A Son Is Given
Bible Study Time 12-24-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 12-24-06
When I tried to decipher in my mind what it is about Christmas that I like the most, my first thought was that the best part of Christmas is meditating on the birth of Christ and then looking at all of the ramifications and consequences of His birth. But then, I realized that that is not something that I really associate just with Christmas. That is something that I like to do pretty much every single of the year.
So I guess that I’d have to say that for me the best part about Christmas is the many opportunities that we have to share Christ with people that we might not be able to reach otherwise. During the Christmas season, the radio stations play Christmas music around the clock and although there are many songs about Santa Claus coming to town or about Santa Claus getting run over by a reindeer, and so forth and so on, there are still many wonderful songs about the birth of Christ that people who never think much about religious things might get a chance to hear. And who knows when the Spirit of God might work to save someone from the darkness of sin.
If you’re living in sin right now or if you’ve ever lived in sin, then you know what I’m talking about when I talk about the darkness of sin. What an opportunity it is at Christmas time to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we just consider the message of the better Christmas carols, we can see what an opportunity we have. We just listened to Silent Night, which says:
All is calm; all is bright; round yon virgin mother and child!
Holy Infant so tender and mild.
That’s great, isn’t it? This song boldly proclaims that the infant born at Christmas time was born of a virgin mother. This doctrine is central to the whole message of the gospel of Jesus Christ; because if Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, how could that happen?
The Bible tells us that He entered into this world through the direct activity and power of the Holy Spirit of God. The angel told Mary,
Luke 1:28-35 (NKJ)
28 . . . "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
29 But when (Mary) saw (the angel), she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"
35 And the angel answered and said to her, "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.
The Holy Spirit prophesied both directly and indirectly in the Old Testament about this virgin birth which was going to take place. Isaiah prophesied directly about the virgin birth when he told King Ahaz:
Isaiah 7:14 (NKJ)
14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Well, 600 years later, the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ.
Isaiah spoke indirectly about the virgin birth when he said:
Isaiah 9:2,3,6 (NKJ)
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
6 For 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.
The Holy Spirit was very specific in His choice of words when He said that the promised Messiah would be born as a child, but He would be given as a Son. Jesus Christ was born as a child, but He was given as the Son.
Through the ages of eternity past, Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God, but He was never a child until He was born in Bethlehem. Unto us a child is born, but unto us a Son is given.
The Spirit of God revealed Jesus Christ in the Old Testament as the Branch, and as the Branch, He was to come forth out of the stem of Jesse. Isaiah said:
Isaiah 11:1-2 (NKJ)
1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
However, as the cornerstone of the Kingdom, Zechariah said that the Messiah would come forth from God. Zechariah 10:3 says:
Zechariah 10:3-4 (NKJ)
3 "My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goatherds. For the LORD of hosts will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
4 From (God) comes the cornerstone, from (God) the tent peg, from (God) the battle bow, from (God) every ruler together.
As the cornerstone, Jesus Christ came from God, but as the Branch, Jesus Christ came from Jesse who is David’s father. We see both aspects of Jesus Christ in His virgin birth. We see His humanity, and we see His deity.
In the carol, Silent Night, we not only see that Jesus was born of a virgin, but we see that Jesus was born as a Holy child. He was said to be the holy Infant so tender and mild. It is so important for us to see that Jesus Christ was born as a holy infant. He is the only human being who was ever born as a holy child.
All other children have been born in sin. All other human beings have been born with a sin nature. God, on the other hand, has no sin nature. God never sins, and there’s a reason for that. It’s not that God can’t physically do the sin. He can do anything. But God has no desire to sin. Because God is repulsed by sin, He never sins. He has no sin nature.
Adam and Eve were created with an equal capacity to say yes or no to sin. They had no propensity in either direction, but when they sinned, the sin nature came upon them, and from that time on, they saw sin as attractive, and so they had from that time on a tendency to move toward sin.
Everyone ever born since the time of Adam and Eve has had the same attraction for sin. We gravitate toward sin because we view sin as attractive. Everyone who has ever been born has had this attraction for sin except one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was God born in the flesh, and He brought with Him His divine nature.
He never had any attraction for sin when He lived with the Father in the glory of heaven, and He never had any attraction for sin while He lived in His body of flesh. He was tempted to sin in every point such as we are, but He never saw sin as attractive. Because of His divine intelligence, He saw sin for what it is, a satanic conspiracy to destroy the human race. We so often lose sight of that fact, but Jesus never did. Even in the manger in Bethlehem, Jesus had no propensity for sin. He was born a Holy infant.
There is another Christmas carol called Christ is Born, which is a beautiful song, and it talks about Christ being born as the Son of God, but it says,
There He lies, there with the lampkin, only swaddle for His garment, with His holy mother Mary.
Now, this song is beautiful, but we have to realize that Jesus did not have a holy mother. He had a virgin mother, but He did not have a holy mother. Jesus was holy even at His birth, but His mother, Mary, had a sin nature just like the rest of us.
The angel told Mary that she was blessed among women. He did not say that she was blessed among the gods or as a member of the Godhead. Only God is holy.
