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Given the rightful concern over the devastating effects of sin and the proper appreciation of the salvation which Christ secured for us on the cross, there is a danger of treating the incarnation as merely instrumental, a means to an end, Christmas as only a necessary precursor to Calvary. If Christ was to die for us, He had to be born. It is certainly true that Christmas points to Calvary. (Mary knew a sword would pierce her soul.) Still, a fuller theology sees the light of Christmas shining more broadly, if not more brightly, than on Calvary alone.

Consider the Baby in a manger: born of a virgin, only begotten of the Father, one in being with the Father. Fully God and fully man, in Him, divine nature seizes human nature. A New Adam recapitulates the human story, restoring human nature to its rightful relations. Goodness, Truth, Beauty, and Love reign once more in a human life, an infant human life. No wonder angels sing. Human history begins to work backwards. The tragedy of The Fall is both instantaneously undone and definitively destined to be undone. This undoing will take the Baby to the cross and will require much undoing in the lives of His saints. Still, at Christmas, the undoing is assured. It is a torrent that will not be stopped. Let us rejoice!

This Christmas may the torrent that is His Spirit flow in us and through us, advancing the restoration of humanity that began on the first Christmas. This Christmas, our nature united to His, may love be for us our “plea and gift and sign.”

And may joy abound. Merry Christmas.