It’s Christmas day…

It’s Christmas day — a time to remember the advent of Christ.  A time to remember both the fact that He came and the reason that He came.

The circumstances of His arrival were quite remarkable.  His birth was singularly unique because of the virgin birth, of course, but Joe Stowell reminds us even more of the difference between His birth and all other births:

He chose His mother and His place of birth.  He chose to be born by a miracle — the miracle of God being born with a human body as an infant.  He chose to be born when He knew that His birth would lead to a horrible death.  He chose to be born in a stable where lambs are wont to be born…

He not only was born of a virgin, but He — the second member of the Trinity — chose everything about His birth and life, in full awareness that His life would culminate in the acceptance of the wrath of His Father for the sins of men.

This is why John MacArthur notes,

The important issue of Christmas is not so much that Jesus came, but why He came.…Here’s a side to the Christmas story that isn’t often told:  those soft little hands, fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, were made so that nails might be driven through them.  Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day walk up a dusty hill to be nailed to the cross.  That sweet infant’s head with sparkling eyes and eager mouth was formed so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it.  That tender body, warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be ripped open by a spear.  Jesus was born to die.

Jesus is born to die.  And that single truth is what makes Christmas joyous to the heart of the believer.