Why Christ Had to Be Born

When you read the Scriptures, they tell us that Jesus Christ died in the spring. But the question is, did He have to die? Why did He die? Could the plan of salvation have been accomplished some other way? To understand fully, I think we need to realize why it was it was Jesus' destiny to enter into this sin-sick world. Right now, we're in what is called the Christmas season in the world. Not that you and I are involved in it, but we're surrounded. You can't get away from it. Turn your radio on, turn your TV on, look at the ads, go to a store. You are just absolutely surrounded as far as this world. Now, you find that many people who are not religious at all or some who are semi-religious or think they're not religious focus on the birth of Christ. This is what people focus on at Christmas. Right now, there's a big to-do. Fox News has been talking about it, Bill O'Reilly, about war on Christmas. The focus is on the Christmas nativity scene. This is what people think about. They think of Christ as a little child. They think of him as a baby. Now, we don't observe Christmas, and we don't observe those particular holidays. For us, this is just another month. But we know that Jesus Christ was born. You can't deny that. The fact is, the Bible says he was. He lived on the earth for a little more than three decades. But why did he come? Why did he come to the earth? Few realize that ultimately, there was no other option than for Jesus Christ to be born. But did he command us to observe his birthday? No, he did not command us to observe his birthday. We do not observe his birthday. We do find that he commands us to observe the Passover, which pictures his death, his sacrifice. But God has a great plan for mankind that includes the necessity for a Savior, the necessity for a Redeemer of mankind. There are several reasons why Jesus Christ had to be born and come to the earth. We want to take a look at that today. If you were to ask the average person walking on the street, just do a survey. Was it necessary for Christ to be born? What do you think they would say? They would probably say yes. But if you were to ask them why, what kind of a response would you get?

In fact, what most people know about Christ is okay. Isn't he our Savior? And he came. And you know, they think of him as a baby. In too often Christmas pictures Christ as a little child. And that's the way they still think of him. They still think of him as a little child, a little baby. Well, brethren, we want to take a look today. And I thought this might be appropriate to cover because it's not a quote-unquote Christmas sermon, but it does focus on the fact that Jesus Christ had to be born. We cannot and should not deny you of that as a fact. But there are several reasons why Jesus Christ had to come to the earth. Let's take a look at these. Number one reason is that Jesus had to be born because of mankind's sins. When I say mankind, I'm talking about womankind also. I'm talking about the fact that all of us have sinned. God created Adam and Eve. He placed them in a beautiful garden environment. He supplied their every need. They had everything that they needed. They were in paradise. And in the Garden of Eden, our forefathers, our original human parents, found the food, a plentiful supply of everything they needed. The animals were tamed. They had beauty surrounding them. They had flowers. They had just a paradise. They had a loving teacher who was there with them. God himself. He accompanied them. He taught them. He explained things to them. He showed them the right way. He said, do this, don't do that. And so, he showed them the way they should go. Now, if Adam and Eve had obeyed God, they would have bridged the gap between mortality and immortality. They could have gained access to the Tree of Life. They had every advantage. Now, the question is, what went wrong? What happened? Well, I think we all know. Let's go back to the Book of Romans, chapter 5.

