The Gospel – The Whole Point of Christmas

By Matt Wiser

                Roughly two thousand years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  The account of that birth is quite remarkable indeed.  He was conceived in the womb of his mother Mary while she was still a virgin.  His birth was announced to both his mother Mary, and the man who would act as His earthly father, Joseph, by an angelic messenger.  Angels sang and announced His birth to shepherds, and Old Testament prophecies led wise men from afar to seek Him out and offer Him gifts.  The true richness of these events, and so much more as told in the Bible, cannot be adequately captured by this brief summary, but for the sake of space I simply remind you of them at this time.

                As beautiful and compelling as the narrative telling of the birth of Christ is, we must come to recognize that it is not the main point, even of its own telling.  The account of the birth of Christ is not a stand-alone event, it is rather the fulfillment of a promise.  When Adam sinned, and placed the whole human race under the curse of sin, and was cast out of the Garden of Eden with Eve, his wife, God promised them redemption, even then.  The Gospel is not something that God came up with along the way, after everything else He tried had failed, or even in response to Adam’s sin, as if God had expected that Adam would not fall, and was surprised and left scrambling to come up with a plan B.  No, in fact the Gospel is plan A, it has always been the plan, and it is in fact the main point of all of Creation.  The first hints of this plan are revealed to Adam and Eve in the immediate aftermath of the fall.

 

 

                In Genesis 3:16 God tells Eve, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And in verses 17 – 19 He tells Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  This is the curse of sin, under which we still live even to this day, but it is in His words to the serpent where we find a most wonderful promise, in verses 14 – 15, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

               In Genesis 3:16 God tells Eve, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And in verses 17 – 19 He tells Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  This is the curse of sin, under which we still live even to this day, but it is in His words to the serpent where we find a most wonderful promise, in verses 14 – 15, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field, on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

 

                In the words “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel,” we find a prophesy of something which will happen, and a promise.  We will come to understand in time that at the very moment when it seemed that the Devil had won, that he had defeated Jesus, it was in fact tantamount to a simple wound on the heel, and in that moment what had in fact taken place was the crushing of the head of the serpent, his utter and total defeat.

                This promise is repeated time and again throughout the Old Testament.  In Genesis 22, when Abraham is called by God to sacrifice Isaac, and just as he is about to strike the death blow God intervenes and tells him to stay his hand and not to harm the boy.  Most of us who were raised in Church are quite familiar with this story, but there is something that we often miss.  While on the way to make the sacrifice Isaac says to Abraham, (in verse 7) “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” To which Abraham replies, (in verse 8) “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”  This seems to be a throwaway line, something a father might say to pacify his son, so as not to worry him, but it ends up being a great prophecy, that “God will provide for Himself a lamb.”  This lamb of course will be His own Son.  Isaac, as a sinner, deserved death, and was spared, but the Son of God, who was utterly without sin and the only man who ever lived who did not deserve death would become the sacrifice (the lamb) that God would provide in his place.  So we see the connection to the promise that God makes to Abraham in verses 16 – 18, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”  It is in Christ that all the nations of the Earth will be blessed, as people are redeemed by Christ from every tribe, tongue, and Nation.

                In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses tells the people,  “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.”  While it is true God raised up many prophets over the centuries, and the people were supposed to listen to them, this is a prophecy of the ultimate prophet, the One that we would learn is also a Priest and King.

 

 

                Perhaps the most famous prophesy comes to us from the prophet Isaiah, in Chapter 7 and verse 14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”  Certainly it is enough for God to promise something one time, but we can see that He has promised the coming Messiah over and over again, and we have hardly even touched upon these promises here.

                As we can see, time and again, the promise is not for a baby to be born and laid in a manger in Bethlehem, although that is prophesied as well, the promise is for a redeemer who would bear the penalty due to us for our sin.  The Christmas narrative is the means by which God brought about the fulfillment of His promise.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem, he did grow into manhood, living a perfectly sinless and righteous life, which is credited to us, while our sins were charged to His account, and He paid the price in full.  We must not miss the fact that this was not a surprise to God, he did not make attempts and fail, the Gospel was the plan all along, and Christmas is a piece in that plan.  So as we celebrate the birth of our Lord this Christmas, let us not forget that He was born into this world for the purpose of fulfilling all righteousness and dying on the cross, and bearing the wrath of God in our place.