The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
What does this title, “Son of God,” mean? It means nothing less than the obvious: Jesus bears the same essence as God.
Take me for example: I am my father’s son. I bear his characteristics and his nature; it’s in my DNA. I am the genetic product of my father. So, if Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is of one essence with God. He Himself is fully God. Read what Hebrews 1:3 says:
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact reproduction of God’s nature.
Jesus Himself affirmed this often. He said He had a right to do whatever He wanted on the Sabbath, because He, like God, was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). He said that He and His Father were one (John 10:30). He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
In every sense, Jesus is God. That’s why Elizabeth says to Mary in Luke 1:43, “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?” Mary was not just the mother of a normal baby. She was the mother of the Lord Himself. And thus is Jesus’ birth announced to the shepherds:
Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)
In fact, when an angel came to speak to Joseph, he quoted a certain prophecy from Isaiah:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)
This is expressed even more clearly in the epistles, such as in Paul’s words to the Philippians:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7)
This belief is at the heart of our Christian faith: Jesus is God. Those who wrote the great hymns of Christmas know it. Our carols celebrate it:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
Come adore on bended knee Christ the Lord.
Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity.
Yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light.
Oh come with us, abide with us, our Lord, Immanuel.
Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.
This amazing child is God come down to Earth. But this child is not only God; He is also man.
Though He was conceived supernaturally, everything after that moment followed the natural course. There was a normal, nine-month development of that little life in Mary’s womb until she gave birth. And it was a normal birth, just like how every other child is born. This is truly a human child.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4)
The child was born like all humans are born. And He grew physically like all children grow (Luke 2:40). Jesus knows what it is to be human, because He has experienced it firsthand. This is why He is a suitable high priest:
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. (Hebrews 2:17-18)
Jesus had to be made like His brethren in all things. He experienced hunger and thirst. He experienced fatigue. He slept. He learned. He grew. He loved. He was astonished, glad and indignant. He cried. He exercised faith. He read Scripture and prayed. He felt pain. He bled and died.
Jesus was not an apparition, or some spiritual entity. He was one of us. He was fully God, and He was also fully man. And because this child was God as well as man, we will see in the next post that He was a child of holiness and might.
This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 1998, titled “The Greatest Child Ever Born.”
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