Book of Romans, chapter 5, beginning in verse 12. Adam and Eve did what every human being has done since that time. They sinned. They disobeyed God. In chapter 5, verse 12, we've discovered this in our Bible studies. It says, therefore, just as through one man, that's Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all have sinned. This is Romans 5, 12. So, every human being has sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world, as we know, until the law was given in codified form. Sin was still in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even though those who had not sinned according to the likeness are in the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come. So, Adam was a type of Jesus Christ. Now, you find they followed the way of Satan the Devil. God gave our original parents free choice, just as God gives us free choice. It's called free moral agency. Now, let's notice, going back to Genesis chapter 2, let's go back to the original story here, verse 16, Genesis 2, 16. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. Now, notice the choice God is giving them. You can eat of all of these trees, he said, every one of them. But there is a but. There's always a but. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall die. So, God said, you can do this. Hundreds, thousands of trees there. You can enjoy them, climb on them, eat them, hug them, whatever you want to do with them. But this one tree, the knowledge of good and evil. Now, there was also a tree of life. Now, do you not think that if God told Adam, here's the tree of life, you can take a bit. Here's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you can't take a bit. You don't think he explained to them what the tree of life was, what it meant, what it symbolized, its purpose. What this tree of the knowledge of good and evil symbolized, you know, what was its purpose. They were created as free moral agents. So, they had the deck stacked in their favor. Beautiful garden. God's with them. Thousands of trees, bushes, flowers. Only one thing over here, God says, stay away from. So, he gave them the ability to decide whether they would obey him or not. And guess what? They missed the mark. You know what the definition of sin is in the Bible? We always say transgressionally law, which is true. But in the Bible, it means to miss the mark. The mark is God's law. In other words, that's the bull's eye. That's what we should be doing. When you miss it, you sin. And so, they missed the mark.

Now, God allowed Satan in the form of a serpent to tempt them and to subvert God's will for mankind. Now, let's notice the story again here in chapter 3, that the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, lest you die.

Nor touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows something. He hasn't told you. He hasn't spilled the beans to you about everything yet. God knows in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be open, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. See, the one difference is, God has never experienced evil, meaning personally, he's never sinned.

He knows what evil is, he knows what good is, but he has never participated in the evil or the sin. Now with them, if they were to touch the tree, grab the tree, eat the tree, they would feel the effects of sin. They would feel the curse of sin. Now what the devil did, the devil appealed to Eve's vanity, convincing her she could be as God himself, knowing good and evil. Now today, human beings tend to think of themselves almost as a God. And, you know, that we have the right to decide what's right and wrong.

You can't tell me what's right or wrong. I will decide for myself, and this is the philosophy, especially in the Western world, that you see that people have. Satan, in a blatant lie, told Eve she didn't have to depend upon God. She could decide what is right and what is wrong. So what did Satan pose as? He came along and he posed as the Great Liberator, offering Eve instant gratification. You know, you can have it all. You don't need to get it from God. And he came along as the Liberator. How did he paint God? Well, God was holding things back from them, not allowing them to do what they want to do.

So what is the attitude of human beings today? Well, you can read it in Romans 1. Human beings think that if you keep God's law, that God's law is a chain. It binds you. It restricts you. It keeps you from what you want. If you want to have sex with every woman you lay eyes on, well, God's law says you can't do that. So God is telling you one thing. Your desires, your lusts might tell you something else.

You want to eat everything that quivers and wivers. I don't know what wiver is, but everything that quivers and quakes and you think might be good, will go at it. But God says, don't do that. But human beings say, well, I want to do it. So what are human beings actually saying? We're God. We will decide right from wrong. That attitude was conveyed at the very beginning. It's the attitude that has permeated society ever since. It's the attitude that we see. It's almost like it's under a magnifying glass today. And so Satan has convinced man that God is not right. He was willingly deceived by the appeal to her vanity.

So she ate the forbidden fruit, gave to her husband. He willingly ate along with her. And therefore, they were driven from the garden. So what did Satan's deception of Adam and Eve mean that Jesus Christ had to be born? What did that have to do with him having to be born? Because mankind, after Adam and Eve's sin, would have been eternally lost, cut off from God, no hope, doomed. Had not Jesus Christ come to the earth, lived a perfect life, allowed himself to be sacrificed to save mankind from their sins, which began with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

So therefore, he had to come and die for the sins of mankind. Now, how many people today, when they're out here observing Christmas, think of that. They're thinking, again, of a little baby in a manger. They're thinking of what? Greed, lust, what am I going to get? And so, you know, they want to keep Christmas.

I was struck by the other day, Fox News had this on-street interview of people about Christmas and what they knew about Christmas. And sad to say, very few people knew much about Christmas, quote-unquote, at all. Now, we live in what is called a Christian country, and yet Christians know just a tad about what they believe. And the younger generation is growing up, they have no knowledge whatsoever.

