The Unfinished Holiday

I, even I, am the
Lord, and besides Me there is no savior."
Isaiah
43:11

Recommended Reading Titus 2:11-15

The
greatest miracle in the Bible is Jesus himself—the two-fold nature of the
virgin-born Jesus Christ, being both God and man, fully divine and fully human.
In AD 451, the Council of Chalcedon asserted: ". . . one and the same Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly
God and truly man . . . of one substance with the Father as regards His Godhead,
and at the same time of one substance with us as regards His manhood; like us in
all respects, apart from sin."

That's the way it had to
be. Jesus had to be God in order to save us, for Isaiah 43:11 tells us
that only God can save ("besides Me there is no savior"). But Jesus had
to be human in order to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins on the cross.
He told Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). So Christmas is an
unfinished holiday. It's not complete without Calvary, and it isn't concluded
until Easter.

It's a truth we never stop
celebrating: Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the Everlasting
Lord!

In Christ two
natures met to be thy cure.
George Herbert

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