Isn’t it amazing to think when God made His promise to Adam, Eve and satan in the garden, that it had already been fulfilled?!?  The seed of woman who would crush the head of the enemy was not a future plan for God, He was THE plan all along!  And He was already present!

How does God and man exist in one being?  This is a challenging question for even the most mature Christian.  And it is indeed a mystery in many ways!  But as mentioned in the introduction, to not study and grasp as much as our finite minds can, is to risk a misunderstanding about Jesus’s humanity and his role as Savior in our lives, or to misunderstand Jesus as God and his role as our Creator and Lord for our lives.  Both are important to His work and being and we would be severely remiss to not work to understand this as much as we can.

Day 1

• Even before Jesus’s birth, the understanding that this was God was evident. 
• Read Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38.
  • What in the passages indicates that the baby to come to Mary and Joseph would indeed be God?
  • What in the passage indicates that the baby to come to Mary and Joseph would indeed be a baby?
• The angel coming to declare the birth of a baby to Mary and Joseph speaks to the uniqueness of this baby already!  Gabriel meets with both Joseph and Mary both but with Joseph, his visit is quite different than the visit with Mary.  Mary had the signs of being pregnant which causes Joseph to consider divorce.  While the baby coming to Mary is special indeed, he was growing in the womb just like any other baby!  But Gabriel tells them both that this child is to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and will be the Son of God.  Joseph has no need to worry about Mary’s pregnancy.  There is not another man responsible for this growing baby, it is God alone who is responsible!
• Consider both names of this new baby:  Immanuel and Jesus.  They speak to both His humanity and His deity.
• Read Isaiah 7:14. 
  • What name does the prophet say will be given to the child born of a virgin?  Does this name indicate His humanity or deity or both?
• Read Matthew 1:21 and Luke 1:31.
  • What name does Gabriel tell Mary and Joseph to name their new son?
  • What does this name mean?  (For a clue look to Matthew 1:21.)
• Jesus is the Greek name for Joshua and means “the Lord saves”.  Because we know how Jesus accomplishes salvation for us through His death and resurrection, does the name Jesus point to His humanity or deity or both?
• Isn’t it amazing that God would take care of every detail!  Even the names of this baby as both Jesus and as Immanuel fully encapsulate who He is.  He is both God and man!

Day 2

• Let’s take a final look at Jesus before His birth and see His humanity and deity already on display again, but now it is someone else other than Mary or Joseph that understand how special this baby truly will be!
• Read about Mary’s visit with her cousin Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-45.
  • What in this part of the story of Jesus indicates that the baby Mary is carrying is God?
  • What in this part of the story also indicates that Jesus is a growing baby?
  • How do Mary and Elizabeth’s pregnancies seem to be the same and like any other normal pregnancy?
  • How are Mary and Elizabeth’s pregnancies different from one another?
• Even John was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb (Luke 1:15), but this is not the same as being conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Even John from the womb knew that Jesus was unlike any other baby and John was still in the womb too!
• One of the early church fathers, Maximus of Turin, once wrote, “Not yet born, John prophesies”.  Philip Ryken comments in his writing on the Magnificat, “John the Baptist was the only child ever to use the womb for a pulpit.”   John did what every other prophet before him had done.  He prophesied of the God-man to come.  And he did it from the most unusual place ever!  While Jesus grew just like John did from a miniscule grouping of atoms to a full- fledged infant, even John knew that his Lord was present with him.  And so did his mother!  Jesus was not a human until a certain point of time and then became God as well, he started as both human and God from the very beginning!
• Today as you consider Jesus as a baby, growing in His mother’s womb just like another baby, reflect on that baby as God. 
  • Does this change your perspective on the birth of Jesus and if so, how?
  • How does knowing that Jesus was clearly both God and man from the very beginning deepen your appreciation of His birth this Christmas season?