And so, the average person would not think, well, Christ had to be born. Yes, he was born. Why was he born? And come up with some of these reasons. Okay, a second reason why Christ had to be born. Jesus had to be born because God wanted to reveal his own character to mankind. Revealed to mankind what is righteous character? God wanted to reveal his righteous character to Adam and Eve, and to all mankind, so they would become like him and mind and spirit, an attitude and approach.

But we find that man, once he was driven out of the garden, and then driven out of Eden, and out in the world, so to speak, was cut off from God. What does the Bible say separates us from God? Our sins separate us from God. They are a barrier and a wall.

And so, when man sins, that cuts man off from God. Now, God created Adam and Eve in his own image, his own likeness. Back here in chapter 1, verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds and so on. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created man, male and female.

He created them. No other creature in the heavens, walking the earth, in the oceans, the waters, looks like God. Only man was created in the image of God. And man was created in God's image because God wanted man, not only physically, in other words, in shape and form, to look like God, but in character, in mind and attitude, and in approach, to look like God. And then, in the resurrection, to be given a spirit body so that we would then be on the same level, the spirit world, with God.

And I say the same level, that we would be in the same family. God is always more powerful. God gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to embrace his way, his wisdom, his approach. Tragically, Adam and Eve did what the rest of the world has done ever since. They said, you might say, the direction. They closed the barn door, and no one else has had the opportunity until God calls them. Adam and Eve chose to believe the father of lies, Satan the devil. They both hated the tree of the knowledge, good and evil.

And with this wrong choice from rebellion against God, it severed their relationship with God. They no longer had that intimate relationship with God. God cast them out of the Garden of Eden, cut them off from the tree of life, which was symbolic of God's Holy Spirit. Let's go over here to chapter 3 and verse 23. It says, therefore the Lord God, or verse 22 to start with, the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, to no good and evil.

And now lest he put out his hand, and take also the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. It would have been a curse to allow Adam and Eve to take the tree of life at that point. You would not want to live forever in rebellion against God, as Satan and his demons will do. So they had taken of the wrong tree, so God cut them off until he then would call.

You can't have it both ways. You and I, brethren, were called by God. We've been called and chosen. God has opened our minds to see the truth. And what does that do for us? Well, it gives us the opportunity.

We are confronted with the same choice that Adam and Eve had. Choose which tree. Are we going to continue to sit under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Or will we choose the tree of life? Once we choose the tree of life, you can't have it both ways. You can't go over here and take of this tree and go over here and take of that tree.

God wants us to partake of the tree of life. You can't expect to disobey and receive blessings and God to give you eternal life. That's what human beings want. They want to go their own way, do their own thing, and then have God give them eternal life. It doesn't work that way. We have to come, repent of this wrong tree, accept the right tree, and go the right way.

So why did God desire to reveal his own character to mankind?

Why does that mean that Jesus had to be born? Because Adam and Eve failed to carry out God's mandate to glorify him in their lives, to live, to make the right choice. It was left up to the Son of God thousands of years later to ultimately fulfill that responsibility to come to the earth, to live a perfect life, to show what it would be like for God to live in the flesh, to show what the purpose of mankind is, and then to die so that our sins could be forgiven. Brethren, God lives on earth today in his church. We are the body of Christ on earth today, and we are to show forth, we are to be a revelation of the character of God to all humanity, to all human beings. They should see God's character in our life. So Christ came to show the right way to live. Now, Jesus Christ, a third reason, had to be born to remove the sins of mankind through a perfect sacrifice, to remove the sins of man through a perfect sacrifice.

