The birth of Jesus Christ—a momentous event

The birth of Christ was not the ordinary birth of an ordinary man. It was the birth of the most unique Person in history. The birth of Jesus Christ was the incarnation of God Himself. In other words, the very God became a man. The significance of this is profound and will take all eternity for us to appreciate. The conception and birth of Jesus Christ was the mingling of God with humanity. Such a thing had never occurred before.

John 1:14 says that the Word, the eternal God Himself, became flesh, meaning, the man Jesus. When this happened, the eternal God stepped out of eternity into time to become a man of flesh and blood. Jesus Christ was indeed a genuine man, but at the same time, He was God. He is both fully God and fully man.

In this post, we’ll use verses and notes from the Recovery Version to get a glimpse into the deep significance of the Lord’s birth to strengthen our appreciation of our dear Savior God.

The mysterious birth of Jesus was prophesied in the Old Testament.

About 700 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah prophesied concerning the Lord’s birth, saying in Isaiah 7:14,

“The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.”

This prophecy was fulfilled in Christ’s birth—a son, born through divine conception in a virgin, without a human father. He was to be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” This son born of a human virgin was the very God with us.

A couple of chapters later, Isaiah prophesied about the birth of Jesus again, saying in Isaiah 9:6:

“For a child is born to us, / A Son is given to us…/ And His name will be called / Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

Note 1 on this verse in the Recovery Version opens a window into what it means for Christ to be both a child and the Mighty God, a Son given to us, and the Eternal Father.

“The child born of a human virgin is the Son given by the eternal Father. Christ is the child born of both the divine and human natures (Matt.1:20-23) and He is also the Son in the divine nature given by the eternal Father. Through the birth of the divine-human child, the Eternal Father gave us His divine Son as a gift. Through such a giving, everyone who believes in, i.e., receives, this dear Son receives eternal life (John 3:16; 1 John 5:11-12).”

The mysterious birth of Jesus was fulfilled in the New Testament.

The New Testament provides us a record of the actual events surrounding Christ’s birth. Through this record we can appreciate the step God took to give us His dear Son to us to be our Savior and our life.

Matthew 1:18 tells us how this virgin birth came about.

“Now the origin of Jesus Christ was in this way: His mother, Mary, after she had been engaged to Joseph, before they came together, was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.”

Note 1 on this verse explains what this phrase “of the Holy Spirit” means regarding Christ.

“Although Christ was born of Mary (v. 16), He was a child of the Holy Spirit. The birth of Christ was directly of the Holy Spirit (v. 20). His source was the Holy Spirit and His element was divine. Through the virgin Mary He put on flesh and blood, the human nature, taking the likeness of the flesh (Rom. 8:3), the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7).”

Then, in Matthew 1:20, an angel of the Lord visited Joseph to assure him of this divine fact.

“But while he pondered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

The first note on this verse points out what God revealed about Christ in His assurance to Joseph.

“God was first born into Mary through His Spirit; after the conception was completed, He, with the human nature, was born to be a God-man, possessing both divinity and humanity. This is the origin of Christ.”

Many years later, in recounting this mysterious story, the aged apostle John made these profound statements in John 1:1 and 14:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word became flesh.”

The words from these two verses, simple, yet profound, indicate clearly that the Word was God from eternity, and that the Word—God—became flesh in time.

Note 2 on verse 14 speaks further about what this means.

“Romans 8:3 indicates that although this flesh was the flesh of sin, it had only the likeness of the flesh of sin and did not have the sin of the flesh. It is the Word who became such flesh, and this Word was God, the complete Triune God (v. 1). That the Word became flesh means that the Triune God became a man of flesh in the likeness of a sinful man. By so doing God entered into sinful man and became one with sinful man. However, He had only the likeness of a sinful man and not the sin of a sinful man. Hence, He was a sinless God-man, the complete God and the perfect man, having two natures, the divine nature and the human nature.” (Read the full note here.)

How does the truth regarding Christ’s birth affect us today?

Firstly, to be a genuine Christian, we must believe that Jesus Christ is more than a holy man, a prophet, or a martyr. He is the complete, eternal God come in the flesh. This is a basic item of the Christian faith.

