Frohe Weihnachten!

From Isaiah 7:13-14:

“Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

I’ve spent a lot of time during the season of Advent this year studying this text. For our middle school Christmas party extravaganza we looked at this text to point out that Christ can be found on every page of Scripture not just the New Testament. Too often I think we separate the Scriptures and in doing so fail to see that Lord of the Old Testament is the Lord of the New Testament. He is one Lord who speaks of His promise to His chosen people of Israel. The Christ, born of a virgin, is the promised one spoken of to redeem all nations by His grace.

I love the Gospels; don’t get me wrong and think I don’t. But I love spending time in the Old Testament as well because it shows that the Father always loved his children enough to send His son. The Old Testament shows us that Jesus isn’t just God’s plan B fix.

So tomorrow we celebrate Immanuel, God with us, the babe in Bethlehem who was born to become the propitiation for our sins. The promise made to Ahaz, delivered by Isaiah, has been made flesh and has redeemed all through His substitutionary atonement on the cross. What greater gift to humanity could there be?

Merry Christmas from both the missus and myself to our families and friends, whether we’ve met or not, as we celebrate this blessed event.