Christmas and Creed

 

What do we really celebrate at Christmas?  Is the birth of Jesus actually the birth of the Son of God?  The Nicene Creed says “Jesus Christ [is] the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages… begotten, not made.”  These words were written to clarify what the Bible says, that the Son has always existed with the Father, long before He was born of Mary and became a man named Jesus.  Just like all sons are not made or created by their fathers, but are begotten, so Jesus is not something God made, not even the first thing that God made, nor the highest of God’s creatures.  Jesus as the begotten Son of God is “consubstantial with the Father,” of the same substance as the Father, and not a creature at all.  The Son of God is “true God from true God.”  So the baby in the manger is much more than a baby.  

 

Then what do we celebrate at Christmas?  When Isaiah knew he and his people were in trouble, he cried out to God, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1). God answered that prayer when God the Son became a human baby, when “for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven.”  This is why Jesus is also called Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14).