As Christians, by prayerfully considering the Bible, especially the verses covered in this post, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the birth of Jesus Christ. God did not save us by somehow reaching down from the heavens in an objective way. The unapproachable God Himself became an approachable, contactable, knowable man. What a mysterious and yet wondrous fact! Our God became a man, experiencing everything of human life and living a perfect, sinless human life. And eventually, He went in His body of flesh and blood to die on the cross for us!

Through His incarnation, God was expressed in a man, Jesus Christ, in the flesh. Jesus, who was born in the manger, fully expressed the very God in all His rich being and Person to mankind. God’s love, mercy, righteousness, holiness, compassion, and glory were and still are expressed in the humanity of Christ.

By believing into the Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved and receive Jesus—the one who lived a perfect human life that expressed the true God—as our Savior and our life.

If you’ve never done so before, you can receive Him right now by praying this prayer.

“Lord Jesus, I believe that You are both the complete God and a perfect man. Thank You for being born with our humanity and becoming a real and genuine man with both divinity and humanity. Thank You for dying for my sins. Lord, I receive You right now. Thank You for coming into me to be my life. Lord, live out in me Your wonderful life that expresses God.”

Recommended reading:

This post isn’t meant to be a thorough, in-depth treatment of the incarnation of God. If you would like to read more on this subject, we recommend the following books (also available free in this online library):

• The Wonderful Being of Christ, Chapter 1, pp. 7-14
• The Four Major Steps of Christ, pp. 5-8

In addition, you may enjoy these hymns:

• Down from His Glory
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• O Glorious Christ, Savior Mine

“We must learn to be kept, to be ruled, to be governed, to be guided simply by the presence of the Lord. We must tell the Lord that we do not want anything else but His direct presence.”

From The All-Inclusive Christ by Witness Lee (mass-distribution ed., p. 119). Bibles for America gives this book away for free. You can order your free copy on our order page. You can also download a free PDF version here.

Scenario 2: The alarm goes off in the morning, and you begin your day by saying, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” You get up and spend some time to talk with Him in prayer and to read His Word. You’re refreshed by Him and nourished by His Word. Your day will be busy, but you feel strengthened and supplied for the challenges ahead. You eat breakfast and head out for the day.

We’d probably all prefer the second scenario. Our spiritual life would benefit greatly and maybe even change dramatically if we developed a habit of starting our day with the Lord each morning. But building up any habit takes more than fleeting inspiration, and it helps if we see why it’s worthwhile.

Why is daily time with the Lord so important?

Here are just three reasons.

1. Our spiritual health depends on it

We can only expect to be physically healthy if we eat enough food every day. Sure, we can get some calories by eating a quick donut, but it’s better for our health if we take time to eat a nourishing meal. Similarly, we can only expect to be spiritually healthy if we take adequate time daily to feed on God’s Word in prayer and fellowship with Him.

2. Our spiritual growth depends on it

First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow…” Just as babies need to eat food every day to grow, we need to eat spiritual food every day to grow in the Lord. By spending time each morning with Christ in His Word we can be fed and grow in His life.

3. Our relationship with Christ depends on it

To have meaningful relationships with people requires spending time with them. E-mail and texting are good, but they’re not the same as speaking with someone in person. As we spend actual time with others, we get to know them on a deeper level. Sometimes we have to rearrange our schedules or sacrifice getting things done, but developing our relationships is worth the sacrifice to be together face-to-face, speaking what’s on our heart.

Time spent with the Lord is even more critical. Jesus Christ is a wonderful person who lives in us, and who wants us to know Him. For our relationship with Him to go beyond an objective or superficial level, we have to “sacrifice” some of the time we spend busy with other things in order to be with Him each morning. We have to spend actual time being with Him. As we open our hearts to Him, speaking to Him in prayer and letting Him speak to us in His Word, we get to know Him personally and deeply.

The best time of the day

The Lord Jesus wants a living and personal relationship with us, not a formal and formulaic one. We can, and should, contact Him anytime, anywhere, throughout the day and before we go to bed at night. He’s so available and near to us in our spirit!

But the best time for us to have a little longer personal time with Him is in the morning.

The Bible shows us a good picture of this in Exodus 16. This chapter tells us that God fed His people with manna as they journeyed in wilderness. He didn’t send the manna at noon, in the afternoon, or at night. It arrived fresh every morning with the dew. If you didn’t get up early enough, you would miss it, because as the sun became hot, the manna melted. Today, God wants to refresh us and nourish us with spiritual “manna” in His Word every morning. This way, before the “heat” and trials of the day begin, we’re refreshed and equipped with Christ to face the situations that come our way.

