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If you aren’t a Christian, the Christmas story can seem as far-fetched as Santa Claus.
Billions of people celebrated Christmas Thursday. It’s much more than a reason to decorate and spoil your kids or grandkids. It celebrates the birth of Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem to Mary and his earthly father, Joseph.
Jesus was no ordinary child. He was the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel,” which means “God with us.”
Isaiah 9 says, “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Angels announced his birth, and wise men from the East came to visit him.
Jesus didn’t come to establish an earthly political kingdom. He came to save mankind from the curse of sin, just like Isaiah wrote hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth.
Isaiah prophesied, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
But he didn’t stay dead. Easter celebrates how God raised Jesus from the dead, conquering death, hell and the grave. Thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, a sinner — that’s you and me — can have a saving relationship with God. As Romans 10:9 states, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
