Christmas Eve, the Birth of the New

[HKHaugan]

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland (Is.43:18-20 NIV).”

 

How does this passage speak to us? 

 

For those who understand the implications this is a new day, a new opportunity, a new time and a new place.  There is a resurgent sense of the Holy Spirit and the open door to a restoration of God’s plan.  Just as each Christmas before, this one brings a lot of ‘re’s,’ restoration, rebuilding, renewal, remembrance, respect, regard, re-determination, repentance, remaking, all of which we know come from the basic fact of Jesus becoming one with man.  The Lord Jesus recovered and returned to us what a human being is supposed to be and look like. 

 

By His birth He gave us a picture of the spiritual foundation behind everything we see.  Now we know the One God who can’t be seen with the eyes can be seen in the mind and heart through faith just as Jesus saw His Father and knew the Spirit through faith.  Now we know love is His nature and is spiritually His presence among us.  Now we know He has given us each a personal position, part and purpose in this world.  Each one of us is made uniquely to be unique as Jesus was unique.  Every single person who has ever been born is unique, individual and different yet loved perfectly by God.  It is the spiritual reality behind everything that has become clear in Jesus.  “…do you not perceive it?”

 

What happened at the birth of Jesus as a man?  Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, thus bringing five startlingly new realizations. 

 

First, each of us was born brand new, unique and individual in the image of God just as He was in His humanity but without the Spirit of God in us due to sin.

Second, His birth showed that we could be born again spiritually new and that our life in this world would have meaning and purpose. 

Thirdly, His birth started a spiritual family of spiritual brothers and sisters led by the same Spirit that conceived Him.

Fourthly, sin, evil and their source, the devil, were defined and exposed as our spiritual enemies that threw Creation out of balance.

Fifthly, believing and trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord who fills us again with His Holy Spirit is the way we defeat sin and the devil 

 

God entered His Creation dressed in human nature, limited to live in a human body with all the stress and strain common to us all. But Jesus changed the playing field.  He lived totally and completely by faith.  Faith in His Father, faith in His Father’s will and faith in His Father’s Word even at His death on the Cross overcome in His Resurrection.  All of this accomplished through the power of His Spirit. He narrowed the understanding of the spiritual life to One God who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  He made us to be like Him, an image of Him, in mind, heart and spirit.  Being faithful, loving and hopeful is that image operating full tilt (1Cor.13). 

 

We are spiritual beings reflecting His presence.  That’s what He has shown us by becoming an individual interpersonal being.  From that point on everything from what it meant to be human, the meaning of Creation and who God really is, became new for everyone who dared to take on this new idea of personal faith in Jesus Christ changing the world everyday to be a spiritual kingdom, God’s Kingdom.

 

What’s more He started a spiritual family of spiritually reborn people, the Body of Christ. It is God’s family designed and called to worship God, grow personally and interpersonally in God and to share Him with those who don’t know Him. 

 

What we celebrate each Christmas is the birth of something new in and for each heart, each mind and each soul.   It is allowing Jesus to bear in each of us His Spirit to do more than change us.  He sends His Spirit not only to let us be reborn spiritually but to continue to grow and be transformed spiritually that every next moment we become more like Him and look for opportunities to offer this new unique spiritual rebirth to everyone who has not met Him.  In every next moment the Lord offers something new.

 

This newness, this rebirth, is for everyone who accepts Jesus and becomes part of His Body called the church, in Greek, ekklesia, (called out ones) called out of the world to go back in and see through spiritual eyes God’s Son, God’s people and God’s plan to recover the world of people to Him and our unique part in it.

 

“"Forget about what's happened;
   don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
   It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
   rivers in the badlands (Is.43:18-19 The Message).”

 

Merry Christmas everyone.