"What child is this?" (part 1)

One of the popular Christmas songs asks this question: “What child is this?”  One line for that song is, “What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap, is sleeping?”  What child is this?  It’s a vital question.  Who is this Jesus?  Why do we stop and contemplate His arrival into this world every December?  I want to delve into this question.

A great resource for us when pondering this issue is the prophetic book of Isaiah.  Thousands of years before Jesus ever arrived on the scene Isaiah presented us a picture of who Jesus was going to be, and what He was going to do.  For example, Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son and will call Him Immanuel.”  Jesus is the only one in human history to ever be born from a virgin.  Cynics try to disprove this amazing prophecy; they claim that “virgin” simply means a young maiden.  But think about it: why would a young maiden giving birth to a son be “a sign” from God?  That doesn’t make sense.  In Matthew 1, the author states unequivocally that Jesus’ birth is the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.

But there’s more.  In Isaiah 7:15 we read that this coming One, this person that will be born from the womb of a virgin, He will actually “reject the wrong and choose the right”.  This is a stunning representation of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is sinless.  No one else can honestly claim that he “rejects the wrong and chooses the right”.  I certainly would never make that claim.  But Jesus can and did.  In John 8:46, He said, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?  If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me?”

There’s a second text in Isaiah that I want to look at today.  In Isaiah 9, we read, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (verse 6).  Once again, this was written centuries before Jesus’ arrival on Earth, and yet we see Jesus clearly in these words.

I wish I could camp out on this verse; it is a rich, deep passage.  In fact, I could probably spend the whole month of December on this verse alone, but for today, let me underscore one phrase in particular: note that Isaiah predicts that this One who will come will be called “Mighty God”.  

Read the gospel accounts and it’s quite clear that Jesus isn’t just a mortal man; He is also God.  I could give several examples, but consider an episode in Mark 4.  One night Jesus and the disciples were in a boat and a fierce storm overtakes them.  The disciples freak out, but Jesus gets up and He actually commands the storm to stop, it obeys and there is an immediate calm.  No ordinary man could do such a miracle; only God Himself!  Once again, cynics try to disprove it, but Jesus really is “Mighty God”.  

       

What child is this?  To sum it up for today, Jesus is not just another religious leader or popular teacher; on the contrary, Jesus is the sinless God-man, unlike everyone else in history, He entered the Earth through the womb of a virgin.  This miraculous event was predicted thousands of years before by the prophet Isaiah. It was God's sign to all mankind.

To be continued!

Kevin