It is an amazing concept to think of a deity existing in the womb of a woman. But it did happen: “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). The child was to be called “Immanuel, which means God with us” (Matthew 1:23). So God “became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). God was born and laid in a manger one warm summer night, and eight days later he was given the name of “Jesus.” (Luke 2: 7,8,21).
Jesus grew from an infant to a boy, from a boy to a man. He grew “in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). Jesus became “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). Now man could see God.
Israel expected Christ to be of noble birth and highly educated; they were not expecting a carpenter from the despised town of Nazareth (John 7:41). Hanging on the cross, executed as a criminal, with soldiers casting lots for his only possession; this was not the image the world was expecting from “God with us.” But his sacrifice for our sins destroyed the barrier between God and man. We look to Jesus for salvation, and in him, we are allowed to see the face of God.
-Dennis Doughty