Additionally, when we don’t have a time with the Lord in the morning, it’s so easy to be swept up in all kinds of things once the day gets started; we simply run out of time to spend alone with Him. Before we know it the day’s over, and we’re so tired. We pray a little as we’re falling asleep and determine to try for a longer time tomorrow. This is why it’s good to start our day off with Him, before things invade to rob us of our time altogether. Devoting time in the morning to be with our Lord Jesus ensures our having a substantial interaction with Him each day.

Those first minutes of the day alone with the Lord are particularly sweet and enlivening. While things are quiet, we can easily open our hearts and our spirits to the Lord to be filled with Him through prayer and reading His Word. His Word will become the gladness and joy of our hearts as we spend time in His presence.

This post is based on Chapter 1 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 2. Bibles for America gives this book away for free; order your free copy on our order page. You can also download a PDF version here. All verse references and quoted footnotes are from the New Testament Recovery Version. You can order a free New Testament on our order page.

Note 1 on bountifully supplies: “The Greek word means supplies fully, bountifully, and liberally. See Phil. 1:19. On God’s side, He supplies the Spirit bountifully; on our side, we receive the Spirit. Day by day a marvelous divine transmission takes place: God supplies and we receive. The way to open ourselves to this heavenly transmission to receive the supply of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is to exercise our spirit to pray and call on the Lord.”

The verse and note are from the Recovery Version, published by Living Stream Ministry. The Recovery Version outlines, footnotes, and cross-references were all prepared by Witness Lee. Bibles for America gives away the New Testament Recovery Version for free. You can order your free copy on our order page.

On September 16, 1620, one hundred and two passengers set sail from England on a 90-foot ship called the Mayflower. A good number of the party were believers, now known as Pilgrims, in search of a new life in a new world. Fleeing religious persecution in England, the Pilgrims were searching for a place where they could live and worship God according to what they had seen in the Bible. Full of hope and expectation that the Lord would bless them, they set off for the New World.

Making for the Colony of Virginia, established by England several years earlier, they encountered rough storms and winds. The frail Mayflower was battered and wrenched off course by some 500 miles. Amazingly, the ship and most of the passengers survived the harrowing crossing, and the storm-shattered vessel floundered into the sheltered but deserted waters off the coast of what is now Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims arrived in winter on the cold and craggy shores with grateful thanks to God, but without much else. This was the seemingly unpromising beginning of the Plymouth Colony. Governor William Bradford gave an account of that arrival:

“Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof…But here I…stand half amazed at this poor people’s present condition…Being thus past the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles…they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies…And for the season, it was winter; and they that know the winters of this country, know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast…For, which way soever they turned their eyes, save upward to the heavens, they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects.”

By the end of that first, cruel winter, half of the people had died. But spring and help from the Native American Wampanoag tribe seemed to promise a new start.

Over the next years, as the Pilgrims struggled to survive, they continued to look to God for their comfort and supply.

When two years later, for example, an early summer drought threatened their crops and their lives, they organized a day of fasting and gathered together for prayer, sermons, and singing. The Lord honored their gathering and sent rain, reviving both the crops and the hearts of the people. In response, the Pilgrims honored God, their gracious Provider, as they had on previous occasions, with a solemn day for giving thanks. They worshipped God with thanksgiving for His faithful, ongoing care for them in the new land of their freedom.

This Thanksgiving Day, as we gather around dining tables with our friends and family, may we remember the price our nation’s forefathers paid to freely worship God in this land. And may we follow their example in thanking God for all He has blessed us with today—this country, its freedoms, our fellow Americans, our friends, our families.

Above all, let us thank our loving Father not only for blessing us with many outward things but also for loving us and sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. How we thank Him for securing for us an eternal salvation and freeing us from the fear of death! We thank Him because He Himself is the greatest blessing in the universe.

May God continue to bless America as He has since our forebears first set foot on these shores. And may He bless each of us with more of Himself as our rich portion.

From all of us at BfA, have a warm, happy, and blessed Thanksgiving.

“Just as a glove is made in the image of a hand to contain a hand, so also man is made in the image of God to contain God.”

From Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1, ch. 1 (mass-distribution ed., p. 7). Bibles for America gives this book away for free. You can order your free copy on our order page. You can also download a free PDF version here.

