Friends: Christmas assures us of God’s eternal grace and goodness by delivering Jesus into humanity; our death is replaced by His life.  Prayers for you and yours to have a holy, happy, and merry Christmas. God bless! Bob

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Spirituality Column #997

December 23, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Unique Gifts, Part 4

By Bob Walters

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth …” – John 1:14

While the world sings “Deck the Halls,” “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” and “All I Want for Christmas is You,” church history scholar and my Bible mentor George Bebawi summed up Christmas not only with Luke 2:1-20, but John 1:14.

For his 70^th birthday celebration in 2009, my wife Pam baked and then decorated George’s cake with "Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο," the Greek for John 1:14 - “And the Word became flesh.” George was not a “Christmas cheer” guy; he was a “Feast of the Incarnation” guy. God entered humanity through virgin birth by his mother Mary. Amen.

That’s what all the fuss should be about. Not trees, bells, Santa, or Mariah Carey.

Luke 2 certainly describes the arrival and purpose of Jesus, while piles of legends and Christmas cultural history misdirect the modern celebration of what one could call, worst case, the aberrant commercial bastardization of a history-altering holy moment. Or, best case, the finest broad-band Christian public relations operation ever conceived (so to speak). Everyone hears about Christmas. Hopefully, they meet Christ.

George saw the pure glory and salvation of eternal God joining time and space to reveal his love, purpose, and plan – his grace and truth – for humanity, and repair divine relationship with and among those He created in His own image – the human race.

In other words, Jesus is God’s revelation and repairer of our Godly communion.

In this series we’ve looked at George’s six points of God’s revelation, and we’re through the first three of six points of Christ’s communion. Here are the last three points.

4.  …  Death became part of our nature.  Our nature needed life; not just life, but life that could not become enslaved to death.  God did not just give us immunity from death but imparted to us the same quality of the divine life itself, which is not just eternal but is also communal and has its roots in love.

Human sin in the Garden of Eden resulted in God’s curse of death, but God’s love never ended. The birth of Jesus brought God into humanity to restore relationship.

5.  Jesus came into the flesh to reveal to us the Fatherhood of God and to declare to us the love of the Father (John 3:16).  The three things to make this relationship a communion of love are as follows:

·      Jesus received the Holy Spirit from the Father, dwelling in Him eternally.

·      Jesus was born without a father but from a virgin mother … This new or second birth removes us from physical birth to the birth from above.  We are born again.

·      We are so intertwined that Jesus is our new life. In Him we are liberated from the power of sin and death. By his death our death was destroyed; and by his resurrection our life became rooted in him. 

Our challenge as fallen humans is two-fold: believing God’s revelation, and accepting God’s gift.  We do this with repentance, faith, and love for God and others.

6.    Every time I see or touch a human being, I see the shape which God received from us (in the Risen Christ). I hug a human, the living Icon of Jesus.  Those who weep or are in pain bring the cross and Gethsemane very close.

Without the Cross and Resurrection, the birth and purpose of Jesus would be unknowable, unbelievable, and communion unattainable.  Our divinely instilled faith opens our true eyes to the reality of God, the truth of Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the authority of Scripture. Amen to that, glory to God, and Merry Christmas.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) reads Luke 2:1-20 at family Christmas Eve dinner.