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Christmas; believing in God without the virgin birth? At this time of year you will find many say they believe in God, they will go to church or another place of worship. But believing in God is not sufficient and it is not what God asks of us. Christmas is: a baby born who is called God with us Emmanuel. His personal name is Jesus (Hebrew: Yeshua), which means ‘God is salvation.’ He was prophesied by the Spirit of God to the prophets for over 1,000 years before his birth. Many have neglected to teach the virgin birth, some do not see it as a necessity for being a Christian. But it is! For without it He cannot be who He is. The Septuagint was translated from Hebrew to Greek by Jews 200 years prior to Christ. They translated Isa.7:14, from the Hebrew alma, that carries the meaning of an unmarried woman into the Greek word Parthenos which means virgin. This birth was a sign of an unusual birth, something that had never happened before. This refers to the seed of the woman (her seed) in Gen. 3:15, that would occur without a man. Jesus would be conceived without having any human father. Jesus as a human being has genealogy which is of the utmost importance; where came from, who he is. Luke begins his Gospel with the Virgin Birth and later in chapter 3 provides a genealogy. Yeshua becomes a descendant of David his bloodline in humanity on His mother’s side, and on His stepfather’s side (Joseph) by adoption. This is also spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah, 23:5-6 Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Again repeated in Jer. 33:15-16 “In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS .' Clearly it speaks of David who will have a descendant who will be the king, Messiah (Jn.7:42; 2 Tim. 2:8). Who is also the Lord (God). Zechariah develops the branch concept further, in 3:8 “For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.” Also in Zech. 6:12-13" Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH !From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the LORD; Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD.He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both." ' He will be a servant, he will build a temple (which is spiritually the believers, his body the church), He will have God’s glory (Jn.17) he will be a priest and of course this man is to be the Lord our righteousness, God whose nature is righteousness. So exact are the prophets in explaining this man, that they even gave his place of birth and who he is in Micah 5:2. “ But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting." This description of everlasting is only applied to God Hab. 1:12 “Are You not from everlasting,O LORD my God, my Holy One.” Ps. 90:2 You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Jesus said “… you believe in God, believe also in Me. John 14:1-2 This why the Holy Spirit was sent into the world, “He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me” (John 16:8-9) God asks us to believe in his Son and what He did by the crucifixion and after, the raising to life, (the resurrection). This is God's way to come to him. It is called the gospel, which is about who He is and what He did for all mankind. This becomes what is called the Christmas message Matthew 1:21-23: “ And she shall bring forth a son; and you shall call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us.” This son was conceived apart from sin, that being sinless He would become a sacrifice for mankind’s sins. The sin-nature is transmitted through the seed by the father to the mother. We read that Mary became pregnant without a man, no the male seed was involved; thus the seed of the woman spoken of back to the first parents of humanity Adam and eve. How was this done? The Holy Spirit produced and protected, Him from inheriting the sin-nature. Luke 1:35 “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” This was the way God decided to bring him into the world, by doing this He fulfilled his own prophecies, even from the time of Adam and Eve. And the sign; at his birth he was wrapped in the same type of clothes he would be wrapped in to be put in a tomb. This is the God revealed by the Bible WHO HAS DONE BEYOND OUR IMAGINATION by being born over 2,000 years ago among the animals in a stable. This is the day God became man and came physically into the world, and that is what Christmas is all about. This is what one needs to believe, that God became man and yielded himself to the Father to be a sacrifice to forgive us of our sins that separate us from God. And that is why we honor and celebrate this time of year Christmas, for the miracle of his conception and the birth of the messiah. |
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