Apparently not a baby born in a manger.
The Bible tells us that is exactly how God planned to introduce His ‘Anointed One’, because he had to take the same human form as each one of us, capable of the same sin as us.
Although born of a human mother, Jesus was also the Son of God. Jesus Christ was therefore able to show the world the perfect likeness of His Father, God, and reveal to us a loving father who wanted us free from the hold which sin has over us.
The difference between Jesus and every other human being was that He lived His entire life on earth without ever being guilty of sin.
That fact made Jesus Christ the perfect and only person able to pay the penalty of sin (death) as a substitute for others.
That means that if Jesus died as an innocent person, He was also worthy to be raised back to life, having proven absolute victory over sin and death.
‘‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life’’ [John 3:16 NIV].
God has not suddenly decided to ignore sin or ‘turn a blind eye’ but has instead given us the opportunity of a ‘new life’ by declaring our faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
This ‘new life’ is what enables us to become more like the self-giving Jesus, instead of the selfish ‘us’ which existed because of sin.
This is good news for now, and eternity.
~ Contributed by Bruce Driver from the Deniliquin Uniting Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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