Now, the ancient patriarchs, you might remember before the flood even, Noah, sacrificed. You find Abel offering up his sacrifice in Cain. The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they personally offered up sacrifices to God. God asked Abraham, who is called the Father of the Faithful, to sacrifice his own son. We know that that was a foreshadow of what God the Father was going to do, that God so loved the world that he was willing to give his only begotten son, that God gave his son. And Abraham, doing what he did with Isaac, was a type of God the Father, being willing to give his son. Isaac was a forerunner of Jesus Christ. Now, hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ, during the time of Moses, the time of ancient Israel, when God called them out, God established a religious system. It was a system that involved the tabernacle, it involved sacrifices, it involved a priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, and it included animal sacrifices and offerings. Let's go over here to Exodus 25, Exodus the 25th chapter. And I want you to notice, beginning in verse 8, Exodus chapter 25, and we will read here in verse 8. It says, Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them, God says. So God wants them to make a sanctuary, according to all that I show you.

That is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all of its furniture, just so you shall make it. And so he goes on through almost the rest of this book, giving instructions on how to make the various elements of the tabernacle.

So God instructed his people during this time, set up the tabernacle, and that tent, or that physical tabernacle, was a forerunner of the temple. It's what they carried with them in the wilderness. They could not build a tabernacle, a physical building, pick it up and carry it. They were wandering for 40 years. So God gave them a temporary tabernacle. And then later on, once they were established, ensconced in the land, he allowed them to build a tabernacle, or excuse me, a temple. Now let's notice in chapter 40, chapter 40 of this book in verse 34, that once the tabernacle was set up, that God filled the tabernacle with his glory. Chapter 40 in verse 34. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter into the tabernacle of meeting because of the cloud rested upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And wherever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. And the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all of the house of Israel throughout their journey. Now how could they doubt that God was not with them? I mean, they saw the glory of God, and they knew that He was there. But they still doubted God. Brethren, how can we doubt that God is with us?

Now you might say, well, we don't see a flaming fire over our house at night, and a cloud over it by day. But you know, what does the New Testament say? We walk by faith, not by sight. We find that faith is stronger than sight. If you and I truly have faith, then we should be stronger than those Israelites were. Because we know there is a God. We know that what God says we need to do. Now let's back up here to verse 1 of this chapter, Exodus 40.

It says, Thus the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tenon meeting, and you shall put in it the ark of the testimony, partitioned off the ark with a veil. They were to bring the table of showbread in, and the lampstand, verse 5, you shall set up the altar of gold in the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put on the screen for the door of the tabernacle. Then you shall set the altar of the burnt offering before the door at the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. So God had them to set up the tabernacle. And again, this is something I would like to cover with the church here, because I think it's one of the more interesting studies you see in the Bible. There was a courtyard. There was a fence around, and then there was a tent in the middle. And in the courtyard, there was the altar, burnt offering, and a laver containing water.

This is where they offered up the sacrifices every morning, every evening. And sometimes, they would offer up, especially on the Holy Days, many offerings were killed there. God's Spirit in the earthly tabernacle pointed, God's presence there, pointed forward to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the hearts and the minds of Christians. Let's notice in Ephesians chapter 2. Let's go over here to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 18. You might remember the analogy here. Ephesians 2, 18. For through him we both have access by the Spirit to the Father. Now therefore, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, talking about the Gentiles, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. So we, as a group, as a church, we are the temple of God today, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So God dwelt in the tabernacle. God dwelt in the temple later on. Later, his presence left, and it's not until there was a new tabernacle built, the New Testament Church, that we have become the dwelling place of God. Each one of us individually, God dwells at us individually, and collectively as a whole, we are the dwelling place of God. Now, why did the need for a perfect sacrifice mean that Jesus had to be born? Well, because of the earlier physical sacrifices were imperfect. God commanded them in the Old Testament to offer up the sacrifices, but they could not do away with sin. Let's notice in Hebrews 10, the book of Hebrews chapter 10, we'll read in verse 4, Hebrews chapter 10 in verse 4. It's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. That was not the purpose of those sacrifices. But let's notice in verse 5, therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me, and burn offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come in the volume of the book it has written of me to do your will, O God. Now, previously saying sacrifices and offering and burn offering and offerings for sin, you did not desire nor have pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law. Then he said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that he might establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified. We've been set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