The common understanding of being blessed by God is that we receive good things from Him. In this respect, we can say that God’s blessing is on everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. Matthew 5:45 says that the Father who is in the heavens causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust. In Acts 14:17 Paul spoke to the unbelieving Greeks about the living God saying, “He did good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”

But is God’s blessing limited to only material things? Surely these are included, but thinking of God’s blessing as mainly material things severely limits our understanding of what the blessing in God’s heart is for us as believers. So what is the fuller meaning of being blessed by God?

The blessing of Abraham

Let’s begin with God’s blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Reading this verse by itself, we might think being blessed here means something outward, like a peaceful living situation. But later in Galatians 3:13 and 14, the apostle Paul explained what this means:

“Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse on our behalf; because it is written, ‘Cursed is every one hanging on a tree’; in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

These verses explain what Genesis means by “blessed” and answer the two questions below.

How can we be blessed?

As fallen sinners, we deserve nothing but judgment and curse. But Christ became a curse on our behalf. On the cross, Christ Jesus bore the curse that was upon all humanity and died in our place. Because of this alone, we can receive the blessing of Abraham. It’s not because of our good works or behavior; it’s entirely because of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross for us. We receive the blessing of God through faith in Christ.

What is the blessing of God?

Galatians 3:14 makes clear that the blessing in Christ Jesus that God wants us to receive is not material things, but the promise of the Spirit.

Footnote 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version helps us understand what this means:

“In the gospel we have received not only the blessing of forgiveness, washing, and cleansing; even more, we have received the greatest blessing, which is the Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment. Oh, what a blessing that we can enjoy such an all-inclusive One as our daily portion!”

But what (or who) is “the Spirit” in this verse that we receive? The next footnote on Galatians 3:14 says this:

“This verse indicates that the Spirit is the blessing that God promised to Abraham for all the nations and that has been received by the believers through faith in Christ. The Spirit is the compound Spirit, as mentioned in note 5², and actually is God Himself processed in His Trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension that we may receive Him as our life and our everything. This is the focus of the gospel of God.

The physical aspect of the blessing that God promised to Abraham was the good land (Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 26:3-4), which was a type of the all-inclusive Christ (see Col. 1:12 and note 2). Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17), the blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham. Actually, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God’s bountiful supply for us to enjoy.”

Experiencing God’s blessing

Because Christ dwells in us as the all-inclusive Spirit, we can experience Him in a personal, subjective way by contacting Him with our spirit. We can pray, call on His name, and read His Word. By simply turning to Christ and talking to Him throughout the day, we can enjoy Him as our rich portion.

Suppose you pray for a better job and get a higher paying position. Certainly, you thank the Lord for it. But what happens when the new work environment presents some difficulties? If you realize that God didn’t just bless you with a new job but even more, with Christ in His unlimitedness living within you, you will contact the Lord in a deeper way. You will realize that He as the life-giving Spirit dwells in your spirit. Instead of praying for Him to take away the problems or to give you another job, you’ll open your heart to Him and asked Him to be your wisdom and strength to face the troubles at work. You will begin to experience Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit in that difficult situation. You will enjoy Him—the top blessing.

Pursing Christ, the real blessing

If we think of God’s blessing as mainly in the realm of material things, we’ll pursue these things and spend our time in prayer asking God for them. Meanwhile, we’ll miss out on the less obvious but much more real blessing of God. But by focusing on Christ and pursuing Him, we can enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit as the top blessing of God!

We should certainly be thankful for the material things the Lord gives us. But we are truly blessed when we experience Christ as our love, our peace, our patience, our satisfaction, our joy, and so many other aspects of Himself.

We have this wonderful Person, the greatest blessing in the universe!

“Lord, thank You for blessing me with Yourself. Open the eyes of my heart to see beyond the physical and material blessings You have given me. I desire to experience You as the highest blessing in the universe!”

Note 2 on truth: “Truth here denotes the divine reality of the gospel, as defined in note 1⁵ especially concerning the person of Christ, who expressed God and accomplished God’s purpose; love is the believers’ expression in loving one another through receiving and knowing the truth. These two matters are the basic structure of this Epistle. In them grace, mercy, and peace will be with us. The apostle greeted and blessed the believers with grace, mercy, and peace, based on the fact that these two crucial things existed among the believers. When we walk in the truth (v. 4) and love one another (v. 5), we will enjoy the divine grace, mercy, and peace.”

