The birth of Lord Jesus through His mother Mary is the joining together of the heavenly with the earthly, for with this God established a very close and intimate relationship with mankind. In His Son, God experienced all the ups and downs of life that we face in our lives and in that became our partner. With this, we are also joined together with Lord Jesus into one close spiritual bond.
How can Lord Jesus be fully Human and also fully Divine? The curses that mankind received as the outcome of their sin of unbelief and disobedience affected all three parties to the act. Man suffers hard labour to survive; the woman suffers pain in childbirth and control of her husband (Genesis 3:14-19). The serpent and in it the devil, along with his curse of crawling on the earth also received permanent enmity between the seed of the woman and its seed. The procedure defined was, ‘He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel’. Seed is the offspring or descendants and the woman’s seed would one day afflict the devil and his followers. It is clear that the woman is like the earth, the recipient, while the seed is of the man, for a child to be born. To fulfil this prophecy, God had to intervene and ensure that a miraculous act takes place without man coming into the picture. With this God declared at the commission of sin itself that the death and separation will not be permanent. The Deliverer will have to be born with God’s help and also suffer to destroy the result of this unbelief and disobedience, but the devil will suffer a fatal blow.
When Eve bore a son, Cain, through union with Adam, she declared, ‘I have acquired a man from the LORD’ (Genesis 4:1). The Hebrew word ‘qanah’ means to ‘attain, buy, redeem and possess’. Her perception was that Cain is the fulfilment of the promise of God, of the seed of the woman. But the birth being with God’s help, normal man-woman relationship was not to be the way and the one being born would be directly from God but born through the normal process of birth through the woman. The prophecy regarding this birth, declares, ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel’ (Isaiah 7:14). The fulfilment of this was disclosed to Mary by angel Gabriel by answering her question, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ (Luke 1:31-35). Knowing a man is about physical relation and thus it was the confirmation of her virginity. The procedure of this birth was to be, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God’. She was to name Him Jesus/Yehoshua and the same message was conveyed to Joseph, who was to marry her, by the angel in a dream (Matthew 1:20-23).
The question our Lord asked the disciples, is also ours to answer (Matthew 16:13-16. First part of that question was, ‘Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?’ The answers were bizarre, ‘Some say John the Baptist (while John had baptised Him), some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets’’. Then was the disciples’ turn, ‘But who do you say that I am?’, for they had been with Him, listening to Him teach and witnessing all the miraculous works performed by Him. It was their spokesperson for everything, Simon Peter who answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God’. Unless one is convinced and accepts Lord Jesus as fully Divine, the Son of God, one cannot be saved. It is clear that ‘with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation’ (Romans 10:10). Lord Jesus as the Son of God is God, born as a Man
Son of God, Fully Divine – Joseph was reluctant to take Mary as his wife, for she was pregnant with the child of the Holy Spirit and God assured him in a dream (Matthew 1:18-21). He was told, ‘that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit’ and was even commanded by God to ‘call His name Jesus’. In Hebrew His name is Yehoshua or Yeshua, consisting of two words and meaning salvation. The first is ‘Yah’, the name of God and the second, ‘yasha’ to save, and thus in and through God’s Son Yeshua, God saves/redeems mankind.
Prophet Isaiah had talked about Lord Jesus’ work more than seven hundred years before His birth (Isaiah 9:6-7). He prophesied, ‘Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’. All this was about His being fully God by birth, His teachings and His works.
Lord Jesus being fully Divine and also fully Human – Apostle Paul repeated the curse of Adam and Eve, ‘the wages of sin is death’. God cannot die and the Son of God also, being sinless cannot die, nor can He fall prey to temptations to be able to defeat the designs of the devil. In this holy state only, could He take the sins of all humanity on Himself, suffer, die and defeat death and the devil in His resurrection and ascension into heaven to open the door for us into the presence of God. Apostle John connected His Gospel account with the beginning of creation to say, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God’ (John 1:1;14). When God decided to create on earth, He said and spoke the Word, ‘Let there be light’ (Genesis 1:3-4). Thus, in and through His Word, God revealed His glory, the glory of His Son and He ‘divided the light from the darkness’. We further learn that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Immanuel), and we beheld His glory (in physical form), the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth’.
Grace is God’s undeserved kindness to send the Messiah as the Saviour but is also about inner transformation and empowerment through Him. Truth is more than intellectual facts but the very essence of reality that can be believed. In Him all of God’s promises in the previous covenants with mankind get confirmed and fulfilled. When Lord Jesus declared Himself to be ‘the way and the truth and the life’, He revealed God’s eternal nature and the way to ascend into His Divine presence through Him (John 14:6).
Apostle Peter witnessed to Cornelius and his relatives and friends and said, ‘How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him’ (Acts 10:38). God, the Father, anointed His Son with the Holy Spirit and power, to enable Him in His fully Human form, perform all those miraculous works. How much more, we, human beings, need the presence of the same Spirit to live and walk right?
Lord Jesus on earth was God minus His Divine glory and the glory of Second Adam. God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into him so that this ‘first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam (Lord Jesus) became a life-giving spirit’ (1 Corinthians 15:45). The Redeemer freed all who believe in Him to be fully human beings and be filled with His Divine nature also to have eternal life.
