“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” (Matthew 1:23)
How many times have you heard that verse? Christmas cards. Christmas carols. It’s familiar Christmas language in our culture, especially in Christian environments. How many times have you stopped to think about the implications of that phrase, “God is with us?”
Here’s why the concept of Jesus being “God with us” is such a big deal.
Jesus is God
The Gospel of John, found in the New Testament, is one of the accounts written about Jesus’ life and ministry while on earth. The apostle John’s goal in writing his account of Jesus’ life was to emphasize the deity of Jesus. He wanted people to know that Jesus was in fact the Son of God, the Savior promised by God the Father in the Scriptures long ago.
Here’s the first thing John writes about Jesus in John 1:
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. (John 1:1-4)
John refers to Jesus as “the Word,” because it is through Jesus that the Father speaks to humanity, revealing His character and salvation for all people. (More on that in a bit.) John’s point in these verses? Jesus is God. Jesus is the same God who created everything in heaven and on earth.
He is the same God who made the world and everything in it. He is the same God who existed before anything else and holds all of creation together. He is the same God who gives life and breath to everything. He is the same God who created all people and who desires for the people He created to seek Him and know Him personally. All the things that are true about God are true about Jesus, because they are one in the same. (Acts 17:24-27 // Colossians 1:15-17)
Jesus Came Near
He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
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. (John 1:10-14)
Think about that for a minute. The eternal God who created and sustains everything became human and came into the world He created.
Why? What would motivate God to do something like that?
1. Revealing Himself To The World
No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. (John 1:18)
Jesus is the exact likeness of God the Father and expresses His very character. He makes it possible for us to know what God is like. Through the example of Jesus’ lifestyle and His teachings, we get to know what God’s character is like, how He acts, and how He desires people to live, relate to Him and to each other. God the Father reveals Himself to humanity through Jesus the Son.
2. Repairing A Broken Relationship
Jesus came into the world He created to save the world because He loves the world.
Jesus came into the world He created to save the world because He loves the world. Click To Tweet
He came to give everyone who would believe in Him and accept Him the chance to become a child of God. (John 1:12-13) He came so that everyone who would receive His free gift of salvation would be made spiritually alive – forgiven of sin, freed from its power and reconciled in relationship with God. This is the God of the universe: the God who comes near to us to make a way for us to be near to Him. And He has come near through His Son Jesus, fully God and fully human in the same person, the exact representation of the character of God.
This is the God of the universe: the God who comes near to us to make a way for us to be near to Him.Click To Tweet
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. (John 3:16)
God, motivated by love, sent Jesus into the world to live a perfectly sinless life, die in our place as the substitute for the sin we committed and rise from the dead, victorious over the power of sin. It’s because of Jesus that the relationship with God we were each designed to have – a relationship that is broken by our disobedience to Him – is repaired when we turn from sin, put our faith in Jesus and follow Him with our lives. (Romans 5:6-11)
Jesus being “God with us” is so much more than a heart-warming phrase in a Christmas carol. It means that we can know what God is like and relate to Him personally. It means that we can be forgiven of our sins because God made a way for us to be saved. Jesus became human and entered the very world He created, and it changed everything. Have you allowed His coming to change you?
Let’s Talk: What Bible passage about God coming near to us in the form of Jesus most resonates with you and why? Discuss this post in the comments below.
[wpsite_follow_us_badges title=”Connect Personally With Me On Social Media!” twitter=”jasminonsocial” facebook=”jasminonsocial” order=”facebook,twitter” twitter_followers_count_display=true twitter_link=false]
