Every year when December rolls around we pull out Christmas decorations, untangle the lights and start singing Christmas carols and hymns. There's a familiarity and the warmth of memories those traditions bring. But it's so easy when we turn to read the Christmas story, to click off the brain, thinking, "I know the story. I've heard it so many times before."
I know I thought I had it down pretty good. But then last year the Lord laid it on my heart to take time each day during December to read the Christmas story and dialogue with Him about it - I was absolutely blown away by all I learned!
Guess I'd forgotten this portion of the Word of God is living and active! (Hebrews 4:12)
So this year I asked God what He wanted me to do to prepare my heart to celebrate Jesus and he led me to start reading the Christmas story in John 1:1-18. I will never look at the Nativity in the same way!
I discovered there are two words used repeatedly in these 18 verses. I never noticed them in English but if you look in Greek and highlight each time they occur, you end up with color all over the page! They are the Greek words "en" and "egeneto."
Now "en" means "to be" it has the idea of rest. You aren't moving towards something or coming out of something. You are.
So in John 1:1-2 when it says "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." When you see the English word "in," that's translated from the Greek word "en." When it's used in reference to the existence of the Logos, the preincarnate Christ, it indicates He always was and never ceased to be what He was, even in the incarnation. (The Complete Word Study Dictionary, p.370, Spiros Zodhiates, ed.)
So when did the Christmas story begin?
Way before Jesus ever appeared in the manger! If you look back at Genesis 1 we find God speaking everything into being. Now God could've snapped his fingers to make things appear, but he didn't. He spoke and it happened - that was The Word in action!
Note John 1:3 "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Wherever that word "made" appears it's the Greek word egeneto. It means the "coming into existence of a particular person or thing within time and space at an undefined yet definite time." (ibid, p.370)
So in John 1:1-2 we see Jesus has always been, contrasted in John 1:3 with everything in the world coming into existence... through Him!
But wait till you see John 1:4! "In Him was life and the life was the light of men." Again the English word "in" is the Greek word "En." Life here is not acquired, it is inherent. It had always been with the Word. (ibid, p. 370) Life isn't just something Jesus gives, it's what He is. This is why becoming a Christian isn't just getting a ticket into heaven. You have to come to Him for it.
Check out John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." And John 5:40 where Jesus says, "You diligently study the scriptures because you think by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."
To have life we have to come to Jesus, because He is life! (John 14:6) He came that we might have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10) We experience life to the extent we are with Him.
John then goes on to contrast John the Baptist "There was a man" (that's the greek word egeneto there! John was brought into being), with Jesus who has always been. And then in verse 10 he emphasizes how Jesus was in ("en") the world. And in verse 11 it says, "to His own things he came." The Greek word used for "come" is elthe which signifies Jesus had always been in the world but within a particular time and space he came into it in a different form from that in which He had always been. (ibid, p. 370)
Now think for a moment - what could you do if you weren't restricted by time? Can you imagine?! I know at Christmas I often feel the crunch, especially getting ready for Christmas parties! …and buying last minute gifts!
Now can you imagine going from being outside of time, to submitting to the limits of it?!
Remember Genesis 1? The Word created everything! Can you conceive of the power that took?! And Jesus was already in the world, omnipresent - everywhere at once! Can you imagine what it was like for him to enter into time and space - to limit himself like that?!
I remember reading Richard Wurmbrand's book "Tortured for Christ" and one torture described was putting people into a tight box where they couldn't more - and many went crazy! They couldn't handle such a drastic change in space restriction. Can you imagine what it was like to go from being limitless to submitting to the limits of time and space as a fetus?! That had to be a huge sacrifice!
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Oh friends! Take a moment to let the wonder of that truth sink in.
See that English word "became"? That's the greek word egeneto! Which here signifies Jesus began to exist in a new way - The almighty creator of everything, present all over the earth at once, began existence within the limits of time and space.
Usually when I think of Jesus' sacrifice I think of him dying on the cross. But a huge sacrifice occurred when he was born on earth!
Can you imagine... He was still fully God. In a moment he could end the discomfort, frustration, pain of living under such limitations in a broken world. Every single day He had the opportunity to do so, but he chose not to. He chose to remain under this trial - to "hupomone" as it says in James 1:12.
Small wonder when Jesus is tempted by the devil, what's the first thing the devil encourages him to do? For years I wondered, "What's the big deal about changing stones to bread?" But do you see what satan is doing? He's trying to get Jesus to use His power to escape the pain of living in this world. And if you use your power to escape in small things, why not just check out of the whole thing?!
Jesus had to live a perfect, sinless life, to be able to die in our place, shedding his blood to cleanse us from our sins and be raised again so that we could have the right to become Children of God. See what it says in John 1:17, "For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." The English word "came" is egeneto - Jesus brought grace and truth into existence! Without Jesus there would be no grace! Can you imagine a world with no grace?
And without Jesus there would be no truth! Once Adam and Eve turned their backs on God and went their own way, they became slaves of the evil one, the deceiver. He certainly wasn't going to tell them truth.
And if it wasn't for Jesus, anticipating what He was going to do, God would have nothing to do with them (or us) either. What fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Cor 6:14)
So the next time you walk by a nativity - don't just see a baby in that manger. You are looking at a sacrificial miracle! The all powerful, everywhere present Son of God allowed himself to be restricted to a human form and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross... so we, the people walking in darkness, could see the light and have life in Him, with Him, for Him, for ever.
He is Immanuel. God with us! And it cost Him dearly to do this... All praise His glorious name!
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