Yes, Christmas is a celebration of God’s Son becoming man through the virgin Mary, but it is a celebration of so much more. It is a celebration of all God accomplished by sending Jesus to become man and save sinners. Yesterday we looked at how Jesus was “the firstborn of all creation” – Colossians 1:15. A couple of verses later, in verse 19, we read that,
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell
I must admit, that verse is slightly incomprehensible. “All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” in Jesus Christ. “All the fullness of God.” In this little baby, born in a manger, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. All of God’s sovereignty, and holiness, and justice, and mercy, and grace, and love, and kindness, and power were pleased to dwell. All of the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Yet, we read in Philippians 2:6-8 about Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
So, though Jesus was fully God in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, He laid aside His majesty – not clinging to His prerogatives as God – and humbled Himself and became a man. He not only humbles Himself and became man – who was both fully God and fully man – but He humbles Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. This is why He became man, so that He might die on a cross. It was through His death on the cross that, according to Colossians 1:20, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…
and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross.
This is our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ born on Christmas morning. He was fully God in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and He was fully man who became obedient to death, even death on a cross, so that through him all things, whether on earth or in heaven, would be reconciled to Himself. Let us worship our Great God and Savior on Christmas morn.
