Incarnation means personification (or the living form of) someone.  Christmas is not about the Savior’s infancy but about His deity.  It is difficult for us to understand how Almighty God could take a human form and willingly enter a world He knew would reject Him and kill Him.

            God lived with us by being born as a baby, but without diminishing His deity.  As an infant, He had needs common to every human, but was still Almighty God.  Jesus voluntarily set aside the powers that were His as God, but did not give up being God.  (NLT Philippians 2:6-7) “Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.  He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.”

            He put aside His will to do His Father’s will.  (John 5:30) “I do nothing without consulting the Father.  I judge as I am told.  And my judgment is absolutely just, because it is according to the will of God who sent me; it is not merely my own.”  (John 6:38) “I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want.”  He still remained fully God.

            Many think Christ was created, a great teacher or a prophet, but all such erroneous theories say that Jesus is less than God.  There is overwhelming evidence in Scripture that this Child in the manger was the incarnation of God.  (John 1:14) “The Word became human and lived here on earth among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.”

            Nathaniel was surprised that Jesus knew things about him that only God could know (John 1:48-50), and the Samaritan woman realized that Jesus was more than a prophet.  She said to the townspeople (NIV John 4:29) "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?"

            Jesus was Creator God and proved that by doing what only God could do.  (NLT John 14:11) “Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.  Or at least believe because of what you have seen me do.”  He created wine from water in Cana (John 2), healed serious illnesses (Luke 8), restored sight to the blind (Matthew 9), gave hearing to the deaf (Mark 7), created fish and bread to feed thousands (Mark 6 and 8), and raised the dead (Luke 7, 8, and 11).

            The entire New Testament is about the incarnation of Jesus.  (Colossians 1:15-16) “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation.  (16) Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see — kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities.  Everything has been created through him and for him.”

            In teaching His disciples about prayer, Jesus told them (NIV Matthew 6:6), “go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  Through Christ, the invisible God was made visible.

            (NLT Colossians 1:18-20) “Christ is the head of the church, which is his body.  He is the first of all who will rise from the dead, so he is first in everything.  (19) For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, (20) and by him God reconciled everything to himself.  He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross.”

            The incarnation is not being just the image of God but being fully God.  No attribute is absent—(Colossians 2:9) “For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body.”  The firstborn [prototokos] in a Hebrew family had all the rights of inheritance.  In a royal family, the prototokos had the right to rule.  Christ will inherit all things and rule the world.

            God says (Psalm 89:4-5) “‘I will establish your descendants as kings forever; they will sit on your throne from now until eternity.’”  Interlude (5) All heaven will praise your miracles, Lord; myriads of angels will praise you for your faithfulness.”  And (27), “I will make him my firstborn son, the mightiest king on earth.” 

            Jesus truly and rightfully is the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 19:16).  God the Father promised “everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he made the universe and everything in it,” (NLT Hebrews 1:2).  Jesus was the divine agent of creation.       The expanse of the universe is beyond comprehension.  A hollow sphere the size of our sun would hold one million earths!  The brightest star in the sky, Sirius Canis Major, is twice as big as the sun.  Arcturus is over twenty-three times larger than the sun.  And Betelgeuse (one of the stars visible in the constellation Orion), is about three hundred times larger than the sun.

            Realizing how big God was (and how insignificant he was) caused Job to say (NIV 9:2) "How can a mortal be righteous before God?”  (Job 9:9) “He is the Maker of the Bear [Big Dipper] and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.”  (KJV) “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.”

            Traveling at the speed of light (186,000 m.p.s.), you could travel to the moon in a second and a half, to the sun in eight a half minutes, but traveling to Betelgeuse would take 522 years!  The size of the universe is incomprehensible and God (thru Christ) created it all.

            (NLT Hebrews 1:3) “The Son reflects God’s own glory, and everything about him represents God exactly.  He sustains the universe by the mighty power of his command.  After he died to cleanse us from the stain of sin, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God of heaven.”

            Jesus knew who He was and why He visited the earth—to save His people from their sin (Matthew 1:21).  He healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed lepers, ministered to the needy, fellowshipped with the poor, fed the hungry, and gave His life to save sinners (Luke 19:10).

            The two genealogies in Scripture (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38) are necessary.    Matthew begins with Abraham and follows the line through David to Jesus via Joseph’s family, while Luke starts with Jesus and goes back through Mary’s family (through David) to Adam.

            Matthew refers to Joseph as “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus” (Matthew 1:16), because Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus—God was.  Because Jesus had no human father, He would have to be a descendant of David through His mother.  The legal right to rule as a king had to come through the father’s side.

            If a religious leader of that time wanted to refute Jesus’ claim to be Messiah (and they did), all they had to do was check the genealogies, because only a son of David could be the Messiah.  On this point, their silence speaks volumes.  Jesus was legally Joseph’s oldest son, but not his biological son.  Two genealogies were necessary to prove this. 

            Luke shows that Jesus was a blood descendant of David (through Mary), and Matthew proves that Jesus had the legal right to rule (through Joseph).  Jeremiah prophesied that the Davidic line of rulers would end.  (NLT Jeremiah 22:30).  “This is what the Lord says: Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless, for none of his children will ever sit on the throne of David to rule in Judah.” 

            That seems to contradict the promise of a Messiah through David, but Jesus inherited the legal right to rule David’s throne without inheriting the curse on David’s biological heirs (beginning with Jehoiachin).  Jesus’ legal and scriptural right to rule are irrefutable from Scripture.

            The angel made an astounding announcement.  (NLT Luke 1:19), “I am Gabriel!  I stand in the very presence of God.  It was he who sent me to bring you this good news!”  In verse 32 Gabriel says Jesus, “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.”

            His name would be Jesus [Jeshua] (Matthew 1:21).  Luke’s description of the incarnation underscores Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.  (NIV Luke 2:11) “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

            The apostle John (along with Peter and James) witnessed the glory of Christ and described it (NLT Matthew 17:2), “As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance changed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothing became dazzling white.”  And (John 1:14), “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only.”

            The words of the angel to Mary are profound.  (NIV Luke 1:30-33), “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

            And the words of Philippians 2 echo through the centuries to this very day of celebrating our Savior’s birth.  (10-11) “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”