To understand the purpose of Christmas, one must understand the predicament of man. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and on the sixth day He made man in His image. Male and female He made them. Would they trust their Creator? There was only one test – do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you do, you will surely die.
The Temptation and Fall
Tempted by the devil, who had already rebelled against God, they ate. Immediately they knew they were naked and hid, sewing fig leaves together to cover themselves. Their disobedience (sin) separated them from their Creator. But God in His infinite mercy and grace came looking for them.
The Promise of God
Man now had a fallen nature (unfavorable disposition toward God), separated from God. The Lord promised to deliver them. He said that the Seed of a woman would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3 15). That Seed would have to be perfect. Only a perfect infinite Person could take the place of imperfect humanity. That Seed would be the Lord Jesus Christ. He couldn’t be the seed of a man. The sinful nature would be passed down to every succeeding generation through the male (Rom. 5:12). If He had come from the seed of a man, He would have had a fallen sin nature.
The Neccessity of a Miracle Birth
The seed of the woman would have to be a supernatural seed and it would. An angel appearing to Joseph, the husband of Mary, told him, “and she shall bring forth a Son and call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). It would be a miracle birth brought about by the Holy Spirit. The One that would be born to her would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). He would be the God/Man – fully Man and fully God. Because He is infinite and without sin, He could die in our place for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus fulfilled a 700 year old prophecy. Through the prophet Isaiah, God promised a sign to Israel, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14).
The Result
Because of the virgin birth, Jesus was uniquely qualified to be the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). For this reason we can be restored to the relationship with God that was lost in the beginning. That’s the real reason to celebrate Christmas. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).
Merry Christmas!
Assurance of Heaven 