerly named Saul of Tarsus) originally believed Jesus was a false Messiah. After Jesus’ death on the cross, Paul launched a campaign against Christians resulting in many being executed. But something happened that radically changed him. After seeing Jesus in a vision, Paul wrote of him,
“Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that everything was made. In fact, every single thing was created through, and for, him.”[4]
When we speak of the mystery of God taking on human flesh, we will never be able to grasp how he did it, or what it fully means. But both Old and New Testaments clearly proclaim Jesus Christ as fully man and fully God.
Some ask, “If God left heaven to become a man, who was running the universe?” Was God confined to a human body? Not according to Jesus and the authors of the New Testament, who speak of God as their Father in heaven, and Jesus as the Son of God. So who is Jesus—is he truly God, or something less?
Professor Peter Kreeft states that “In Jesus we find one person with two natures (human and divine)….Of course, God, the eternal “I AM,” did not become human in nature, for God’s nature cannot change. He did, however, take on a second nature. So it is that Jesus, the Son of God, had a God-nature and a human-nature.”[5]
Savior?
The ancient Hebrew prophets had also foretold that the Messiah would suffer for our sins, being “pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.”[6] God had established a sacrificial system in which the blood of a slain spotless lamb provided a picture of God’s willingness forgive sin. That picture would be fulfilled when the Messiah would literally die, offering his blood as the perfect Lamb of God.
God’s perfect justice demanded sin be punished, and his perfect love provided a way for sin to be forgiven through the sacrifice of the only perfect offering—his Son. Jesus is called the “Lamb of God,”[7] because he is that perfect sacrifice.
As God, Jesus was pure, righteous and sinless. This qualified him to be our Savior. As man, he represented us as mortal beings, subject to all our human limitations, yet without sin. This is why only Jesus was qualified to be our Savior.
Now we can understand why Mary, Joseph and the shepherds were so in awe of that baby in the manger. They understood that Jesus was God in human flesh. The first clue in the Christmas story that indicates Jesus’ deity is the fact that he was worshiped by those who saw him. Later, Jesus was worshiped by his disciples. Today he is worshiped by his followers.
The apostle John tells us that the world is divided into two camps: those who reject Jesus Christ, and those who worship him.
“Although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. Even in his own land…he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”[8]
These words about Jesus from John’s Gospel remind us that the Christmas story is much more than the adoration of a baby in a manger by Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. The Christmas story is God invading our planet with his message of love and forgiveness. Furthermore, it’s the story of incredible hope for those who put their faith in his greatest gift of all: eternal life through Jesus Christ.
However, in order for that wonderful gift to be a reality in our lives, we must receive him. Eternal life begins when we ask him to become our Savior and Lord. Because he gives us free will, we have the right to reject him. Yet he tells us that if we do reject him, it will result in the tragic consequence of an eternity separated from his love and forgiveness.[9]
Have you received the wonderful free gift of God’s grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ? It is a gift that can’t be earned by human effort.[10] We encourage you to read the following article which explains in more detail why Jesus came to Planet Earth, and what that means to you: Is Jesus Relevant Today? -Jesus Online
Endnotes
[1] Isaiah 7:14
[2] Isaiah 9:6
[3] Philippians 2:5-6.
[4] Colossians 1:15-16, J. B. Phillips.
[5] Peter Kreeft, “Why I Believe Jesus Is The Son Of God,” Norman L. Geisler & Paul K. Hoffman, eds, Why I AM A Christian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 224.[6] Isaiah 53:5.
[7] John 1:29
[8] John 1:11-12.
[9] 1 John 5:11-12.
[10] Ephesians 2:8-9.
Christmas cards and nativity scenes depict Jesus as a harmless child lying in a manger in a Bethlehem stable surrounded by animals and adoring worshipers.
However, the real story of Christmas only begins in Bethlehem; it doesn’t end there. Nor does it end tragically on a Roman cross thirty years later. The real Jesus Christ wasn’t just a harmless baby. In fact, he infuriated his enemies so much that they were obsessed with getting rid of him. And that effort goes on today.
In an aggressive move to take Christ out of Christmas, the American Atheists placed a billboard in New York’s Times Square urging us to, “Keep the Merry. Dump the Myth.” The billboard speaks of Jesus as mythical, but no leading scholar, Christian or secular, believes Jesus didn’t exist. In fact his life has influenced our planet more than any other person (see: “Was Jesus a Real Person?” )
This billboard is only one of many assaults on the identity of Jesus Christ. Hundreds of books, documentaries and articles have attempted to “dump” or alter the identity of Jesus Christ as depicted in the New Testament.
Although such attacks on Jesus have increased dramatically in the past few decades, they are really not new. Both the Jews and Romans of Jesus’ time attempted to marginalize him because they were threatened by his claims. He claimed to be from God. He claimed to be the only way to God. He claimed that eternal life was through him—alone.