The angel said that Mary had found favor with God, and this word favor in the Greek is really the word for grace. Therefore, Mary found favor with God even though she didn’t deserve that favor. If Mary had been holy, she would have deserved the right to bear the Son of God, but she did not deserve that privilege. God gave her that privilege by His grace.
Mary was a sinner who was born with an attraction for sin. Her only hope for true holiness was to humble herself before her son, Jesus, and acknowledge Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
The song, Silent Night, also acknowledges Jesus Christ as Savior, Redeemer and Lord. It says:
Silent night, holy night. Son of God, love’s pure light,
Radiant beams from Thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth. Alleluia to our King, Christ the Savior is born.
All of mankind is just like Mary in that we need a savior. We need a redeemer. We’re lost in sin because we were born in sin. Jesus Christ came into this world as a human being with a body of flesh, but He never gave up His divine nature. He was righteous and holy from the time he was born, but our only hope for that kind of righteousness is to receive it from Jesus Christ.
When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the work that He accomplished on the cross and through His resurrection, God gives to us the Holy Spirit. Paul said:
Romans 10:10 (NKJ)
10 . . . with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, we start our journey toward sinless perfection, but that journey will not end until we receive our glorified body from the Lord Jesus at the time of His appearing. Paul said in Philippians 3:20 and 21,
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJ)
20 . . . our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
As long as we have a lowly body of flesh, we will always have our sin nature to deal with. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit and walk in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the more we will see the righteousness of Christ revealed in us. On the other hand, the more we are influenced by the things of this world, the more frustrated we will be in our walk with the Lord. That’s why John said,
I John 2:15-17(NKJ)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world-- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-- is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
That’s why Paul said:
Romans 12:2 (NKJ)
2 . . . do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
John said:
I John 1:5-7 (NKJ)
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we walk in fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit gives us victory over the sin nature. If we love this world and the things of this world, we will be drawn away from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the sin nature will be empowered within us.
It’s hard to image what it will be like to be immortal, but the Bible says that our mortality has a tremendous effect on our attitudes and our behavior. Hebrews, Chapter 2, says:
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NKJ)
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, (Christ) Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and (that through death, He might) release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
It certainly appears that our passion for sin is a consequence of our fear of death. If I knew that I could never die, I wonder how it would change my thinking. I wonder how it would affect my everyday decisions. How would it affect the way I spend my time, my money, my talents.
As the immortal God, Jesus Christ could not die. So, He took upon Himself a body of flesh so that He could die for you and for me. He became a mortal so that we might become immortal, and that’s what Christmas is all about.
I pray that this Christmas your heart will be steadfastly focused upon Jesus Christ and that your heart will rejoice in all of the blessings that we have in Him.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
So I guess that I’d have to say that for me the best part about Christmas is the many opportunities that we have to share Christ with people that we might not be able to reach otherwise. During the Christmas season, the radio stations play Christmas music around the clock and although there are many songs about Santa Claus coming to town or about Santa Claus getting run over by a reindeer, and so forth and so on, there are still many wonderful songs about the birth of Christ that people who never think much about religious things might get a chance to hear. And who knows when the Spirit of God might work to save someone from the darkness of sin.
If you’re living in sin right now or if you’ve ever lived in sin, then you know what I’m talking about when I talk about the darkness of sin. What an opportunity it is at Christmas time to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we just consider the message of the better Christmas carols, we can see what an opportunity we have. We just listened to Silent Night, which says:
All is calm; all is bright; round yon virgin mother and child!
Holy Infant so tender and mild.
That’s great, isn’t it? This song boldly proclaims that the infant born at Christmas time was born of a virgin mother. This doctrine is central to the whole message of the gospel of Jesus Christ; because if Jesus Christ was born to a virgin, how could that happen?
The Bible tells us that He entered into this world through the direct activity and power of the Holy Spirit of God. The angel told Mary,
Luke 1:28-35 (NKJ)
28 . . . "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
29 But when (Mary) saw (the angel), she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"
35 And the angel answered and said to her, "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.
The Holy Spirit prophesied both directly and indirectly in the Old Testament about this virgin birth which was going to take place. Isaiah prophesied directly about the virgin birth when he told King Ahaz:
Isaiah 7:14 (NKJ)
14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Well, 600 years later, the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ.
Isaiah spoke indirectly about the virgin birth when he said:
Isaiah 9:2,3,6 (NKJ)
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
6 For 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.
The Holy Spirit was very specific in His choice of words when He said that the promised Messiah would be born as a child, but He would be given as a Son. Jesus Christ was born as a child, but He was given as the Son.
Through the ages of eternity past, Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God, but He was never a child until He was born in Bethlehem. Unto us a child is born, but unto us a Son is given.
The Spirit of God revealed Jesus Christ in the Old Testament as the Branch, and as the Branch, He was to come forth out of the stem of Jesse. Isaiah said:
Isaiah 11:1-2 (NKJ)
1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
However, as the cornerstone of the Kingdom, Zechariah said that the Messiah would come forth from God. Zechariah 10:3 says:
Zechariah 10:3-4 (NKJ)
3 "My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the goatherds. For the LORD of hosts will visit His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
4 From (God) comes the cornerstone, from (God) the tent peg, from (God) the battle bow, from (God) every ruler together.
As the cornerstone, Jesus Christ came from God, but as the Branch, Jesus Christ came from Jesse who is David’s father. We see both aspects of Jesus Christ in His virgin birth. We see His humanity, and we see His deity.
