“He became what he was not without ever ceasing to be what he always was.” Something of a tongue twister but Athanasius (297 – 373) put it in a nutshell when he said it. There never was a time when Jesus was not.

“Older than the world itself, he became younger in age than many of his servants in the world” was how Augustine (354 – 430) described the amazing fact of Jesus’ pre existence. Jesus brought this out in his “High Priestly Prayer” when he expresses his desire to have his followers with him in the glory and share with them the Father’s love for him stemming from before the creation of the world (St John Chapter 17 verse 24-26).

This makes his entry into the world the more miraculous. He took our flesh, the enfleshment of Jesus, so that we could see him. He was “veiled in flesh” as Wesley wrote in his popular carol “Hark the herald Angels sing”.

“God, who made man, was made man” and “He was given existence by a mother whom he brought into existence” Augustine is grappling here with the concept of God getting into his skin via a virgin’s womb.

Then there is the Virgin. God chose the peasant stock of Judah – the royal tribe reduced to living in the backwoods of Galilee in an insignificant town called Nazareth! God’s electing love fell upon Mary. She responds from fear to faith upon hearing the full text of the angelic message culminating in her commitment to the unique task of being the bearer of the Son of God (St Luke Chapter 1 verses 29-38). How well did she know her Isaiah? Did she spot herself as the fulfilment of Chapter 7 verse 14? Questions to ask on another day!

Perhaps on reading further Mary may have thought that this Jesus (the word means Saviour) would be the answer to Isaiah’s plight with Israel in need of a rescuer, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Chapter 9 verse 6). The child was to be the new thing – the gift of the son was from everlasting. The second person of the trinity to become God’s love gift to his fallen race, so eloquently summarised in St John’s Gospel chapter 3 verse 16.

So what was it for? The prophesies, the angels and the Virgin?

Speaking of the turmoil in the banking world caused by the various world crisis a banker announced recently “We will not know what to make of Christmas until we get to Easter!”

He was referring to calendar dates but he spoke words wiser than he knew. The reason Jesus came was “to save his people from their sins”. This he did by becoming for them a sin-offering on the cross. His death brings new life to all who see their sins laid on him, taken into the tomb and never more to be held against them.

May you know the liberty of the children of God through faith in the work of the child of Bethlehem and the man of Calvary. Soli Deo Gloria.