His Birth & Our New Birth

December 25, 2011

"Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Isaiah 7:14

His Birth in History. "Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not evolve out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being, He is a being who cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. He is not man becoming God, but God incarnate, God coming into human flesh, coming into it from outside. His life is the highest and holiest entering in at the lowliest door. Our Lord's birth was an advent. 

His Birth in Me. "Of whom I travail, in birth again until Christ be formed in you." (Galatians 4:19) Just as our Lord came into history from outside, so He must come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal and human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter into the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born from above by a birth totally unlike natural birth. "Ye must be born again." This is not a command, it is a foundation fact. The characteristic of the  new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, His nature begins to work through me. 

God manifest in the flesh - that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the redemption. 

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

On this holiest of days, may we see through the things of the world so that the One who came to save us from it is glorified.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!