This post comes from Calvary Chapel Pastors
It happens every year. As the calendar approaches its last page, interesting things start taking place. People begin clearing out a special spot somewhere in their homes to put up a tree. Colored lights get strung high on buildings, sparkling in the night sky. Fat men in red suits appear almost everywhere, while commercial radio stations play tunes you simply don’t hear during any other time of year.
Christmas is coming.
For believers in Christ, this season means much more than tinsel, presents and nostalgic viewings of classic holiday movies. We remember the nativity, the little babe lying in the manger as shepherds look on in adoration. The virgin has brought forth her firstborn son—Emmanuel, “God with us.”
Why did Jesus come that first Christmas? While the Bible gives many reasons for His advent, one of the most basic purposes was to reveal to the world the truth about God. Jesus’ heavenly Father sent His Son into this world to give us a firsthand, totally accurate revelation of the only true and eternal God.
The gospel of John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). A little later the evangelist writes, “And the Word became flesh and He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus truly was Emmanuel, God wrapped in human flesh.
The book of Hebrews opens with these words:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:1-3).
Although God had revealed something of Himself through the prophets of old, He most completely and perfectly manifested His true nature through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus could tell one of His disciples, “Have I been with you so long, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Earlier He had said, “He who sees Me sees Him who sent Me” (John 12:45). When you observe Jesus, you look into the very soul of God. So the apostle Paul insists that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15).
Jesus came to earth to reveal to us what God is really like. As you look at the life of Jesus and study His teachings, you discover His heavenly Father’s true nature. Jesus had to come, for as John declares,
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him [or revealed Him to us] (John 1:18).
Since no one on earth had ever seen God at any time, people had mixed ideas concerning Him and His nature—many of them quite peculiar. And that is why Jesus came, to clear away the misunderstandings and to declare to us the whole truth about God, His heavenly Father.
– excerpted from Love The More Excellent Way by Chuck Smith
continue reading the views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of Calvary Southampton
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