LEARNING DAILY

Isaiah 9:6a, b, For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given….

Dr. Ed Newton has been using the rest of this verse to preach on each of the names given the child who was born, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. I have written about two of the names in two other pages of the blog. I want to focus on the first part of the verse as a prelude to the Christmas season in order to understand the why “Jesus is the reason for the season”. In the rest of this page of the blog I am going to quote the Chronological Bible I am using for my daily devotions this year. This is what is written in it to introduce The Coming of the Messiah.

“All is now ready for the most important event in human history. It is an event planned even before the creation of the world. It is the keeping of a promise made to Abraham over 2000 years earlier. It is the fulfillment of a host of prophecies regarding the Messiah who would come to establish His kingdom. Most importantly, it is the beginning of a dynamically new relationship between God and man. The event is the coming Savior of the world, the Messiah – or, as referred to in the Greek, the Christ.

The Christ is not to be just another world leader, as Cyrus, Alexander, or Caesar. He is not to be just another great man of God, as Abraham, Moses, or David. He is to be God Himself in human flesh! The Lord of heaven is to be a servant on earth. God, who has previously made Himself known through a nation and a law, is now to reveal Himself in the most personal way possible – in the form of a man. Until now God’s blessings have been reserved mostly for a chosen people, but now they are to become available to all people in every nation.

Who is this Christ, the Messiah? His name is Jesus. His symbolic name. Immanuel (meaning “God with us”), signifies His deity. He is a man, to be sure, but God as well; and He is God – the God of Creation – but man as well. God lowers Himself so that man might be elevated. He leaves heaven so that man might enter it. To man, who cannot begin to understand the ways of God, it is clearly a mystery. But what a marvelous and wonderful mystery it is!

As the New Testament record now begins, the Scriptures proclaim the good news of the salvation of mankind which comes through obedient faith in Jesus the Christ. The good news begins with the miraculous birth of Jesus to a virgin of Galilee in the days of Herod, King of Judea.”

I love the lyrics of a song that says. “You didn’t want heaven without us. So, Jesus, you brought heaven down. My sin was great; Your love was greater. What could separate us now?” As we continue on in the Christmas season, may none of us forget that among the decorations, festivities, and gift buying, Jesus loved you so much that He did not want to live in heaven without you! Because each of us were living our lives far away from Him, we needed to be saved. So, Jesus left heaven and came to live among us and die in our place; there was no other way for us to be united with God for eternity. May this season of celebration of a child, given to us be a season of reflection and thanksgiving for the greatest gift we could ever be given.