Jesus
Christ walked among us. He lived the life of a human man, becoming one of His creations.
The Bible tells us that He was fully God and yet fully man. John 1:14 says “And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word, as we
can see from John 1:1 was Jesus Christ, and He became flesh and dwelt among us.
We saw the glory of the Father, His grace, His mercy, and His love. He was here
with us. These realities should bring us to our knees, knowing that the One who
created us came down to earth to live with us. He humbled Himself to such an
extent that He was born in a stable full of animals. He was born in that stable
so that the shepherds, dirty, low, and ignored, could see Him. It was probably
the only time they had a chance to see Jesus, the King of the world. He gave
them that chance, first by coming, and then by choosing a stable for His birth.
He wanted a relationship with all his creations, from the lowest of the low, to
the highest of the high. He loved us so much that He wanted to be with us and
to have a personal relationship with each of us. He walked the roads with us,
getting dirty, hot, and tired. He walked with us. The immeasurable power that
Jesus left behind so that He could walk among us cannot be comprehended.
While
He walked among us He gave us an example to follow. Jesus didn’t just give us
rules and commandments to live by; He showed us how to live and told us to
follow His example. As it says in John 13:15, “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have
done to you.” He didn’t just tell us what to do, He showed us what to do. He
showed us how to humble ourselves. First,
He left His throne on high and became a man with human desires, temptations and
limitations. If that isn’t humbling, what is? He also showed us how to serve
others by humbling ourselves. At the last meal Jesus spent with His disciples
before He was led away to be crucified, He washed His disciple’s feet. After
washing their feet, the job reserved for the lowest servant, he told them to do
likewise. Jesus never tells us to do anything that He didn’t do while He was
with us on earth. He loved the outcasts, gave to the needy, and served the
undeserving. The bible says that Jesus went around doing good and then it says
that we must do good. He walked among us and showed us how to live our lives in
obedience to the Father’s will, and He showed us how by being obedient to His
Father’s will. He was an example for us to follow.
The
ultimate example Jesus showed us while on earth was His death on the cross.
When Jesus Christ was born in the stable in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary, He
knew He would give His life for the world and yet He came. He knew that He
would go through an agonizing torture for us. His death was not only physical
suffering but also spiritual suffering. While on the cross Jesus cries out in
agony and says, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?” He did that
for us. He came to earth so that we might have life. He took the form of a man
and lived in human flesh so that He might became the perfect sacrifice and take
away the veil between us and God forever. He died once and for all. Jesus
Christ told us that He came to earth to do His Father’s will and His Father’s
will was that He die for all humanity. Knowing that, Jesus came to earth to die
for those who didn’t deserve it. We are sinners saved by grace, and that grace
is in the truth that Jesus came to earth as a baby, and then died for us on the
cross at Calvary. That is why He came to earth, and that is why we praise His
name. He died that we might live.
This Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ, let us not stop at His birth, but at His life, death, and resurrection.
What other god ever invented even came close to coming down to earth in order
to have a personal relationship with his creation? Only our God is great and
worthy of praise, because only our God came to earth and lived among His
creation in order to give them the ultimate gift. Our salvation rests on the
reality that Jesus came to earth as a baby, lived among us, and then died for
us on the cross. But the truth only gets better, Jesus is coming to earth
again, and when He does it won’t be as a humble carpenter from Nazareth, but as
the King of glory. All creation will bow down before Him and worship Him. Then
and only then will we realize the full significance of the name Immanuel. God
was, is, and will forever be with us.
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