His birth in history. “The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He didn’t evolve out of history; he came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ isn’t the best human being; he is a Being who can’t be accounted for by humanity at all. He isn’t man becoming God; he is God incarnate, God coming into human flesh from the outside. His life is the highest and the holiest, entering through the lowliest door. Our Lord’s birth was an advent, an arrival with no precedent.
His birth in me. “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from the outside, so he must come into me from the outside. Have I allowed my personal life to become a Bethlehem for the Son of God? I can’t enter into the realm of the kingdom of God unless I’m born again from above in a birth totally unlike natural birth.
Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This isn’t a command; it’s a statement of fact, the fact upon which our entrance into the kingdom depends. The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. The instant he is formed in me, his nature begins to work through me. God manifest in my flesh: this is what is made possible for you and for me by the redemption.
