The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Tomorrow we will celebrate Christmas to remember the birth of Jesus Christ as a human child: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: when as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 1:18). But the message of Christmas is incomplete without the message of Easter.
Jesus Christ grew up as any other child does. As was typical in Jewish families, He was taught the family trade of carpentry by Joseph. He began His ministry of evangelism and miracles at around the age of thirty.
The difference between Him and any other human who ever lived, is that He was perfect, without sin, the only human blemish-free enough to be the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of the world. As His cousin, John Baptist, stated, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). His coming was the intentional placement of God the Son among humans for the specific purpose of drawing fallen souls back to God…by dying on the cross.
Jesus was fully human; and He was also fully God. Colossians 2:9 tells us that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Christ “…who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made Himself of no reputation, took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” Philippians 2:10 completes the definition of Christ’s exaltation: “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”
Our redemption, and the kingdom of God to which we are thereby invited, is the reason Jesus became a man. It is also the reason we celebrate Jesus’ birth: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold or from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
