The Christmas Miracle

By Hal Lindsey

 

Over the last few years, the Hallmark Channel has created a cable-TV, ratings juggernaut.  They fill the holidays with sweet, Christmas-themed love stories.  I appreciate their G-rated, family-centered approach.  But when you watch a few of their films, you start to see that something’s missing.  And that something is… Christmas itself.

 

I’m not complaining.  I appreciate what they do, and am thrilled at their success.  We could use a lot more of their kind of entertainment.  But watch awhile and you’ll see what I mean when I say Christmas is missing.  They speak of faith — but not faith in God.  These movies are about faith in the holiday.

 

Most of the stories feature a Christmas miracle.  The Hallmark Christmas miracle usually centers on a change of heart.  They have many variations, but their yarns usually go something like this.  A hard-working, big-city, career woman comes to understand the values of family, community, and, of course, “Christmas.”  She falls for a regular, small-town kind of guy, and she dumps her big-city, money-centered fiancé — or something along those lines.  It’s a nice formula.

 

But that’s not the miracle of Christmas.  The real miracle of Christmas is Jesus Himself.

 

Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (NKJV) The carol “O Come All Ye Faithful,” puts it like this.  “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.”

 

“Word of the Father” harkens back to one of the most profound and mysterious verses in all the Bible.  John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

 

The term “Word” may at first seem like an abstract concept.  But the verses that follow make it specific and tangible.  Verse 3 says, “All things were made by Him.”  “Him” is a personal pronoun.  So, “the Word” is not just a concept, but a Person.  And the verses after that make it clear that the Person has a name — Jesus Christ.  

 

By looking at John 1:1, we see that Jesus was present and active at Genesis 1:1.  Genesis says, “In the beginning God created….”  It’s clear from this verse that God was already present before the beginning of time, space, and matter.  Other scriptures confirm that He fills eternity — past, future, and present.

 

And Jesus was there.  He was with God.  Even more amazing, He was God.  That means He is and has always been God.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

 

John 1:3 says that Jesus created everything.  Should anyone doubt that fact, the Holy Spirit directed John to say it twice in one verse.  “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

 

This makes it obvious that when these verses say, “the Word,” they are talking about God — the Creator of all things.  But they are not talking about God the Father.  “The Word,” a.k.a. Jesus, was with God the Father.  This is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity.

 

That’s astounding stuff!  But then came Christmas, and it got even better.  John 1:14 begins with this overwhelming thought: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (NKJV)

 

God, the Creator of all things, the second Person of the Trinity took on human form.  He had a mother.  After His birth in a stable, she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger.  

 

John was a close friend of Jesus.  He wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but also as an eyewitness.  In its entirety, John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (NKJV)

 

That’s the miracle of the ages.  That’s why we celebrate Christmas.  That’s how we can live fulfilled, joyful lives without fear of death.  That’s Christmas!

 

John 1:14 might be the ultimate Christmas verse.  But there’s another one that I like even better.  It not only tells us that Jesus came, but why.

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” — John 3:16, NKJV

 

Jesus is the ultimate miracle.  When you receive Him into your life, that miracle becomes yours forever.

 

Merry Christmas!