Lord Jesus’ Oneness with God – Lord Jesus declared, ‘I and My Father are one’ and this was oneness in the Spirit (John 10:30). The Saviour Lord could then do exactly what was decreed in heaven. That is why just before raising Lazarus from the dead, He said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me’ (John 11:41-42). And this He said without speaking a word before others. He further said, ‘I know that You always hear Me’. Even being in the flesh, Lord Jesus obeyed the will of the Father and was always in perfect communion with God the Father in heaven. He, as our Saviour, had to suffer death on our behalf to free us from the clutches of sin and the devil.
He alone can give us life for ‘In Him was life, and the life was the light of men’ (John 1:4). As God He could not have died for ‘God is Spirit’ and His worship can also only be in ‘spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24). He had to become Man, to die a death which was the worst form ever designed by mankind to stop any accusations of the devil of incompleteness of the work of salvation. As Man He died but as God He could not have remained dead and rose from the dead to ascend into His abode which as God is in heaven. God in His grace and mercy sent His Son to become Man and thus redeem us back into the same state or closeness to God, as was at the time of creation. After completion of His work on the earth, God has ‘seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion’ (Ephesians 1:20-21). He rests now in His finished work on the cross and exercises authority over all things that are in heaven, on earth or below the earth.
Expected changes in a believer – All of mankind has experienced the love of God in His Son and the blessings flow. First, all our sins are forgiven. What the Prophet had revealed as the promise of God was fulfilled in His Son (Isaiah 1:18). The LORD said, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool’. In the Old Testament this blessing was linked to obedience but we receive this through the obedience of our Saviour.
Second, All believers are reconciled to God and ‘become children of God’ by believing in and receiving Lord Jesus as our Redeemer. We are further assured that, ‘If children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ’, the Son of God, receiving it all here and also in heaven (Romans 8:17).
Third, an assured place in heaven. Lord Jesus has Himself promised to prepare a place for each believer in His Father’s house in heaven (John 14:2-3). With this His guarantee is also linked by Him, ‘I will come again and receive you to Myself’. One of the two criminals, who was crucified with the Lord, was repentant and received the promise, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’. He joined Abraham and other righteous saints and was taken to heaven on the third day.
Fourth, we are blessed by His presence in us. First the promise is of not being orphaned by His physical absence (John 14:18;26). Then, is the blessing of the ‘Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you’. God, the Good Shepherd, blesses with His presence in us to teach and equip each one of us to live and walk in His ways.
Fifth, the promise of answers to prayers – The relationship with the LORD God also brings blessings. Lord Jesus promised, ‘Ask whatever you ask in My name (according to My character), that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son’ (John 14:13-14). Though there may be delays in receiving the answer from God, the answer is sure to come.
Sixth, a believer will not be put to shame or carry guilt. The Scripture message is, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame’ (Romans 10:11). The feeling of shame and guilt that comes from sin, is removed, through forgiveness and redemption. We need not hide from the loving God since we have Lord Jesus as our High Priest in heaven. We are exhorted to ‘come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4:15-16).
Seventh, inner transformation. Lord Jesus used Apostle Peter’s boat as a pulpit to preach to the crowd (Luke 5:1-8). At His command he cast his net, though they had struggled the whole night without catching any fish. On seeing the large catch of fish, Apostle Peter realised the Divine status of the Lord, and cried out, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ Lord Jesus told the disciples about His betrayal by one and stumbling of all and denial by Apostle Peter (Matthew:31-35). Filled with self-confidence, he said, ‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You’. After his denial, he was so shaken that he decided to revert back to his old profession as a fisherman (John 21:3-19). Lord Jesus appeared to them on the shore and as before at the beginning of their call to follow Him, at His command they let the net down and caught a large number of fish. They found the Lord already ready with roasted fish and bread to feed them. After nourishing their bodies, the Lord asked Apostle Peter three times, ‘do you love Me’. The third time he replied, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You!’ The Lord restored Him to fellowship but ensured that he also knew and was convinced about his love for the Lord.
Our Lord then, told Apostle Peter, ‘when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish’. In this manner, the Lord told him how he will glorify Him in his death. As per legend, when Apostle Peter was being crucified, he begged that he be crucified upside down, for he did not consider himself worthy to die like His Lord. The inner transformation that comes about in a believer strengthens him/her to face everything.
Apostle John had revealed the working of the evil spirit of Antichrist, even in those days. Anyone who ‘confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God’ (1 John 4:2-3). But anyone who denies this is of the evil one for the devil wants all to believe that God could not become Man, thus negating the entire work of the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord into heaven. The question that the Saviour Lord asks everyone, even today, is the same, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Our answer to this question decides our eternal destination after this life on earth. Get all the information that you want, speak to any number of people that you want but then decide who He is and either follow Him or follow the Antichrist!
Using our earthly knowledge and wisdom, we can never fully know everything about the Messiah, Lord Jesus. But one day we shall stand before Him in heaven, we shall witness the fullness of His Divine glory and marvel. His mother Mary pondered in her heart all that she heard about her Son and believed. Likewise, we also must receive in our hearts, all that we learn about Lord Jesus, and remain in close fellowship with Him, for only in this is our salvation!
