The Meaning of Christmas

Jesus chose to become man to show us that he doesn’t just want to save us, but that he loves us. And he knew that in the incarnation and the crucifixion, there would be no greater way to show us that he loves us, than to become man and then go to the cross and die for us. “For greater love hath no one than this, that he lay down his life for someone else / for his friends” (see John 15:13). So God wanted to show us that he loves us, and he does that through the incarnation and the cross. Jesus also becomes one of us to teach us how to love him back! How to be holy and to give ourselves totally to God.

His name, Jesus, literally means “the Lord saves,” Yeshua’. Yasha is to save in Hebrew, Yahweh is the Hebrew name for God or for the Lord, so if we put Ye or Ya and shua together you get the Lord saves. Second: the other aspect about this is just the emphasis once again on the virginal conception, that Jesus is not just the adopted son of the Davidic family, of the royal family of Joseph and the royal family of David, and therefore the heir to the Davidic throne, he’s also the divine son of God, he’s the divine son of God conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he is called Immanuel, God with us.