MIF 17:6 (Nov-Dec 1985)
A Child and a Saviour
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6).
With these words the prophet Isaiah foretold the birth of Christ 700 years before it came to pass. In one breath he told of the humanity and the deity of the Lord Jesus. Supernaturally conceived, the child of the Virgin Mary took on flesh and blood with human limitations and subject to human temptations. In Hebrews 10:5 the Son’s conversation with His Father is recorded: “A body hast thou prepared me.” The child born in Bethlehem’s manger was born in the likeness of sinful flesh but grew to manhood free from the taint of natural or acquired sin.
How He could be truly man and eternal God without one aspect interfering with the other is a divine truth we accept on faith. If He were not truly man, we would not have a Mediator at God’s right hand who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses and infirmities. If He were not truly God’s Son, His shed blood would have no merit in God’s sight. But since He had no sin of His own, He satisfied the just demands of a righteous God and paid the penalty for the sins of all mankind.
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:23: “… the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The gift of salvation is free, eternal, universally offered, and priceless. It sets Christianity apart from all other religions of the world, for no human being could ever have devised such a plan, and in no other way could man be reconciled to God.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).
—Arthur F. Wilder