Jesus, a Most Unexpected Gift

See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name him Immanuel,
which is translated “God is with us.”

Matthew 1:23 CSB

Immanuel.

God is with us.

In yesterday’s post, I referenced Philippians 2:7-11, verses that explain how Jesus is God and yet condescended to be born as a baby to live among and die for His creation. The term condescended in this instance means, came down, so Jesus literally came down (from Heaven) to be with us.

He is Immanuel, God with us.

And, I don’t know about you, but that’s always been a point of wonder for me – that God Himself, Creator and Lord of All, the One Most High, Sovereign God, would humble Himself to walk with us, talk with us, teach us, and ultimately die on the cross for our sins and take His life back again that we may have life eternal with Him.

Why do all that?

Because He loves us (John 3:16).

Why do it this way?

For that, I find myself looking at Hebrews 4:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

Hebrews 4:15-16 CSB

God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, but when they sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, they were set out of the Garden and their personal, physical walks with God ended. Sin separated them from His holy presence.

BUT God – God intended always to walk with us – and we see this in the life of Jesus, Immanuel God with us.

Through Jesus, God, holy and righteous, experienced temptation in the desert. He knows what is like to be human, to be frail, tired and hungry, and to be tempted. And yet, Jesus prevailed time and again over the enemy’s lies and schemes (Matthew 4:1-11). He walked among us for three decades, and did not sin; not even what we might consider a “little sin” (as if God ranked sin). The Bible makes it clear that Jesus knew no sin until He took on our sin on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Through Jesus, God with us, we have a high priest who sits at God’s right hand and makes intercession for us. His intercession is perfect because He knows what it is like to be human, so He knows our weaknesses and yet He is God, so He knows we have no hope of goodness without Him. He supplies grace and mercy in our need because He FULLY understands our need.

For this reason, we can come before Him boldly, totally unafraid, and lay down all of our burdens, confess all of our thoughts and deeds, our worries and concerns. We can be completely honest in our anger or our hurt. We can bring Him all of our questions and know that we will be met there again and again with love, and grace, and mercy.

I started this week talking about the Book of Numbers and all of the horrible judgements we read about there, and I am nearing the end of the week stating that because of Jesus, we do not have to fear wrath, but can instead expect God’s perfect love and His unending grace and mercy. We can trust God to deal with us, not fairly – because fairly would not go well for us – but graciously and righteously; we can trust that God will do what is best for our well-being, what is most loving for us in the long-run. We may not always see “best” as God does because we tend to think short-term thoughts, but we can trust that even when we don’t see things God’s way, He is working all things for the good of those who love Him.

And friend, that’s good news!

Thank You Jesus, for being Immanuel, God with us!

Thank You Jesus, for the ability to come boldly before God’s throne trusting in His grace and mercy, in His righteous judgement to do that which is best for us!

I’ll be taking a break from daily posts after Dec. 22 to focus on family and make a writing plan for 2024. To make sure you don’t miss a post when I return, please consider subscribing to my email list. You’ll receive an email with a link directly to each new post, so you can read each one at your convenience or archive it for later.