In Honour of the Divine Child

Many people celebrate Christmas in honour of the birth of the Lord Jesus; some contemplate His childhood, and few envision God’s plan of salvation in the Divine Child. Who is this Divine Child? Why did the Divine Child come into our world? A study of the opening chapter of the Gospel of St Luke reveals a summation of the entire work of the Divine Child. In particular, what the angel Gabriel says in the foretold birth of the Christ Child (Luke 1:26-33) introduces us to God’s plan of salvation for humanity. St. Gabriel’s announcement unequivocally exalts the Person, Character, Wisdom, Grace and amazing Salvation Plan of God. It is easy to acknowledge the announcement of the virgin birth, but it is more enriching to recognise the pronouncement of the only way to be forgiven.  It is a declaration of the only way to be right with God. It is the assertion of the only way to avoid timeless hell. And it is the revelation of the only way to enjoy eternal heaven.

God’s Promise is Fulfilled

Through the angel Gabriel, we hear again the promise made several times in the past that God is coming to the world. Others had likewise spoken of it. Isaiah prophesied that the Lord Himself would give a sign…that the virgin would conceive and give birth to a son. She would name Him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). Moreover, there would be no more gloom for any who had been in anguish because

a Child would be born to us, and a Son would be given to us. The government would rest on His shoulders, and His name would be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There would be no end to the increase of His government or peace on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and always. It was to be because the zeal of the Lord of armies would accomplish it (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Prophet Daniel kept looking in the night visions and saw

with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man was coming. He did come up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. He was also given dominion, honour, and a kingdom so that all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom will not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14).

Prophet Micah provides a clear picture of the promise of Jesus, not just that He would come but where He would be born. This ruler was to rise neither from the royal city, Jerusalem, nor among the mighty clans of Judah, but from a small village named Bethlehem Ephrathah (Micah 5:2).

Angel Gabriel’s prediction was not new since Christ’s coming was declared many more times in the Old Testament scriptures. However, the Annunciation was imminent. God was coming in the flesh to be born as a man and do what none could accomplish – provide forgiveness from sin and reconcile everyone to God. God clarified that He would give salvation sufficient to rescue doomed humanity. No amount of doing good or living a religious order will accomplish salvation, work your way to God or secure your place in Heaven. Since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, none is good enough, religious enough, or nice enough for God to accept and bring into His presence. But God loved His children enough to do the work for them instead – be born as man, live a perfect earthly life, die for their sins as their substitute, rise from the dead and live to provide them with the only way of salvation. This process started with the unmistakable simplicity of the birth of His son, the Divine Child, but it was God’s plan even before the world’s creation (John 17:4 & 1 Peter 1:20).

God Breaks His Silence (Luke 1:26)

It had been four hundred years of no direct message from God – no scripture was recorded, no prophecy spoken, no angelic visitation, no miracle performed, and no revelation. The writings of Prophet Malachi closed the Old Testament, and there was nothing from God for four centuries. Suddenly, two messages were borne by God’s supreme messenger, Angel Gabriel. The first was to Zechariah and Elizabeth about the coming birth of their son, John the Baptist. The second was the annunciation of the birth of the Christ child. We know Gabriel is God’s chief announcer, who gives great, glorious and grave messages from Heaven to Earth, from God to humankind (Luke 1:19). This high-ranking angel comes down from heaven to a small, hick town in Galilee named Nazareth, foretelling the coming of Christ for all who are so insignificant in the eyes of the world yet so loved and treasured by their Saviour and Creator.

God Makes His Choice  (Luke 1:27)

The one who would give birth to God’s Son was identified as a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. She was neither a queen nor a powerful ruler, neither a princess nor a daughter of someone wealthy or influential. She was just an obscure, unknown, ordinary village girl. Her name was Mary, meaning the exalted one. God’s choice indicates that His plans, purposes, wisdom and choices do not conform to our ideas, preferences or selections. God’s choice reminds us that His ways are not our ways. Through Gabriel, we learn from Mary’s life that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).

