Today we celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world. Why did He come? Why do we celebrate Christmas?

In the beginning, God created a perfect world and made man and assigned him to be the caretaker of it. In this world He planted a tree: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and He told the man that he could eat any of the fruit in the garden except the fruit of that tree.

God, seeing it was not good for Adam to be alone, made Eve: that together they might be in relationship with Him and with each other. Everything was perfect until a fallen angel, a spiritual being, entered into one of the animals: this serpent then tempted Eve into eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. When Eve had eaten –and by so doing had become mortal — she brought the fruit to Adam to eat. Adam — knowing what had happened, and seeming to love Eve in that moment more than he loved God — willfully made the decision to join Eve in her mortality. As soon as Adam ate of the fruit, both their eyes were opened and they realized they had sinned against God. The consequences were dreadful.

Not only did Adam and Eve fall from grace due to Adam’s sin, but all of creation “fell” and became “mortal” that day. Man was separated from the Presence of God and had to leave the Garden. He was doomed to eek out a living from the earth by hard labor and to eventually die physically.

When God was informing Adam and Eve of the consequences of their actions, He made an odd pronouncement concerning the serpent who had been used to lead them astray:

“Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.“

This was the first prophetic pronouncement concerning Messiah. He would be the seed of a woman, not of a man. Why is this important? Because Eve was deceived, but Adam willfully disobeyed God. The sin was his.

Sin became part of Adam’s DNA. He passed that on to his offspring: it was part of his contribution. It was as natural as eye color or the shape of a nose. Everyone who has a human father inherits Adam’s sin.

Deuteronomy 5:9 warns that God holds children accountable for the sins of their Fathers to the third and fourth generation, specifically to the children of those that hate God. But the significance is that it is the father’s sins that are passed down to the children.

Further proof that children participate in the deeds of their father is found in Hebrews 7: 9-10:

“And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec (the High Priest) met him.”

What this means is that when Abraham paid tithes to God’s high priest Melchisedec; Levi, who was not yet born, participated in that action because he was in Abraham at the time.

So we see that children inherit both blessings and curses from their fathers. In order for grace to be restored to God’s creation, the Messiah could not have a human father: He could not inherit sin. Messiah had to be sinless to be an acceptable sacrifice for Mankind’s sin. Jesus had to be born of a virgin.

God told us of His plan through the Prophet Isaiah 750 years before the event:

“Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel [God with us].” Isaiah 7:14

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6-7

This is such a familiar passage that many gloss over some significant phrases such as His name shall be “…the mighty God, the everlasting Father…” So this Messiah was not only human, but God the Father in the flesh. Many people have trouble understanding this because Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of God and the Son of Man. But he is truly both. He is God with us, God in human form. Because he was perfect and sinless, death had no hold on Him. He would become a propitiation, a surrogate, a stand in for the punishment we all deserved. He would pay all of our sin debt. Because He had no sin of His own he could not be held down, death had no grip on Him.

When the disciples were confused about these same concepts, not understanding that Jesus was indeed God, Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father (John 14:9)

Jesus replied “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

The good news is that Jesus has come to earth as Messiah to become the sacrifice for sin Himself. He is our pathway back to the garden and to a restoration of all that was lost. By believing in Jesus we receive eternal life through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit marks us as one of His and enables us to commune with our Father in heaven. God and sinners reconciled.

Messiah’s purpose was (and still is) to undo what Adam and his descendants have done: and to bring us back –to reconcile us– to our Father God. The good news is that this is exactly what Jesus has done. That is why we celebrate Christmas.