Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
Romans 5:14-16
The great mystery of Christmas, one that we cannot completely understand, is how a perfect holy Son of God could take on a human body and be both fully God and fully man at the same time. Because our minds are finite, we struggle to grasp the infinite. However, even if we do not grasp all the details, we do know that it happened, and that the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was both the fulfillment of prophecy and the pivot point of all of human history. John Donne wrote:
Twas much, that man was made like God before,
But that God should be like man—much more.
What is no mystery is the why of Christmas. We know exactly the reason for the incarnation, the virgin birth, the perfect life and sacrificial death of the Lord. “And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:9-10). Jesus did not come to be an example, a teacher, a healer or a prophet, though He was perfect in every part of His life and ministry. Jesus came to be the Savior. That is the greatest need of a lost world, and that is what God’s love and grace offers. Jesus came to willingly pay the price for our salvation.
