Exposition:
In the birth of Jesus, we have God revealed in a perfect and more glorious manner to humanity. This means Jesus is the express image of God on earth – He reveals the Father completely to humanity. Philip said to Christ in John 14:8-9 “Lord, show us the Father. That is all we need”, to which Jesus answered: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”. By Christ’s birth, the invisible God became the visible Jesus. The birth of Jesus and His ensuing life made it possible for all to know what God is like. Thus, you study the life of Jesus to know God – His very nature.
Every person born of a woman receives an inherited sinful nature, the imputed sin of Adam, and the drive to commit personal sins due to this depraved nature. But the virgin birth of the Son of God separates Him from imputed sin. The sinless nature of the father is revealed in the Son. Christ was born into this same sinful world and tempted in many ways such as ours, yet He was without sin. Christ’s very nature is sinless – He alone is without sin. As sinners, we receive the very nature of God when we accept Christ as our personal Saviour. Our regenerated spirit is not to continue in sin (1 John 3:6, 9). As born-again Christians, it behoves us to daily live above sin as the Spirit of God gives us strength.
As the sinless Jesus lives in us, we cannot continue to sin as His children. Accordingly, in Christ, we become the righteousness of God. This is because in Christ we are now a new creation, the old nature is gone, and the new nature has come. Thus, the essence of His birth is to impute the righteousness of God back into man. We receive Him as Lord and Saviour. Though there is so much sin in this generation, God has also made a way of escape in Titus 2:11-12. The strength to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions is grace. May grace abound to us all to remain Christ-like.