The “GOD Sign”

If you are asked to meet someone for the first time at a bus station or at the airport, and you have no idea what he looks like, you will ask for a sign that will distinguish the person from the rest of the crowd. You don’t want to mistake a stranger for this person especially if you are going to take him into your home to spend a few days with you.

How much more if you were going to entrust your eternal soul to this person?

This is how crucial it is to identify the one true Messiah who came to earth from heaven. Several have come before and after Him who claimed to be the Christ. God knew that there would be many impostors who will seek to deceive and led people astray, so He gave a sign that only He can fulfill to distinguish this Child from all the others:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name “Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). (Mt.1:23)

This “God sign” establishes the faith of the believer in a time of turmoil and uncertainty. Many things in the world today can cause people to feel confused and afraid. Out of desperation, people will follow any leader who will offer them hope and a sense of safety, even probably at the expense of their souls. But only the true Savior can save us, not only from our troubled earthly circumstances, but more importantly, from eternal damnation because of man’s fall into sin and separation from God.

The virgin birth introduces the true identity of Jesus as the Son of God. When Mary protested to the angel that she could not possibly bear a child in her womb since she has not known a man, the angel made it clear to her that it is the power of the Holy Spirit who will cause her to conceive the baby(Lk. 1:35). God is literally the Father of the human Jesus. The prophecy said, “…They shall call his name Immanuel, meaning `God with us’.” (Mt. 1:23; Isa. 7:14) Immanuel was never used as a name of Jesus during His earthly life. It was rather a description of His divinity.  In Jesus, God dwells with man. The Son of God revealed the glory of the Father as fully as we can possibly know in our fallen state. The Apostle John wrote: “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father…” (John 1:1, 14)

Since the fall of man, God kept His distance from the whole of mankind for thousands of years until this miraculous birth. That is why the event caused jubilation among the heavenly hosts (Lk. 2:13,14). The door of relationship is again being opened between God and man, His image-bearer, the crowning glory of His creation even though fallen!

But the good news did not end with the birth. The incarnation was necessary for the crucifixion to take place, so that God will not only dwell among men, but that God may dwell in man. God’s Spirit wants to return to man’s spirit.  Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, the Spirit of God dwelt in man. But after the fall, the Holy Spirit left the human spirit, and it died. The only way it can come back to life is by being born again, made possible by believing in the Messiah (Jn. 3).

The coming of the Messiah on earth through the virgin birth is perhaps the greatest miracle the natural world has ever known. But the greater miracle is reserved for the believer who experiences spiritual rebirth, because Jesus is now Immanuel in his life through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8: 9,10). Respond in faith to the Greatest Gift God gave to man, and rejoice!

May the joy and the hope and the peace that Immanuel brings be ever so real in your family today and always. Merry Christmas!