It’s part of our human condition that good and beautiful things can lose their luster. The majesty of the mountains can fade. The dream job becomes just any other job. This can happen spiritually too, and Advent is an opportunity for us to step back and create some space to recapture the thrill of this familiar truth: God became a man to save us from sin.

Matthew 1:18-25 shows that Jesus is God and became man through the Virgin Birth. It says multiple times that the child in Mary’s womb is from the Holy Spirit (v. 18-19, 20). The son that is born to her shall be called “Immanuel” – God with us (v. 23). Jesus is True God and True Man.

The Virgin Birth can be hard to believe, but you don’t have to be unsophisticated or unintelligent to accept it—Joseph understands where babies come from (v. 20). In fact, it’s actually easier to believe than a worldview that rejects the supernatural – we believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus, materialists believe in the virgin birth of the universe. Moreover, we can believe the Virgin Birth because of the way Christ fulfills and resolves all the longings, hopes, sufferings, and predictions of the OT (v. 22, cf. Isa 7:14).

Through the Virgin Birth, God became Man, and he did it to save us from sin. This is the message of the angel (v. 21), and why the child is called “Jesus” (“the Lord saves”). Jesus himself tells us in Matthew’s Gospel that he didn’t come to take earthly power; he was born to die to set us free from sin (20:28) and forgive our sins (26:28). Only he could be the Savior we need, with power to save as God and solidarity with us as Man, so God became a Man to save us from sins.

How can you create space this Advent and Christmas seasons to recapture the thrill of this beautiful truth, and let it shape how you live?