The Birth of Christ

That which took place in the manger at Bethlehem was a manifestation of the eternal good pleasure of God and was founded on that alone. The incarnation of the Son of God took place by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Most certainly the eternal God had already determined the incarnation of His Son from all eternity. Accordingly, Christ came in the name of the Lord and was sent from heaven as the chosen One of the Father to magnify the divine perfections and to save His people. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself’ (2 Corinthians 5:19).

He prepared a way where there was no way. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). Oh, this love is great beyond words; it can never be comprehended.

In sending the Son of His love, the Father also loved Himself most perfectly. When God created man, He adorned him with His own image, so that He beheld His own likeness in the man He had created, a man without sin and without blemish. It was the Creator’s will to behold His likeness in His creatures, and He did so until we lost that image by sin. It pleased God, however, to choose a Mediator in His eternal love and to execute this decree by His omnipotence. In this Mediator, God chose a people unto Himself, and Christ came to restore God’s image in them so God could again behold His own likeness in His creatures. Now once again the name of God and the image of God are fully magnified in and by the Son.

On the other hand, now the church may again behold God because He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Here God’s people see Him through a glass darkly, but in anticipation they sing:

Soon I in glorious righteousness

Shall see Thee as Thou art;

Thy likeness, Lord, when I awake

Shall satisfy my heart.

—Psalter 33:5

The eternal decree unfolded most wondrously at the birth of Christ, but also His marvelous love manifested itself most evidently. It was the will of Christ to become incarnate because of His love for the Father and for His honor. Hence, He also loves the people whom God formed for Himself that they should show forth His praises and exalt the Triune God. Christ’s love of the perfections and honor of God was the reason why He gave Himself. The love for His Father, for His people, and for the covenant impelled Him to take upon Himself the form of a servant.

Now it became the Father, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make this Christ perfect through sufferings. The Holy Spirit must instruct us, that we may learn in our own soul that reconciliation proceeds from the Father and is brought about by the satisfaction of the Son. Only then do we begin to understand the just demand of the Father that Christ be born in Bethlehem’s manger. Comprehending even a little of this will cause us to hide our faces in the dust before God.

Due to our fall in Adam, we have no longer any love in our heart. We manifest nothing but hatred and enmity against God in our heart and life. Oh, how bitterly this causes us to lament when God begins to convince us by His Spirit. There is nothing that humbles a person more and melts his heart faster than the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Alas, we can but stammer concerning these things as we commemorate the birth of Christ. The half has not been told us. May our heart be filled with this love and, as it were, be swallowed up in the infinite love of God on Christmas Day. Then we shall truly glorify Him through Christ. He did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up to suffer and die for enemies. May God take possession of our heart so that we shall give our heart to Him. Outside of Christ all is void and cannot give true satisfaction, but when we are in Christ, then He is all and in all. David declared in Psalm 36:9, “With Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.”

After man fell and the Covenant of Works was broken, God in His sovereign grace and eternal good pleasure made known the Covenant of Grace. Christ was promised to Adam and Eve after they had cut off all possibility of life. We read of this promise in Genesis 3:15, which also speaks of Christ’s conflict and triumph.

All the prophets of ancient times prophesied concerning the coming of the Messiah, the one more gloriously than the other. When Malachi, the last of the prophets, prepared the way for His coming, we would almost expect the event to take place immediately. Yet, it waited four hundred years, during which time the voice of prophecy remained silent. It became so dark in the world, in the church, and in the heart of the people of God that it seemed as though all hope was gone. Then, in that dark night, the promise was fulfilled. It is the same way in the life and heart of every saint of God when Christ is born within. That takes place when all hope is gone, and when it seems more impossible than ever before.

Everything is employed by God to carry out His counsel, if need be, even Caesar Augustus, the mighty Roman emperor. “For, lo, He spake, and it was done, and all with sovereign power begun, stood fast at His command.” In Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” the living Bread that gives life to the world came down from heaven. Oh, marvel at the condescension on the part of the eternal Son of God. He left His throne and royal crown to be born in a stable. What incomprehensible humiliation! It can be neither fathomed nor described! “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

My dear fellow travelers, do not be offended at the fact that the Son of God was born in a stable. Asaph confessed to be a “beast” before the Lord, and it is for such people alone that this humble birth becomes, and is, such an infinite wonder. If Christ had been born in Herod’s palace or in the mansions of the Pharisees and scribes, or even in the inn, there would be no hope for poor, guilty, wretched, and condemned sinners such as we are. Yet, God must open our eyes to see ourselves as such undone sinners; indeed, we must become the “greatest” of sinners. When that takes place, a voice in our heart says, “There is no help for you in God.” Indeed, the enemies of our soul and our salvation scream from every side that we can never be saved anymore. Satan does everything he can to draw us away from God and to obscure the grace of God in Christ. Moreover, when we look inside ourselves, all hope and expectations must fail us, for within we can discover nothing but sin and misery.

Christ was born in a manger, in a stable. He could not possibly stoop any lower, thereby signifying that He is willing to take up His abode in our beastlike hearts in order to purify and sanctify them and change them into a habitation of God by His Holy Spirit. Bethlehem’s stable opens a possibility for all who are sad, for all who are in distress, and for all who are burdened with debt. On this Christmas Day may there be found such as would flee to the solitude of a field, a wood, a cellar, or an upstairs room, groaning under the burden of their sin and guilt.

There is a fullness to be found in Bethlehem’s stable. All who come to Christ He shall in no wise cast out. May God grant courage to the fainthearted and comfort to the disconsolate. What an experience it would be for all of us if we were drawn by the Father through the Holy Spirit unto the stable in Bethlehem to find the Mediator there! “For whoso findeth Me findeth life” (Proverbs 8:35). He is a perfect Saviour and will save to the uttermost all those who come to God through Him. He has purchased full salvation. We cannot add one sigh to it; neither need we do so, but He also applies His salvation.

Oh, that we may look beyond those swaddling clothes and see Him in all His divine glory, for He is the only begotten Son of God. There, in that humble manger lies the eternal Son of God. He is the true God and eternal life. Oh, how His people should acknowledge, love, and adore Him. He is truly altogether lovely. May we exclaim with the bride, “This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!”

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