So you and I have been set apart by Christ's sacrifice. God instructed the Israelites in the need of sacrificing, but they had access only to the physical forerunner of the true sacrifice, the real sacrifice, who was to come later. That was Jesus Christ. So God instructed his people in the participation, the physical ritual of animal sacrifices, not because they were sufficient to cover people's sins, but because of the lessons they taught that sacrifices were necessary because of mankind's sin. You see, those physical sacrifices reminded them that they had a need for a Savior. And every time a sacrifice was offered up, it should have pointed to the fact that somebody had to come without blemish, who could offer up shed his life, now life being in the blood, for the sins of mankind. Jesus had to be born because without the true sacrifice, man was doomed. All would die with no hope, but he came and he gave himself as a living sacrifice. Okay, let's look at another reason why Jesus Christ had to be born. Jesus had to be born for mankind to have a mediator, for us to have a mediator. Jesus Christ is the mediator, the New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, God replaced the sacrifices that were made by the Levitical priesthood with the ultimate sacrifice of himself. Let's read in Hebrews 8, back up to chapter 8 and verse 6. Chapter 8 and verse 6 says, But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, and as much as he is also a mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. So Jesus Christ is the mediator of a better covenant. Why is it better? Because it has better promises. It has the hope of forgiveness of sins, the receiving of God's Holy Spirit, the offer of eternal life.

You find that a mediator is one who helps or causes parties to come to an agreement.

Jesus Christ is a mediator between God and man, and through his sacrifice he is able to break down the barriers. Our sins are forgiven. And you and I can come and have harmony between us and God. We can have access to God. A mediator also is one who brings about peace between two parties, and you and I can live at peace with God. We're no longer his enemies. We're no longer fighting him, but we can be at peace with him. Notice verse 10.

It says, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I put my laws in their minds, write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

So what are the terms of the new covenant? Well, God is going to write his law in our hearts. The law written in the hearts of a believer under the terms of the new covenant is an immutable spiritual law of God. It's the same thing that the apostle Paul wrote about back here in Romans 7 and verse 12. Romans 7 verse 12, when he said, The law is holy, the commandment is holy, and just and good. Nothing wrong with God's spiritual law. Verse 14, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, and I am sold under sin. God writes that law in our hearts and our minds.

That law, the Ten Commandments, serves as the basis of the covenant. Psalm 19 and verse 7 tells us that the law of God is perfect, converting the soul. So what is it that helps change us, brethren? How do we know how we should change?

Well, the law of God shows us. There are times, and perhaps in the past, we used to hate people. God's law says we are to love people, even our enemies. It tells us to pray for our enemies. So God's law points the right way. So the understanding that Jesus Christ is a mediator between God and mankind makes it easier for us to realize that Jesus Christ's ministry is a superior administration. Let's back up here. Let's go back to the book of Hebrews again. This time, Hebrews chapter 9.

Let's notice that to understand, you and I, as believers, have to have our conscience purged from dead works.

And reading here in verse 14, it says, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? For this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of transgression under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal life. And so Jesus Christ did perform that function for us. So, brethren, why is there a need for a mediator? Why does that have to do with Jesus Christ having to be born? Because the priesthood that was staffed by the Levites in the Old Testament was imperfect. The sacrifices they offered was imperfect. They were never meant to truly forgive all the man's sins. They pointed to a future tabernacle, a future Savior. So, it was only a forerunner. Jesus had to be born because of salvation of mankind required something better and required the coming of the Holy Spirit. So, that's another reason why Jesus Christ had to be born. Now, let's look at a fifth reason. Jesus had to be born to provide the promised seed that was promised to Abraham. God promised to Abraham that through his seed or his descendant, all nations of the world would be blessed. That summarized for us back here in the book of Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Let's go over here to Galatians 3.13. And I want you to notice here, Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for as it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So Christ was crucified, put on a stake, and the curse of the law is death. So he was willing to die for mankind. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it's only a man's covenant, yet it is confirmed. No one annuls it or adds to it. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. And he does not say to seeds, in other words, to many descendants, but to Abraham and his seed, and he says, and he does not say to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, and Paul adds, who is Christ? So Christ was the promise seed to come. So through faith in God, in his name, all nations have access to God's mercy and forgiveness and reconciliation to God as our Father. We find that God is no respecter of persons in the Bible. In Acts chapter 10, let's go back to Acts 10 and verse 34. Acts 10 and verse 34.

