The Christmas Story
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.
Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she’s now in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.”
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38; NLT)
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “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. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25, NLT)
Significance and Meaning
I realize that Christmas has come and gone by now, but I still thought it was necessary to bring this to every one's attention again. The real reason that we have life again is because our God loved us enough to send His son for us (John 3:16). If it were not for a Savior being born we wouldn't have any eternal life because of our condemnation already before God (John 3:18). Praise God for His glorious Son!
The reason that I chose to display the Christmas story through the NLT version is because I believe that the NLT does a good job in making the reading enjoyable. It is not the most word for word translation of the Bible, but in this situation that would only have made the Christmas story difficult to read and meditate on. Ancient Koine Greek does not always translate well into modern English and therefore we need to have the Word presented to us in ways that we can understand easily. This is also not a watered down translation where it's a complete paraphrase of the original text either, but somewhere in the middle with the NLT tipping slightly to the paraphrase side.
Anyways, to go back on topic, please remember that the reason that we have a new life is through Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. If He had never given Himself as the once for all sacrifice, we would not be here to give others any good news.
Praise God for His Son! Praise God for the Christmas season! Praise God for the New Year!
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