Why Jesus was born

Just who was the child in the manger and why did God, in the form of His Son, need to come and be with us?

One of my favourite carols at Christmas is Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  The three-verse version we know best was written by Charles Wesley in 1739, and set to music by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840, and gives us a joyous description of who the baby in the manger really was.

With the angelic host proclaim: “Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark!  The herald angels sing “Glory to the newborn King!”

But is the fact that Jesus is a King all the carol tells us about Him?  In the first verse there is the line that says, “God and sinners reconciled” which can be confusing if it leads us to believe that the birth of Jesus alone was all that was needed to reconcile us to God?  It’s easy at this time of year to just look at the abridged versions of the Christmas story in carols and nativity plays, but we really need to consider who this child was and is.

We need to understand that the child that lay in that manger was not only a human child but also God.  His disciple John explains to us clearly at the beginning of his gospel that Jesus (The Word) had always been, that He was God and with God (John 1:1), but that He also became flesh and lived with us (John 1:14).  He became flesh through Mary, but He wasn’t conceived in the normal way (Luke 1:26-38).  He also wasn’t unexpected (Isaiah 9:6).

But why did God, in the form of His Son, need to come and be with us?  It goes back as far as Adam, who was created by God to rule over the created world while still living under God’s rule.  Unfortunately, Adam could not resist trying to be the ruler of his own life and disobeyed God.  This is the original sin, and we are all born with this nature in us (Psalm 51:5).

If you are not sure why that matters, consider this; we will all face God and will be judged (Hebrews 9:27; 2 Corinthians 5:10) and God demands that the price for our sin is separation from Him unless the debt is paid.  Our sinful nature stops us from being able to pay that debt; God, however, doesn’t want to be separated from us and so He planned a way for us to be with Him.  His Son Jesus!

The fact that Jesus lived a sinless life alone doesn’t save us.  He also had to die for us, and conquering death, ascend to heaven to sit at the right hand of God.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2v14).

“Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8v34)

John 11:25 also tells us that it is our belief in Him and who He is and what He has done for us that saves us.

God’s plan for our salvation began before the beginning of time.  We may hope that all the early planning we do for Christmas will be worthwhile, but we can be sure that God’s planning for our salvation which started with the arrival of the promised Saviour in Bethlehem, will be.

First published in 2023