Such radical claims incensed his enemies to the point that they wanted Jesus killed. He was making claims that only God could make (see “Did Jesus Claim to be God?”). Jesus certainly wasn’t merely a harmless baby to them.
His followers didn’t see him that way either. At first they wondered who he was. The more time they spent with him, the more they came to understand that he was the unique fulfillment of numerous messianic prophecies. God had promised through the prophets that he would one day visit Planet Earth.
Messiah?
The apostles came to believe that Jesus was this Messiah who would someday bring peace to Israel. Isaiah had prophesied 700 years earlier that, “a virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and his name would be called ‘Immanuel’, meaning ‘God with us.’”[1] Isaiah also gives us clues as to the identity of this child:
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[2]
According to the writers of the New Testament, Jesus is the literal fulfillment of this Isaiah passage, as well as hundreds of other prophecies written centuries earlier. Incredibly, biblical scholars tell us that Jesus fulfilled more than 300 Old Testament prophecies regarding his birth, life, and death (see “Was Jesus The Messiah?”).
Creator?
It stretches the imagination to think that the baby in the manger depicted in nativity scenes is the same person who flung the stars into space, engineered DNA, and created the power of nuclear energy. However, according to the apostles, that is exactly who he was. God the Son, Creator of the universe, had left his Father in heaven and visited Planet Earth.[3]
The apostle Paul (formerly named Saul of Tarsus) originally believed Jesus was a false Messiah. After Jesus’ death on the cross, Paul launched a campaign against Christians resulting in many being executed. But something happened that radically changed him. After seeing Jesus in a vision, Paul wrote of him,
“Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that everything was made. In fact, every single thing was created through, and for, him.”[4]
When we speak of the mystery of God taking on human flesh, we will never be able to grasp how he did it, or what it fully means. But both Old and New Testaments clearly proclaim Jesus Christ as fully man and fully God.
Some ask, “If God left heaven to become a man, who was running the universe?” Was God confined to a human body? Not according to Jesus and the authors of the New Testament, who speak of God as their Father in heaven, and Jesus as the Son of God. So who is Jesus—is he truly God, or something less?
Professor Peter Kreeft states that “In Jesus we find one person with two natures (human and divine)….Of course, God, the eternal “I AM,” did not become human in nature, for God’s nature cannot change. He did, however, take on a second nature. So it is that Jesus, the Son of God, had a God-nature and a human-nature.”[5]
Savior?
The ancient Hebrew prophets had also foretold that the Messiah would suffer for our sins, being “pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.”[6] God had established a sacrificial system in which the blood of a slain spotless lamb provided a picture of God’s willingness forgive sin. That picture would be fulfilled when the Messiah would literally die, offering his blood as the perfect Lamb of God.
God’s perfect justice demanded sin be punished, and his perfect love provided a way for sin to be forgiven through the sacrifice of the only perfect offering—his Son. Jesus is called the “Lamb of God,”[7] because he is that perfect sacrifice.
As God, Jesus was pure, righteous and sinless. This qualified him to be our Savior. As man, he represented us as mortal beings, subject to all our human limitations, yet without sin. This is why only Jesus was qualified to be our Savior.
Now we can understand why Mary, Joseph and the shepherds were so in awe of that baby in the manger. They understood that Jesus was God in human flesh. The first clue in the Christmas story that indicates Jesus’ deity is the fact that he was worshiped by those who saw him. Later, Jesus was worshiped by his disciples. Today he is worshiped by his followers.
The apostle John tells us that the world is divided into two camps: those who reject Jesus Christ, and those who worship him.
“Although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. Even in his own land…he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”[8]
These words about Jesus from John’s Gospel remind us that the Christmas story is much more than the adoration of a baby in a manger by Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. The Christmas story is God invading our planet with his message of love and forgiveness. Furthermore, it’s the story of incredible hope for those who put their faith in his greatest gift of all: eternal life through Jesus Christ.
However, in order for that wonderful gift to be a reality in our lives, we must receive him. Eternal life begins when we ask him to become our Savior and Lord. Because he gives us free will, we have the right to reject him. Yet he tells us that if we do reject him, it will result in the tragic consequence of an eternity separated from his love and forgiveness.[9]
Have you received the wonderful free gift of God’s grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ? It is a gift that can’t be earned by human effort.[10] We encourage you to read the following article which explains in more detail why Jesus came to Planet Earth, and what that means to you: Is Jesus Relevant Today? -Jesus Online
Endnotes
[1] Isaiah 7:14
[2] Isaiah 9:6
[3] Philippians 2:5-6.
[4] Colossians 1:15-16, J. B. Phillips.
[5] Peter Kreeft, “Why I Believe Jesus Is The Son Of God,” Norman L. Geisler & Paul K. Hoffman, eds, Why I AM A Christian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 224.[6] Isaiah 53:5.
[7] John 1:29
[8] John 1:11-12.
[9] 1 John 5:11-12.
[10] Ephesians 2:8-9.
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