Luke 1:26-38
Do you believe in miracles? I don’t mean mere marvels, like the latest miracle drug or your team’s miracle win last night, but genuine miracles. Those things that have no explanation but God. Believing the otherwise unbelievable will cost you. Academic circles will mock you. Political circles will malign you. Even some so-called Christians will marginalize you if you claim to believe in the supernatural.
But take it to the bank: Christianity is manifestly miraculous. The Bible is blatantly supernatural. From start to finish, top to bottom, the Bible is a supernatural book. And of all the miracles recorded throughout, the grand miracle of miracles is the Christmas miracle: the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Came by a Miracle
The story of the Bible is one long search for the Savior promised in Genesis 3:15 – the “seed of the woman” who would “crush the head of the serpent.” Page after page men naturally born of women appear like possible candidates but then die as all men do.
Until one day a man was supernaturally born of woman. In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel announces to the virgin Mary that she will conceive a child by the Holy Spirit. His virgin birth – the incarnation – set him apart from all other men.
Jesus Came for a Miracle
His miraculous birth enabled his miraculous mission: to save his people from their sins. Indeed, his very name – Jesus – means “God saves.” A man born naturally could save his people from political foes. But only a man born supernaturally could save his people from their sins.
Unlike all other men, Jesus was not born with a sin nature. He never sinned. He lived the life we could never live. He died the death that we deserved. And upon his resurrection, he enabled the miracle of new birth – salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Our natural birth demanded a virgin birth to bring about new birth. Praise God for Christmas!
This Christmas, I pray the supernatural drowns out the sentimental. This Christmas, I invite you to believe the otherwise unbelievable—Jesus came by a miracle for a miracle. Do you believe in miracles?