The verse and note are from the Recovery Version, published by Living Stream Ministry. The Recovery Version outlines, footnotes, and cross-references were all prepared by Witness Lee. Bibles for America gives away the New Testament Recovery Version for free. You can order your free copy on our order page.

Here are a few practical points on how we can build up a daily Bible reading habit:

Pray to receive a hunger for God’s Word

Psalms 119:103 says, “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth!” In this verse, the psalmist describes his taste for God’s Word. We want to have the same hunger for God’s Word as the psalmist, and we can ask God to give us a hunger and a taste for His Word.

Choose a set time to read

To maintain a habit, it’s good to have a set time to read the Word. Mornings are excellent times to read, before the hustle and bustle of the day begins, but other times like during lunch or before going to bed can also be good. Having a scheduled time will help us consistently remember to read by making it a part of our daily routine.

Read consecutively

Many of us have read here and there in the Bible. But a good way to help us regularly and consistently read the Word is to read it consecutively, chapter by chapter and book by book. When we do this, we don’t have to decide what to read each time, and as we read it cover to cover we’ll begin to see what a cohesive book the Bible is.

Turn your heart to the Lord before reading

Every time we come to the Word, it’s good to turn our heart to the Lord Jesus. Before we start our Bible reading, we can simply pray something like this:

“Lord, as I come to Your Word, I turn my heart to you. I open to You and to Your speaking. Speak to me, wash me, and shine more light from Your Word on me today. Dear Lord, there is so much more for me to see in Your Word. Enlighten me more as I read today.”

Praying a simple prayer like this whenever we come to the Bible will help us turn our heart fully to the Lord and be open to anything He’d like to speak to us in His Word. By opening our heart and spirit we’ll contact the Lord in His Word and His Word will be food to us.

Pray over what you read

Sometimes as we’re reading the Word, a certain verse stands out to us. It may comfort or convict us, or seem to apply exactly to our situation. At other times a verse may perplex us. Whatever our reaction, when we’re touched by a verse, we can pray what we’ve read back to the Lord. We might thank Him or praise Him for certain portions, or we might ask Him to show us what a verse means, or just talk with Him about another.

In this way the Bible can be a prayer book to us, helping us to spend time with the Lord. As we practice this, the Word will become more than words on a page to us; it will become a place where we meet with our dear Lord Jesus.

Keep track of your reading

It’s very encouraging to keep track of what we’ve read. One way to keep track of your reading is to check off what you’ve finished somewhere in your Bible. You can use a blank page or the table of contents to check off each book as you read it. You can also mark the number of times you’ve read the whole New Testament and the whole Old Testament. There are also online tools available like ReadHisWord.com and LettheWord.com that can help you keep track of your reading.

Keeping track encourages us in our habit. For example, if you read one chapter per day you may think you’re going too slowly. But even if you only read one chapter per day, you’ll finish the entire New Testament in under a year. After five years you might look back at your record and find that you’ve read the whole New Testament seven times! Seeing this kind of progress really encourages us to continue on.

Treasure your Bible reading time

Since reading the Word daily is so important for us as Christians, it’s good to treasure and guard the time we’ve set aside to enjoy the Word of the Lord. Because our lives are so full of things that can interrupt or distract us, we really have to be active in guarding the time we choose.

For example, some people find that using an electronic device for daily Bible reading is less than ideal because of the distractions of e-mail, text messages, and other things being only a click away. In this case, to lessen distraction so that your whole attention is given to His Word, you could try using a print version of the Bible during your Bible reading times.

A habit of daily Bible reading will lay a foundation for our Christian life, strengthen our Christian faith, and help us to know the Lord Jesus in a deeper way. May God grant us all His grace to daily read His Word so that we can be brought on to the full knowledge of the truth!

What tips have helped you maintain a regular habit of daily Bible reading?

“Let us remember the word: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from every sin.’ Big sins, small sins, sins which may be very black and sins which appear to be not so black, sins which I think can be forgiven and sins which seem unforgivable, yes, all sins, conscious or unconscious, remembered or forgotten, are included in those words: ‘every sin.’ ‘The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin,’ and it does so because in the first place it satisfies God.”

This quote comes from The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee (mass distribution ed., p. 18). Bibles for America gives this book away for free. You can order your free copy on our order page.