A Christmas Message: The Birth of Jesus Foretold

Today we observe Christmas Sunday, the Lord's Day immediately preceding Christmas Day. We do commemorate in a special way the birthday of our Savior and King--Jesus, the promised Son of David. The passage that we have chosen to consider reflects an event 9 months prior to our Savior's birth—that occasion when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced to her that she would be the mother of the promised Savior, the King of Israel. It was actually about this time that the incarnation occurred: the eternal, Second Person of the Holy Trinity joined Himself to the human nature derived from this humble and grace-filled Virgin Mary. The incarnation occurred at the conception of Mary in Nazareth, not at the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Jesus of Nazareth, who is eternal God, had also become a man. He is "Immanuel", meaning, "God with us."