The Sign of the Born Saviour

“And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12).

This month of the year directs us to the time of the birth of Christ. This was the time determined by God as the fullness of time when He sent forth His Son, born of the virgin Mary. For this time the saints of the Old Testament dispensation had longed because the coming of the Saviour in the flesh had been foretold and promised.

The shepherds in Ephratah’s fields keeping watch over their flock heard the joyful tiding of the fulfillment of this. The angel of the Lord descending from heaven spoke to the fearful shepherds as the glory of the Lord shone round about them saying, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” After their fear, what joy must have filled the hearts of the shepherds.

No matter how dark it may be in the heart, God fulfills the promise at His time, so that man, with all the expectations which he entertains on his side, is laid low. The work of God in the salvation of sinners goes through impossibilities on man’s side in order for God alone to receive the honor.

It will be great grace, and only grace, when we may look for and long for the coming of Him in our personal life. It is necessary for our salvation that God not only sent His Son but that we believe in Him. The giving of that faith is God’s work alone, for it is a gift of God.

For the shepherds the joyful tidings heard from the mouth of the heavenly messenger were accompanied by a sign which would point out the Saviour to them. A sign is visible and serves to mark out or indicate a certain thing. What would the shepherds see? It was a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. What a striking contrast this is with what is made of the Christmas observance today. Much of the observance of Christmas today indicates that nothing is understood of the significance of the sign, the Child lying in the manger.

The shepherds could not make a mistake since this was an exceptional sign of especially poor circumstances. Such a lowly birth was of particular significance for those who lived a simple life because of their calling. The Saviour, a Child? This was something not to be comprehended by reason or understanding. It was only to be admired and adored by faith as the apostle exclaimed, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16b).

May He, who is a Light to lighten the Gentiles, shine upon and enlighten us with His Spirit so that we with the shepherds might by His Word see and understand in this sign the significance of the Christmas gospel. Only then shall the Lord be magnified and praised, and then shall there be a taste of the rejoicing in God my Saviour (Luke 1:47). This sign proclaims to us the good pleasure of God in the salvation of sinners, to the glory of all God’s attributes in their perfections. This sign is the revelation of God’s counsel.

Adam, in whom the entire human race was comprehended and who was the father and covenant head of all people, was created after God’s image and has through the fall and disobedience separated himself from God and His communion. This becomes evident in the lives of all even though the outward evidences can be so different. Our lost condition reveals itself in our enmity and hatred against God. Because of sin God has become our Judge. He in whom is perfect righteousness which is maintained by Him, must punish sin with temporal and eternal punishment of body and soul. From man’s side there is no restoration conceivable to give satisfaction to the demand of righteousness.

When, by the light of the Spirit, this is impressed upon your soul and understanding, you will comprehend the prayer of those in the Old Testament: “Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens” (Isaiah 64:1a). By our guilt we have barred the access to God. This sign proclaims the incomprehensible wonder that God now has devised and opened this access to Himself in the Child Jesus in the manger.

Is this possible without satisfaction of His justice? The sign of the Child is precisely the revelation of God’s love and mercy in the glorification of divine righteousness and holiness. The love of God is never revealed in a world lying lost in guilt, other than in a way in which God’s justice in regard to sin is also proclaimed. It was for this that the Father out of eternal love has given His Son. It was for this that the Son has given Himself as Mediator to make satisfaction for the sins of His people. It was for this that the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary in order that the Holy One born of her would be called the Son of God. The love of the Triune God is revealed in this sign.

Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger of the animals, He has from eternity, in love to God and the divine attributes and in love to His people, given Himself as Surety, freely humbling Himself to come as a Man into this world. He came as a sinless One to suffer and to die in order that He, by His mediatorial merits, would make perfect satisfaction to the justice of God which has been violated by sin.

In this sign of humility and poverty, He was pointed out to the shepherds. The Mediator, although He was rich became poor, not out of compulsion but willingly so that by His poverty He might make others rich. Already centuries before, the prophet Isaiah had foretold, “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:2b-3a). The sign given to the shepherds by the angel was the sign by which they would recognize their Saviour.

“Great joy”—the Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Is that also your message in the Christmas season in the observance of this great event? Then, in this sign, you shall see in Him with eyes of faith that which the shepherds have seen in Him. Then, with the shepherds you will be driven to the manger by the Spirit as a poor and lost one in yourself, condemned by divine justice, to see the Lamb of God which takes away your sin.

May the proclamation of Christmas with this sign drive you out to see by faith this Child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger, and cause you to cry out, “We have seen that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, who has given Himself for our sins.” This is the great joy of every one who has received this sign by faith. Then they see Him as the fairest among the children of men, into whose lips grace is poured. He is the sign given of God, and in Him is refuge and place for the greatest of sinners.

Especially in the Christmas season, this sign given of God is made known and proclaimed everywhere. Has it been received by you, as with the shepherds, by faith with great joy so that in the poverty of the Child you have found riches, in His humiliation you have found exaltation, in His helplessness you have found your help, in His grief you have found gladness, in His revilement you have found preservation? Or do you, like Ahaz, refuse this sign? Shall this sign given of God be a sign which shall be spoken against by you?

This Child, proclaimed in the sign of His humiliation, shall one day come upon the clouds in the sign of His exaltation, surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand angels, to judge the quick and the dead. That will be a day when all contradiction will be silenced eternally.

How blessed are those who by grace may have found in the sign of this humiliated Surety and Saviour their preservation and salvation! They shall be discovered to the opposition in their heart, and, groaning because of it, shall as enemies be reconciled with God through Him who in His humiliation had to bear the gainsaying of sinners against Himself.

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