ICS Daily Devotions
Immanuel – God with Us
Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
The Old Testament people were not able to see God face to face because the holiness of God and the sin of man separated them. God’s presence was in the form of the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. The knowledge about God was passed down by oral tradition. The law taught them about the holiness of God and caused them to know their inadequacy in standing right before God. Therefore, it pushed them to seek after the grace of God and the coming of Jesus would be good news to them.
John1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
God in His wisdom established a covenant with Abraham so that His only Son was able to rightfully walk among man and to be the ultimate sacrifice for mankind. Jesus came to declare to man the good news of the gospel, the character of God and the power of God when He ministered among the people.
Hebrews 1:1-3a God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power,
Jesus was the word that became flesh and walked among us. It is a declaration and revelation of who God is because Jesus told His disciples that if they see Him then they are actually also seeing the Father. Jesus and the Father, are one. He was the exact image of the father and the brightness of His glory. The word of Jesus carried power because the whole world was put into place by His word. The same power that was uttered during the time of creation was available when He was walking on earth. In fact, the written word of God has the same power and we are to put our faith in the word because it is the word of God that gives substance to our faith.
We will experience Immanuel, God with us when we know that all that God has belongs to us and all that we have belongs to God in a covenant relationship. He is working in and through us by the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the Godhead. He promised to never leave or forsake us.
Sermon Series: Christmas