God’s Message of Blessing (Luke 1:28-30)

When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he greeted her with great affection, addressing her as the favoured one. He took a very low-key approach and used a calm, reassuring voice not to startle or cause Mary to panic. He announced that Mary had found favour with God and was graced with God being with her. The message to Mary was that the Lord God had freely chosen to give her grace, which made her favoured and blessed. Mary could not have been the mother of Jesus in her human strength and character. She needed God’s favour and grace to achieve being the mother of the Divine Child.

She, on her part, responded in humility and perplexity at Gabriel’s statement and kept pondering what kind of greeting this was. Even she knew she fell short of God’s perfection for the Lord to be with her (Luke 1:48a). Then Gabriel reassured her not to be afraid, for she had found favour with God. He was coming to her in God’s good pleasure, by God’s sovereign choice and glorious giving, to present God’s blessing message in the form of a Son, the Divine Child.

God Is with Us (Luke 1:31-33)

Gabriel revealed that God becoming man was to start with Mary. Prophet Isaiah said the virgin would conceive in her womb and bear a son, who was to be named Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), which translates to God with us (Matthew 1:23). God came to be with humanity through Mary. This was made possible by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, and the Divine Child was called the Son of God (Luke 1:34-35). Mary learned from Gabriel that she would be the virgin mother of the Divine Child, the King (of kings), the Lord (of lords), the Redeemer, the Son of God, and the second Person of the blessed Trinity. And so, Jesus was born of a virgin to be both God and man in one person, making Him satisfy God’s requirement of the perfect sacrifice as our substitute, to die for sin in our place.

The Divine Child’s Mission (Luke 1:31)

The name Jesus means Jehovah saves – that our God is a saving God. About His birth, St. Luke wrote today, in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11). St. John testified that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14). St. Peter boldly announced that there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Jesus is born to accomplish salvation for God’s chosen humanity. This mission to save began with the Divine Child, but we must fulfil our role if we are to be saved. We must learn about Jesus and His Father to understand eternal life (John 17:3). We must build faith in them by believing in the Divine Child (John 12:44 & John 14:1). We must demonstrate our faith by obeying God’s commands (1 John 2:17), doing God’s will (Matthew 7:21), and persevering in the faith (Matthew 24:13).

The Divine Child Reveals God (Luke 1:32)

The Divine Child was destined to be great and would be called the Son of the Most High. His was intrinsic greatness – splendid, magnificent and eminent. Calling Him the Most High means Jesus would share the same essence as the one true God. That the Son of the Most High would have the glorious character of God. He would talk like God, think like God, perform miracles only God can do, and teach eternal truth like God. He would respond to humanity with love, goodness, wisdom and omniscience that only God could possess. His picture would be the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). The second person of the blessed Trinity was predetermined to reveal God to humanity (John 14:9). And we know that Jesus is equally God with the Father and the Spirit (John 10:30).

Christ’s Monarchy Is Unveiled (Luke 1:32-33)

The Promised One who would rescue Israel was to come from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10) and be of King David’s line (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Isaiah prophesied of this King who would provide the ultimate and eternal victory for Israel (Isaiah 9:6-7). The Psalmist sang of this everlasting throne and sceptre of justice (Psalm 45:6-7). Gabriel reinforced that the Divine Child was this promised Messiah, to whom the Lord God would give the throne of His father, David. He would reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom would have no end. Only those who submit to His rule will reign with Him. In describing God’s sovereignty, power, and glory as the Most High, St. Luke established Christ as the one who is the Highest. There is no one higher, more exalted or more powerful than Christ. St. Paul asserted that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).

Take-Home Message

The Divine Child was perfect, holy, righteous, and suited to forgive our sins. He satisfied the criterion of the perfect sacrifice. We must surrender all to Him; by faith, we depend on His saving sacrifice and, through repentance, we turn from our sin. When we wear Christ’s perfect righteousness, He covers and accepts us into God’s presence. Although the Divine Child has both compassion (eternal love) and condemnation (eternal judgement) for all creation, we are responsible for submitting to His eternal love and living with Him in perfect heavenly bliss now and forever (John 3:36). Let us come to the Divine Child, our great Creator and Redeemer, the small gate and narrow road that leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:14). Blessed are we that we have found this Way in the Divine Child (Acts 4:12 & John 14:6).