For Unto You is Born This Day

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:1-14

Luke 2:11  For unto you is born this day,…. Day is here put for a natural day, consisting both of night and day; for it was night when Christ was born, and the angels brought the tidings of it to the shepherds. The particular day, and it may be, month and year, in which Christ was born, cannot be certainly known; but this we may be sure of, it was in the fulness of time, and at the exact, season fixed upon between God and Christ in the council and covenant of peace; and that he was born, not unto, or for the good of angels; for the good angels stand in no need of his incarnation, sufferings, and death, having never fell; and as for the evil angels, a Saviour was never designed and provided for them; nor did Christ take on him their nature, nor suffer in their stead: wherefore the angel does not say, “unto us”, but “unto you”, unto you men; for he means not merely, and only the shepherds, or the Jews only, but the Gentiles also; all the children, all the spiritual seed of Abraham, all elect men; for their sakes, and on their account, and for their good, he assumed human nature; see Isa_9:6.

• in the city of David; that is, Bethlehem, as in Luk_2:4 where the Messiah was to be born, as being, according to the flesh, of the seed of David, his son and offspring; as he is, according to his divine nature, his Lord and root. The characters of this new born child follow, and which prove the tidings of his birth to be good, and matter of joy:
• a Saviour; whom God had provided and appointed from all eternity; and had been long promised and much expected as such in time, even from the beginning of the world; and is a great one, being God as well as man, and so able to work out a great salvation for great sinners, which he has done; and he is as willing to save as he is able, and is a complete Saviour, and an only, and an everlasting one: hence his name is called Jesus, because he saves from sin, from Satan, from the law, from the world, from death, and hell, and wrath to come, and from every enemy,
• Which is Christ the Lord; the Messiah spoken of by the prophets; the anointed of the Lord, with the Holy Ghost without measure, to be a prophet, priest, and king in his church; and who is the true Jehovah, the Lord our righteousness, the Lord of all creatures, the Lord of angels, good and bad, the Lord of all men, as Creator, the Prince of the kings of the earth, the Lord of lords, and King of kings; and who is particularly the Lord of saints by his Father’s gift, his own purchase, the espousal of them to himself, and by the power of his grace upon them: and the birth of such a person must needs be joyful, and is to be accounted good news, and glad tidings.

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John Gill,  Gospel of Luke

Dressing Dolls and Knowing God in Jesus Christ

Dressing Dolls and Knowing God in Jesus Christ

Girls love to play with dolls and dress them up in different outfits depending upon their desire to see them as they would. It does not matter what is proper or correct, but rather what looks good to the eye of the beholder. This is what unlearned man does with God and His attributes. He dresses God up in the attributes that please him and tosses away those attributes that do not fit his religious design or false understanding of God. He creates a “god of his imagination” and not the God of the Bible and then ignorantly believes he can vainly worship God in a way not prescribed by God’s Word. He cannot. God has called man to worship Him according to His precepts and divine will as taught by the Word of God. This is why it is so important for women to know their God and to properly know His attributes so they do not clothe him in false dress under false assumptions of a flesh-centered mind. God has properly dressed Himself for His glory with the attributes that are solely His and we must study to learn those attributes so that we do not dishonor Him or take away from His divinity. To “know” God is to know Him intimately and to do that we must toss out those old clothes of ignorance, unbelief and flesh-centeredness and put on the truth of God’s Word in its revelation of Him in Scripture and history. Read what Michael Horton says here:

“To seek to know or worship God in any way other than through the person and work of Jesus Christ is to invite wrath and confusion. It is a particular God who is described for us by God himself in Scripture and history.

Christ is the key to knowing God. Apart from Him, there would be no world, no human speech, no relationship with God. In fact, apart from the Son there would be no God at all, since the only God who really exists is the Trinity: one in essence, three in person. This is why Scripture describes God by revealing Christ to promise and fulfillment, from Genesis to Revelation. We know God by seeing Him in action, and the whole biblical story is about his action in Christ, foreshadowed in promise and accomplished in fulfillment. It is not “God,” but this God — Yahweh — who is the object of our worship. It is not by personal experiences or by speculating or spinning a web of reasonable opinions about God that we come to know the true Creator and Redeemer, but by locating divine action in history.” __Michael Horton, “How Can We Know God?” We Believe, p 51.

Dressing up dolls can be fun when you are child but we are “no longer children” tossed about by every wind of doctrine and belief and are called upon as women teaching women and children to know our God completely. Our “dressing up” must be God dressed in the royal apparel that is Scripture-based and biblical. Studying His attributes is important and that we will do here in future posts. The more you read and study His greatness, the more you can apply the strength of that knowledge to your daily living for the good of not only your own soul but that of those you minister to. How important is it? Just as important as watching your children grow from babies to adults.

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” 1 Corinthians 13:11

__TheologyGirl

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This is a repost of our original in 2008 in response to request.