A Biblical View Of Christmas

(Matthew 1:21) "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (ESV)

(Matthew 1:23) "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)."  (ESV)


The name Jesus tells us what he does, he saves and the name Immanuel tells us who he is, God with us.  Jesus is the promised Messiah who  saves his people from their sins.  The miraculous conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit was evidence of his divinity.  It also meant that Jesus was not in the line of sinful humanity, but was without sin.  Some deny the miraculous conception of Jesus but the main reason they do is because they rule out the supernatural and miracles from the start. 

The focus in our time is sometimes on the birthday of Jesus.  This is misguided because it is not really the birthday of Jesus(though I do think the Lord is pleased when little children sing happy birthday to him).  Jesus has actually always existed (John 1:1).  The focus should instead be on the incarnation of Christ.  Incarnation means to take human form, so in Jesus, God became man(John 1:14).  The birth needs to be connected to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.  We need to see the whole picture and not just focus on the birth.  The heart of Christianity is Christ and the cross.  He came to accomplish salvation for his people through his life, death, and resurrection. 

The Bible does not actually tell us to celebrate Christmas so we are not bound to even celebrate it.  There have been Christians through the ages who did not celebrate it because there was no Biblical mandate.  In fact Christmas was not celebrated for the first few centuries.  The birth of Jesus is only mentioned in two of the four Gospels (Matthew & Luke).  But it is not wrong to celebrate it as long as we keep a balanced perspective and keep in mind the complete picture of the true Biblical message.