“In Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Colossians 2:9)

Back in college, I was on a concert tour and we visited the Mormon Temple grounds. We took a tour of the Life of Christ building. The tour was a walking tour that stopped at various paintings of different stages along the timeline of Christ’s life here on Earth. The very first stop was a picture of Jesus in the temple at the age of 12.

The tour guide began to explain the wisdom of Jesus and his ability to teach at such a young age. My bandmate Dennis asked, “I’m curious why this is the first painting we are starting at. What about the Nativity?” The tour guide answered, “We believe that the teaching of Jesus was really the most important part of his life and not all the cultural things that Christmas has become.”

At that, my friend said, “But wouldn’t the fact of Jesus being born to a virgin be significant? Wouldn’t it prove that he is God? I think that would be incredibly important to who Jesus is.” And with that, the tour guide answered, “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” and quickly led us right on to the next painting. You know, my bandmate was so right. When we confess Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, we are confessing Jesus’s divinity and his sinlessness.

Colossians 2:9 says, “In Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Jesus is the Son of God. When we confess that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, we are acknowledging that Jesus was true man, Jesus is the Son of Man. Both of these truths teach us that Jesus is perfect in relationship to God the Father and perfect in his relationship to us.

What’s truly amazing about this fact is how it demonstrates God’s longing to communicate his identity to us. John 1:18 points out, “No one has ever seen God. But Jesus, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.”

Prayer
Lord Jesus, we do celebrate that You are truly the Son of God and You are truly the Son of Man.

And in this incredible gift, You were given to this earth to take away our sins. And You have become that perfect sacrifice for all that we have done wrong, even though You were without sin. We thank You for taking our sins to the cross, and for paying for those sins and setting us free. Thank you for revealing to us who God really is and the love he has for us.

It’s in Jesus’ name we pray these things. Amen.