Sunday is the “official” day many of us will spend time with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Jesus. During the celebration, hopefully we will take time to reflect on the fact that Jesus was born to die. The main point of Christmas is not the actual birth of Jesus but the reason He came. Jesus came to pay the price for our sins and, in doing so, paid for our sickness, pain, sorrow, grief, diseases, guilt, shame, etc.
God needed a way to reveal His true nature. In Genesis we see that God walked with Adam and Eve and was in a relationship with them. The Bible also shows how Abraham, David, and many others had relationships with the Lord. That was God’s purpose for creating us—to be together in a relationship.
In order to have a good healthy relationship with someone, we need to understand that person and spend time getting to know him/her. This also applies to having a relationship with God. We need to understand His nature and character. God tried to reveal His true nature by sending prophets and kings; however, that didn’t work, and God had to come Himself.
Jesus was born to provide us with the perfect image of God as well as to show us His true heart. While Jesus walked on earth, He showed us how to live a Godly life, taught us the truth, fulfilled the law given to Moses, brought us the peace of God, ministered to those in need, and healed the sick. While all of these reasons are amazing, the main reason Jesus came to earth was to die for us. We needed a savior—a redeemer. Because of mankind’s sin through Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we would have been eternally lost and separated from God if Jesus had not been born to die. He was our substitute.
During this Christmas season as we read and hear the Christmas story in Luke 2, let’s reflect on the reason Jesus’ birth was so important to mankind. In Matthew 1:21, the reason for the birth of this baby is revealed to Joseph through the angel Gabriel. Through this scripture we learn that the baby would be called Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew). Yeshua means “salvation” and “to save.”
Matthew 1:21 says, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name [a]Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
For the Jewish people, names they were given had significance. When the angel told Joseph what to call the newborn baby, it helped to explain the reason for Jesus’ birth. Jesus came to rescue us from sin and death. He came to be our deliverer from sickness, pain, sorrow, grief, diseases, guilt, shame, etc., that entered the world through Adam and Eve.
When we understand that Jesus was born to die, we can look at what the prophet Isaiah reveals in Isaiah 53. He tells the story of Jesus’ life from birth to death. This prophecy by Isaiah not only shows us that Jesus died for our sins, but it details what He also died for—to set us free from sickness so we can live healed and whole.
When we see the Christmas nativity scene and the sweet baby lying in the manger, we should also see Jesus on the cross and the stripes on His back. Those stripes, wounds, bruises were for our healing. Isaiah 53 shows what is to come from Jesus while Peter explains that He had already taken those stripes for our healing.
Isaiah 53:5 – “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 – “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”
During our Christmas celebrations, let us not forget that there was a reason for this special birth. This baby was born to die for you and me! Merry Christmas!
~Donna Jones