It says, Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. Now, I think King James' version talks about favoritism or partiality or respecter of person. But in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. So those who fear God work righteousness. Now, the word here talks about not being a respecter or person, but the word means favoritism. It means one who unjustly treats one person better than another just because of who they are. In God's plan, all people, all races, all nations, all ethnic groups are going to ultimately have their chance at salvation. God is going to give it to all mankind. Now, what God did in the Old Testament, he chose one nation. He chose Israel, composed of the 12 tribes. They were to be his example. They were to be his beacon. They were to be blessed by God. Think what the earth would have been like if that one nation had truly obeyed God, kept his law, had no sickness, you know, had very little crime, dealt with it the way God said to deal with it, no jails. What did I hear today? One quarter of the people in jail on earth are in the United States. That's a staggering number.

When you begin to think about it, there's something wrong in our country and among our people, and you have that many people who are locked up. Think about a nation where babies, women who gave birth to children, never had any of them die, where disease would be eliminated, crops would be abundant, almost like the millennium. All the nations of the earth out here are suffering sickness and disease, starvation and drought, and they come up to Israel and they say, why? What are you doing? They would tell them about God and obeying God. They would have been an example to all the other nations. Instead, what did they do?

Well, they imitated the nations around them. We want a king like all the other countries have, and they worshiped Baal and Moloch and went after the gods of the nations around them. So, brethren, we find that God today is not working through one nation. God calls people out of every nation. It doesn't matter what nationality. Let's notice in Galatians 3 again, verse 26. Galatians chapter 3, verse 26. Well, verse 28, actually. Let's notice. Verse 28 says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise, the promise made to Abraham.

So, it doesn't matter if you are a Gentile, a Greek, or a Jew, a slave or a free man. Male or female. I look around the room, and obviously, there are some of you here who are female. There are some of you who are male, and we can tell distinctly the difference in male and female. So, it doesn't mean gender disappears. It doesn't mean nationality disappears. But in Christ, in other words, in His Church, none of that matters. We stand before God. We all have His Spirit, and we stand before God, being judged for what we do with what God has given to us. Now, notice here it says, we become Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Now, the key here is heir. Do you know what an heir is? He is one who is to inherit possessions. Now, what is it that you and I are going to inherit? Well, the promise is made to Abraham. It's one thing. It says, let's go back to Romans 8, verse 14. Romans chapter 8, verse 14.

It says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. So you and I are the sons of God. In verse 17, and if we are the children of God, well, verse 16, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then we're heirs. We are heirs of God. So whatever it is that our Father possesses, He's going to share with us.

And joint heirs with Christ. Indeed, we suffer with Him that we also may be glorified together. The word joint heirs means to inherit something together. So whatever Christ inherited, you and I will inherit. And what has He inherited? All things. The book of Hebrews chapter 1. Jesus Christ has inherited the universe. You and I are going to be joint heirs with Him. God will give us a spirit body. We will be elevated to the family of God, and we will rule with Him. Now, under the Old Covenant, God chose a physical nation, as I said. Today, God has chosen people out of all nations. We are spiritual Israel today, the Israel of God. So Jesus had to be born to provide the promised spiritual fulfillment of the seed that God said through Abraham.

Abraham was to have nations come from him, but he was also to have a seed. And so, in order for that promise to be fulfilled, Jesus quite appropriately was literally a physical descendant of Abraham. He was Abraham's seed through whom all nations of the world will be blessed.