Day 3

• Before we look at the birth of Jesus, let’s consider another miraculous birth, although miraculous for a different reason.
• Read Genesis 2:5-7.
  • What does God create Adam from?
  • What does God do to give Adam life?
• Read Genesis 1:26.
  • Whose image and likeness is man being made in?  (Notice the use of the plural pronoun in this verse.  Who is “us” and “our”?)
• Read Colossians 1:16.
  • Where does all creation come from?
  • Who is all creation for?
  • Who must have created Adam?
• That is an interesting conclusion to draw isn’t it?!  Jesus is the One by which all things were created, including Adam!  While Adam is created not from another human, his existence is not like Jesus’s.  Jesus created Adam!
• Read John 1:3, Romans 11:36 and 1 Corinthians 8:6.
  • How are these verses like the verse from Colossians?
• Remember when I said this idea of Jesus as both God and man is a mystery?  Well, this is one of the most profound mysteries!  Jesus created Adam!  Adam is a man from the dust and was unable to do what Jesus can do for us.  Adam was led astray through temptation to sin, but Jesus, while He was also tempted, was never led astray!  Adam would never be the man that would save us from our sins.  It would only ever be Jesus and He has always been present as God.

Day 4

• Let’s spend today looking closely at the birth of Jesus.  It is the Christmas season after all!
• Read both stories of Jesus’s birth in Matthew 2:1-12 and Luke 2:1-20.
  • In these two accounts, how do you know that Jesus was a real, live baby?
  • What about Jesus’s birth indicates that this is not a normal baby?
• Think again to yesterday’s lesson about the birth of Adam.  (Read again Genesis 2:5-7 for a refresher)
  • Consider the birth story of Jesus.  What does God create the man Jesus from?
  • What does God do to give Jesus life?
  • What similarities and differences are you able to find between the birth story of Adam and the birth story of Jesus?
• Read John 1:1-18 and Colossians 1:15-17.
  • How does the understanding that John provides about who Jesus was help explain the differences in Adam’s birth as the first man and Jesus’s birth as the “Son of Man”?
• What did Adam’s existence require to begin and to be maintained?
• While Adam and Jesus are both “firsts” of their kind, just like Jesus and John were distinctly different, so are Adam and Jesus.  Adam is formed from the dust in the ground, Jesus IS. There is nothing that God creates Jesus from, because He has always been.  Adam requires the breath of life to live, Jesus is the creator and sustainer of all things.  John records that “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (v2).  Adam could not have existed without Jesus and Adam’s life could not have continued without Jesus for Paul writes in Colossians that “all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (v16b-17).
• Read Romans 5:12.
  • Who is the man that Paul speaks of in this verse that has brought sin into the world and by it death to all men because all men now sin?
• Read Romans 5:18-19. 
  • Two men are being compared in these verses.  One that brought transgression into the world and a man who brings righteousness to the world.
  • Who are these two men?
  • How does this contrast help explain Jesus as a man but also as God?
• Read Genesis 3:15.
  • How do you see the promise of God fulfilled in the baby Jesus? 
  • How can you see the need from God’s promise to be both a man and God combined?

Day 5

• Today is all about reflection as you close out your advent study.  It has been quite an adventure!  We have looked at the faithfulness of God to keep all of His promises, even when we don’t keep ours.  We have seen the way God deals with His people through covenants as He works to restore all things back to Himself.  But covenanting with man presents problems.  No man is ever able to uphold the righteous ways of God and instead needs a mediator of a very special kind.  We needed God, Himself to intervene on our behalf!
• I love Romans 5:8.  It says that God demonstrated His own love for us that while we were yet still dead in our transgressions, Christ died for us.  God did not wait to see if we would get our act together before figuring out a plan to redeem us.  He knew we were hopelessly lost to turn from our sin without His miraculous intervention in our lives.  But we also needed someone we could relate to, who understood us and the affliction we battle because of sin.  We needed someone we could watch in every stage of life, just as we live it.  We needed a human, but we also needed God.  Praise Him, for providing exactly what we needed, and right when we needed it most!
  • How has this study helped you understand the bigger picture of the Bible’s story of God and man?
  • How have you grown in your understanding of Jesus as both God and man?
  • Does His humanity or His deity most resonate with you this Christmas season and why might that be?
  • What about Jesus could be misunderstood or overlooked if too much emphasis is placed on either Jesus as human or Jesus as God?
  • What can you do to keep a balance of understanding of both of these natures present in Jesus?
  • As you consider the birth of Jesus this Christmas season, what about Him are you most grateful for this year?