God gave the Sign

"All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)." Isaiah 7:14

God with us…that is astounding! The Infinite One who measures the universe with the "span of His hand" was promised to come among us. A miraculous birth would take place, the one foretold in Genesis 3:15 when God said that the "seed of woman" would crush the serpent's head.

The promise of a miraculous birth and the rescue of humanity from the curse of sin and death is embedded in the story of every culture on earth. It has been overlaid with purposeful distortion and buried in myth by the same snake in the Garden who doesn't want mankind to know that God loves us. But the fact of this promise of God is still there.

Unlike stories from Greek mythology where the gods came among men to behave just as depraved, jealous, vengeful as the rest of fallen humanity only with super powers, God's promise to come among us was to rescue us from our self-inflicted doom.

Matthew 1:20-21 “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

He will save His people from their sins. The earth is the Lord's...everything and everyone in it. Jesus...Jeshua or as we read it in the Old Testament, Joshua...God is salvation. God alone can rescue us from sin and its effects. We don't have the capacity to alter the trajectory of our fall. We, even given all our "advances" in technology, science, education and politics, are utterly helpless in making the slightest change to human nature. Separated from God, it all goes wrong because the ones utilizing science. technology, education and government are all fatally flawed. Apart from God, we are lost to what we were created for and even our best turns to dust.

History shows that our social and scientific advances have really made us no different from those civilizations who preceded us. We just have better ways to destroy one another, deceive one another, control one another, and intimidate one another. Yes, we have medicines to cure things that used to be incurable. But the very antibiotics that have healed have helped generate super-bacteria now resistant to medicine.

Jesus rescue is more than "skin-deep". He came to save us from our sins. He came to destroy the works of the devil, to defeat sin and death by His own sacrificial death on the cross. He was born to die for us and to be raised from the dead for us that we might be united to that very death and resurrection by the Holy Spirit. He came to rescue us and restore us to Himself as new creations, people with new hearts, new spirits, new purpose and perspective...His own.

He didn't leave us as orphans when He ascended back to the Father. He promised He would be with us, would give us the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to live His life and do His ministry in an ongoing way until He came again at the end of time. He said, "I am with you ALWAYS, even to the end of time." God is with us. Jesus Christ lives His Life within us.

But...and this may come as a shock...He didn't come to save us from inconvenience. He didn't come to make sure that our lives were even problem free. He didn't come so we could claim and possess all the goods and services the world demands and lusts after. He didn't come to insulate us from sorrow, loss or pain. He was Himself, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He came to save us from sin and its live-destroying, ever-decaying, always-disappointing work in our lives. He came to give us REAL life, not religious, sin-bound existence.

Jesus came to set us FREE from sin, its bondage, its slavery and control. He came to save us, rescue us and empower us to really LIVE.

Life in this world is not easy and those who would tell you that Jesus came to make your life easy are liars and deceivers. He came to make your life new. Jesus came to give you Eternal Life; Life that is now at work in all those who belong to Jesus. That Life is not some list of rules, not some formula you can, if you get it right, make work for you. That Life is your restored relationship with God and it is actively changing, healing, delivering, and restoring your character into the very likeness and image of Jesus.

He said that in this world, we would have tribulation. Why? Because the world we live in is still enslaved by the power of sin, under the power of the evil one. We bear in us the very Life that our ancient foe tried his best to separate us from. Jesus said that those that hated Him would hate us. There is a conflict, a war that we are involved in. He also said that He had overcome the world. All authority in both heaven and earth are His...and we are His...that is why we CAN go into the world and make disciples, not afraid but bold and dauntless with the boldness of God endless Love.

Being saved from sin sets us free to no longer be stuck in striving to make life work "my way". We are set free to learn to follow Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are set free from having to live in fear because we can't make life conform to our own personally conceived idea of what "perfect life" is. We've been set free to live the adventure we were created to know. We are now part of a purpose infinitely greater than ourselves with a personal call from Jesus Christ to follow Him...to do what He is doing in the world today; to say what He is saying to the people in the world today.

God is with us. Who or what can actually prevail against us…nothing and no one. Even death is no longer the ultimate foe. My body will one day wear out, but He has prepared for me a new one, an imperishable one...a body like His own Resurrection Body.

Can you see the freedom to live "out loud" that has been given to you and me? God, please make the truth of this a lived-out reality in us by your Power and Grace.