Who is Christmas’s Baby Jesus Really?

Do we know enough about who Jesus is to value what He is really worth? At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus as baby, but often times we do not look any further into who Jesus is until we hit Easter and “celebrate” Jesus’ death and resurrection. Although it may seem that I’m referring to Holiday church-goers, it is also Christ followers that do not really recognize who Jesus is. Too often we celebrate the Holiday as the Christmas story alone (Jesus’ birth) and forget the purpose and significance behind that birth.

Philippians 2:6-8 (NLT)

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Jesus was born so he might die. It is hard to fathom that anyone would choose to die like a criminal in order to save humanity, but to take it a step further and see that Jesus willingly waived His divine rights, humbled Himself, and became a human in order to die for humanity is mind blowing.

Jesus voluntarily surrendered his rights as God. He didn’t attempt to hold on to his power, glory, omniscience, omnipotence etc., but let go of those rights to become human. In the NLT version, it uses the phrase “cling to,” which can be likened to a robber seizing something that is not his own. As a human, Jesus let go of the privileges of His divinity. He added humanity to His divinity and restricted Himself from some of His powers. Eternity entered time, infinite became finite, the all powerful, all knowing, always everywhere became contained in a human baby, dependent on those around Him and limited to His current time and space. Paul, in this passage, likens the shift from being Divine God to human being as being a slave. Jesus is no longer the master, but is now a servant. Even further, a servant of humanity!

The passage in Philippians continues (9-11):

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Regardless of whether we know or acknowledge Jesus now, everyone will bow before Him. What we have to choose is whether to bow now or later. Choosing now means looking at that question I first asked and choosing to take action in our lives to KNOW Jesus.