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MAN (part 4): Christmas and the son of man


Today’s devotion is part of a series I’ve called MAN.  We have talked about what it means for us to be righteous, what it means to be dead to sin and alive to God and what role that wisdom has in our lives.  Let’s make a connection today between humanity and the divine.

John 1:14  NLT
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

This was God’s plan.  He sent a man, God man, to be our Savior, our guide and friend.  When I think about the reason Jesus came to earth, I am taken to the celebration that is upon us now, Christmas.  He is the gift of God.  He is God’s gift to you and me.

Jesus is God in the flesh, God come to earth, but He is also all man.  We learn through various verses in the Bible that Jesus experienced all of the things that we go through, yet Jesus stayed on the straight and narrow.  That is one difference between Him being God in the flesh.

John 3:13  NLT
No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

The term “son of man” points back to Jesus for several different reasons.  One of those is the connection between God and man.  God chose in the beginning, way back in the Garden of Eden, to connect with and to love people.  Yet it has always been sin that put up a roadblock to our connection to God.  Jesus removes those roadblocks.

Isaiah 7:14  NLT
All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

Jesus is the promised man.  He was and is God in the flesh to take away our sin.  For God to come earth was His plan to be with us.

An old preacher told a story about how to help ants move out of his yard.  The best way, he said, was for him to become an ant and warn the ant world that they will be killed or removed by force if something doesn’t change.

That is what Jesus did and continues to do for you and me.

John 3:16  NLT
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

For most of us that is the first verse we heard and memorized.  God sent Jesus.  That is why we celebrate Christmas.  Christmas wasn’t the beginning of our Salvation, but it is part of the master plan.

Without God come in the flesh, without the son of man coming to earth, there would be no salvation, no life change and no inspiration for greatness.  As I have learned the way we find meaning is in serving others.  That is what we learn from Jesus Himself.  He came to serve.

I praise God for all He has done for us as our Father.  The blessing and gift of Christmas is His son, our savior, the Christ of Christmas.

Galatians 4:6  NLT
And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
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