Immanuel - God with us! Deity came as humanity! The Word became flesh and dwelt among us! (John 1:14)  The greatest joy and hope of a believer rests upon the very assurance that Jesus Christ, the Son of God came into the world to save us from our sins and will come again to gather His saints to Him. Christ’s coming to be with us reveals the immense depth of God’s love for us. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”  (1 John 4:9) 
 

Beyond the Babe in the manger! 

While many like to portray Jesus as the Baby in the manger, we need to know Christ who bore the cross, in whom is all authority and power.  How marvellous the great love of God that enabled Jesus to forsake the privileges of Heaven, to be born a helpless babe in a manger, to be confined to the limitations of the human body, to be tested and tempted, to suffer and die on our behalf! We need to look beyond the manger to the cross and draw into our hearts the grace and mercy of God bestowed upon us by the invaluable price that He paid at Calvary to reinstate us to God! “…Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8)
  

What does Immanuel mean to us?

To King Ahaz it meant God’s promise of protection and presence–which the King rejected. Unlike King Ahaz who put his trust in men (Assyria), let us place our confidence in God who has promised to be with us even to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20) 
To the Jews of Jesus’ day, this Child – Immanuel came as the Light that would dispel all darkness. But His own people rejected Him and to them He became a stumbling block. Let us not reject Him in our disbelief. 

To us today

-to all who receive Him and believe in Him, He is our Saviour; our Redeemer - the One who has set us free from the bondage of sin and death! He is our strength in times of trouble, our refuge and our fortress during the low points of our life, the One who leads us triumphantly in our Christian walk.  God who in ages past has spoken through His prophets has given us the final revelation in Jesus Christ, His Son (Heb. 1:1-4). It is God’s plan of redemption for mankind, fulfilled through Jesus Christ coming to be with us. The One who is from the beginning; by Whom all things were created; Who upholding all things by the word of His power, took on the very nature of the ones He created and came among us to save us! 

 

With His life Jesus paid for my life! And now for the redeemed, Immanuel God promises to be with us forever. Christ in us – the hope of glory! (Col.1:27) And there is only one response that befits this great gift of God’s presence with us – living a life in continual fellowship and obedience to God!

 

 A Future Promise:

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

'Behold, the dwelling place of God is

with man. He will dwell with them, and they

will be his people, and God himself will

be with them as their God.'"  

Revelation 21:3