INTRODUCTION
Did you ever think about the fact that we put a lot more hoopla into the celebration of Christmas than we do into the celebration of Easter? Though Easter is becoming much more commercialized in the Western world, it still doesn’t top the Christmas celebration. Or the “Holidays” as we’ve been admonished to say. What, with santas running around on street corners, “Holiday” sales in every store, lights and blow-up lawn ornaments, why, one would think that this is the greater of the two celebrations!
It makes me think, and I have to ask myself, “What is more important: The birth of our Lord and Saviour, or His death and resurrection?”
My natural tendency has always been to think that His death and resurrection, the two vital pieces of Salvation, are the most important pieces of the story. Couple this with the relative lack of hoopla around Easter, and it’s a natural choice!
But wait: Did God call Wisemen from the East to visit Jesus when He was resurrected? Did His star light up the universe the night Jesus died? Did the angel choir sing for all to hear when Jesus lay in the grave?
It’s true that Jesus death and resurrection is what brings us salvation, it’s what makes it all possible. And there were plenty of miracles associated with it as well, but perhaps all of the advertisement that God put into Jesus’ birth is there to teach us some important lessons.
When I think of Jesus’ birth, I am also reminded that the new life in Christ is often referred to as “rebirth”: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'” (John 3:3 NKJV); and “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever …” (1 Peter 1:22-23 NKJV)
Could it be that through the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth, God is trying to help us understand the importance of the rebirth process? The importance of the new life in Christ?
This 5-part Christmas mini-series will look for clues about the rebirth process in the miracles that occurred around Jesus’ birth. Let’s begin with …
THE IMMACULATE BIRTH
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isa 7:14 NKJV)
There are many stories of miraculous births in the Bible, but perhaps the most miraculous of all is this one: The virgin Mary conceived and bore a son! In fact, this has to be the most miraculous birth of all times!
But wait a minute: Is it more miraculous than the rebirth process?
The Bible tells us that in our sinful state, we are dirty. But this doesn’t sound too, bad, does it? After all, I just came in from cutting the grass, and my hands are a little dirty. I washed them, and I was good to go.
But there is another kind of dirty. Take, for example, when my golden retriever runs through a muddy ditch! Now THAT is dirty! And it’s just this run-through-the-mud kind of dirty that represents our sinful state: “Though your sins are like scarlet …Though they are red like crimson …” (Isa 1:18 NKJV)
To God, our sins look dried-blood, red! Not very appealing!
And the Bible goes on to say that “There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside.” (Rom 3:10-12 NKJV)
That means that without Jesus, not only are we dried-blood, run-through-the-mud dirty, but we don’t even seek after God!
When my dog has been running through a muddy ditch, she could care less that she’s dirty. She would never seek to take a bath. Ever. And that’s how we are in our sinful state! We are dirty from sin, and we don’t seek anything better!
Imagine a new life in Christ budding from THAT!
Just as Mary became pregnant with the Holy Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin: “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8-9 NKJV). When we accept Jesus’ gift of Salvation, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…” (Isa 1:18 KJV)
In addition to salvation, Christ comes to live in our hearts: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery … which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col 1:27-28 NKJV); and “if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.“ (Rom 8:10-11 NKJV)
Jesus’ birth to a virgin was a miracle, indeed. But so is the process of rebirth in Christ. This Christmas, as you contemplate the miracle of the virgin birth, let’s think about the miracle of the rebirth. We have been brought OUT of our lives of sin, we have been CLEANSED from ALL unrighteousness! We are truly reborn in Christ Jesus!
Please join us next Thursday for LESSONS ON REBIRTH FROM THE CHRISTMAS STORY, Part 2: The Heavenly choir.
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org.
(To access the entire “Lessons on Rebirth from the Christmas Story” mini-series, please click here.)