GETTING THE MESSAGE/Christ was born out of love

We are very familiar with this passage in Luke 2:1-7, but it becomes new every year. “In those days,” echoes again in our ears. Caesar Augustus, the emperor of Rome, is mentioned only because it was his decree that put Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Christ. The focus of the text is on the child; Caesar is but a servant of the sovereign God in this event.

Luke chapter 1 had built the anticipation of the birth when the angel from heaven announced to the virgin Mary that she would bear the child that God had promised to sit on the throne of God’s kingdom forever. The child would be named Jesus and also be called the Son of the Most High. So, you can see why Caesar is a secondhand player in this drama. 

Chapter 1 also tells us about the birth of John the Baptist and his role in Christ’s coming. Giving John that much space in Christ’s coming should alert us to his importance. John will “go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1: 76).

The Jews were waiting on the Messiah who could free them from Caesar. John points them in another direction, by preaching repentance. Their greatest problem, all men’s greatest problem, is their sin.  We have a moral sense within us that teaches us that wickedness should not go unpunished. But we are slow to believe that God is displeased and angry at our own sin.

The true measure of sin is who we have sinned against, the holy and majestic living God. He is directly opposed to all sin and sinners. Our anger tends to be for wrong reasons, and it may come and go. God has a settled, pure and holy opposition to all that is not good. The soul that sins shall die. God will by no means clear the guilty. Sin is always worse than we can conceive of.

The more we are convinced of the sin and depravity within us, the more precious does Christ appear.  Repentance begins with sincere conviction of sin. Then it becomes very good news when you hear John say, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away sin,” or the apostle Paul say that Christ came into the world to save sinners. In Christ, God goes from being our Judge to our Father.

In Luke 2:4-5, we see references to Christ, through Joseph, being descendent of David. David was a great king who destroyed Goliath and the enemies of God’s people. Christ is the greater king who was to come. He was born to be king forever.

Both John and Jesus preached that the kingdom of heaven was near. That is because the King had come. In one sense the whole universe is the kingdom of God because nothing happens apart from God’s will. But Jesus was using the word kingdom in the narrower sense, meaning the kingdom of grace that comes with Christ.

In this kingdom, the sinful rebellion and disobedience which prevails in the whole world is banished, and God becomes truly king to his people. Jesus taught it is necessary to enter the kingdom. To enter, you must be born again, bow the knee to Christ and put your faith in him. Those outside remain enemies of God’s kingdom, but the invitation to enter is offered to all who hear.

Jesus is also born in Bethlehem, the city where David grew up a shepherd. Christ said that he was the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. He cannot be the sacrifice for our sins unless he partakes of our nature; he cannot return to heaven until he says on the cross, “It is finished.” The child in the manger came to be pierced for our transgressions. Martin Luther called Christ “the greatest sinner” because he bore the weight of all our iniquities upon himself. 

We must come to Christ as our complete Savior. Our nature is to be suspicious of God’s goodness and his command to embrace Christ wholeheartedly. We would reserve some merit for ourselves to boast in, or we would take his salvation and live according to our own will. 

But God offers Christ first to us, and then all his benefits. You must make him the one thing necessary, your highest prize, full of goodness and truth. He was born to make our human nature lovely to God and the divine nature lovely to us. Christ is more than reconciliation. He was born out of love. He took the form of a servant to bring us into the immeasurable love of God.