With that in mind, let's look at another reason. Jesus had to be born for God to give mankind His Holy Spirit so that mankind would have the Holy Spirit of God. Not only did Christ had to be born, he had to live a perfect life, he had to die, and he had to be resurrected in a sin back to the Father. Then, and then only, could mankind receive the benefit of the gift of God's Holy Spirit. It was then that he would receive that. Notice in the book of Acts, Acts 2, Acts 2 and verse 32. Acts 2 verse 32.

This Jesus, as God raised up of which we are witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received—notice something, because Christ did rise, go back to the Father—he received something. He received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

What has He done with that? And He poured out this which you now see and hear. On the day of Pentecost, He poured out the Holy Spirit on the 120, and then it was given to the 3,000. And so there were hundreds and thousands of people who were converted. He made it possible for the Holy Spirit to come on the day of Pentecost. That's what this was. Only a few weeks later, Jesus Christ, who had died, had been resurrected, poured out the Holy Spirit on them.

Now Peter in Acts 2.38 summarize what we all have to do to receive that Holy Spirit. Repent. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now why was Jesus Christ's physical birth necessary before His followers would receive the Holy Spirit? Because physically speaking, no one on earth is worthy to receive God's Spirit. You think back before God called you, were you worthy to receive God's Spirit? I certainly was not. None of us are of ourselves, are we?

So how do we become worthy? How can we receive God's Spirit? Well, we have to repent. We have to be sorry. We have to change. We have to strive to keep God's law. God has to grant us repentance. And if we are sorry, we're baptized, we rise up through the laying on of hands, God will give us His Holy Spirit. So Christ's death and His ultimate resurrection, His sacrifice, made this possible for us. This enables us, in turn, to receive God's Spirit, to begin to overcome, and enables us to have the mind of God, to change. So without the birth of Jesus Christ, none of this would have happened. So through Jesus Christ, God has restored that which was lost at the Garden of Eden. There were a couple of things that were lost at that time. A right relationship with God. You and I can have a right, proper relationship with God, and we can have access to the Tree of Life. You and I today have access to the Tree of Life. Through the sacrifice of Christ, God restored the right relationship with mankind. In 2 Corinthians 6, 16, 2 Corinthians 6, verse 16, 1 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, and I will walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

God has made it possible for all human beings, once they repent, to have a right relationship with Him. This could not have been possible without Christ being born, and everything that followed with that. Then we come down to actually one final point, that is that Jesus had to be born for God to redeem mankind. For us to be redeemed, in other words, bought and paid for, there had to be a sacrifice. You and I have all been slaves to sin, slaves to the devil, slaves to our own human nature. Now, if somebody is a slave, and you want to free them, you have to redeem them. That means there has to be a price paid for them. So, what was the price that was paid for us? Well, again, it was Christ's sacrifice. And so Christ was willing to do that. So we know that the Bible says, all have sinned, come short of the glory of God, the wages of sin is death. And so we all need to be redeemed, bought and paid for. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ did. So, you know, we could go through a number of scriptures, but I think we all understand that. So, brethren, we are not keeping Christmas. Millions of people today will be focused. Again, as I said to start with, on this time of the year, they'll focus on a baby in the manger. That's as far as their thoughts go. They think of a nativity scene. They go out and buy gifts. They think of a family. For them, that's all this is. It's sort of like Thanksgiving. Family get together. We don't celebrate the date of his birth or his birthday or Christmas. We know that he's resurrected, that he's a spirit being, that he's ascended to heaven, that he is our high priest today. He intervenes on our behalf. He lives in us. And so we understand that. But we also know that he did come to the earth, that he was God in the flesh, and that he had to be born. So, brethren, unlike those around us who, as a general rule, have no real understanding of why Christ had to be born, you and I need to know and understand fully why Christ had to be born, and as a result of that, what it has accomplished for all mankind.