At Christmas we celebrate the staggering reality that the child in the manger was God. This fact has puzzled our world’s greatest minds. Some have even argued that the only way for God to have come down to earth as man was to empty himself, to renounce some of his divine qualities. 

Of course scripture debunks that, the opening verse of John’s gospel affirms Christ’s deity, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “The Word” whom John is referring to is Jesus. Notice that this verse didn’t just end at “the Word was with God.” By going further and declaring that the “Word was God” John is laying out how Jesus is divine in and of himself. 

He is personally distinct from the Father. The first couple of statement’s only reinforce how this could be possible. Jesus’ origin is eternal, and his purposes are fulfilled in direct relation to God, the Father. 

This Christmas as you meditate on the reason for this holiday, make sure you do so with the reverent admiration for who it was born in that manger more than two thousand years ago.