In the carol, Silent Night, we not only see that Jesus was born of a virgin, but we see that Jesus was born as a Holy child. He was said to be the holy Infant so tender and mild. It is so important for us to see that Jesus Christ was born as a holy infant. He is the only human being who was ever born as a holy child.
All other children have been born in sin. All other human beings have been born with a sin nature. God, on the other hand, has no sin nature. God never sins, and there’s a reason for that. It’s not that God can’t physically do the sin. He can do anything. But God has no desire to sin. Because God is repulsed by sin, He never sins. He has no sin nature.
Adam and Eve were created with an equal capacity to say yes or no to sin. They had no propensity in either direction, but when they sinned, the sin nature came upon them, and from that time on, they saw sin as attractive, and so they had from that time on a tendency to move toward sin.
Everyone ever born since the time of Adam and Eve has had the same attraction for sin. We gravitate toward sin because we view sin as attractive. Everyone who has ever been born has had this attraction for sin except one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was God born in the flesh, and He brought with Him His divine nature.
He never had any attraction for sin when He lived with the Father in the glory of heaven, and He never had any attraction for sin while He lived in His body of flesh. He was tempted to sin in every point such as we are, but He never saw sin as attractive. Because of His divine intelligence, He saw sin for what it is, a satanic conspiracy to destroy the human race. We so often lose sight of that fact, but Jesus never did. Even in the manger in Bethlehem, Jesus had no propensity for sin. He was born a Holy infant.
There is another Christmas carol called Christ is Born, which is a beautiful song, and it talks about Christ being born as the Son of God, but it says,
There He lies, there with the lampkin, only swaddle for His garment, with His holy mother Mary.
Now, this song is beautiful, but we have to realize that Jesus did not have a holy mother. He had a virgin mother, but He did not have a holy mother. Jesus was holy even at His birth, but His mother, Mary, had a sin nature just like the rest of us.
The angel told Mary that she was blessed among women. He did not say that she was blessed among the gods or as a member of the Godhead. Only God is holy.
The angel said that Mary had found favor with God, and this word favor in the Greek is really the word for grace. Therefore, Mary found favor with God even though she didn’t deserve that favor. If Mary had been holy, she would have deserved the right to bear the Son of God, but she did not deserve that privilege. God gave her that privilege by His grace.
Mary was a sinner who was born with an attraction for sin. Her only hope for true holiness was to humble herself before her son, Jesus, and acknowledge Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God.
The song, Silent Night, also acknowledges Jesus Christ as Savior, Redeemer and Lord. It says:
Silent night, holy night. Son of God, love’s pure light,
Radiant beams from Thy holy face, with the dawn of redeeming grace.
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth. Alleluia to our King, Christ the Savior is born.
All of mankind is just like Mary in that we need a savior. We need a redeemer. We’re lost in sin because we were born in sin. Jesus Christ came into this world as a human being with a body of flesh, but He never gave up His divine nature. He was righteous and holy from the time he was born, but our only hope for that kind of righteousness is to receive it from Jesus Christ.
When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the work that He accomplished on the cross and through His resurrection, God gives to us the Holy Spirit. Paul said:
Romans 10:10 (NKJ)
10 . . . with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, we start our journey toward sinless perfection, but that journey will not end until we receive our glorified body from the Lord Jesus at the time of His appearing. Paul said in Philippians 3:20 and 21,
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJ)
20 . . . our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
As long as we have a lowly body of flesh, we will always have our sin nature to deal with. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit and walk in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the more we will see the righteousness of Christ revealed in us. On the other hand, the more we are influenced by the things of this world, the more frustrated we will be in our walk with the Lord. That’s why John said,
I John 2:15-17(NKJ)
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world-- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-- is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
That’s why Paul said:
Romans 12:2 (NKJ)
2 . . . do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
John said:
I John 1:5-7 (NKJ)
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we walk in fellowship with God, the Holy Spirit gives us victory over the sin nature. If we love this world and the things of this world, we will be drawn away from the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the sin nature will be empowered within us.
It’s hard to image what it will be like to be immortal, but the Bible says that our mortality has a tremendous effect on our attitudes and our behavior. Hebrews, Chapter 2, says:
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NKJ)
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, (Christ) Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and (that through death, He might) release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
It certainly appears that our passion for sin is a consequence of our fear of death. If I knew that I could never die, I wonder how it would change my thinking. I wonder how it would affect my everyday decisions. How would it affect the way I spend my time, my money, my talents.
As the immortal God, Jesus Christ could not die. So, He took upon Himself a body of flesh so that He could die for you and for me. He became a mortal so that we might become immortal, and that’s what Christmas is all about.
I pray that this Christmas your heart will be steadfastly focused upon Jesus Christ and that your heart will rejoice in all of the blessings that we have in Him.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
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