Christ is born!
Glorify Him!
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:4-7)
St Paul tells us that we have been adopted as God’s children through and because of the incarnation – God’s becoming human so that we might share in the divine life. By becoming God’s children, by being deified by God in Christ, we become fully human – human as God intended us to be from the beginning. The birth of Christ is thus the new birth of humanity: redeemed, renewed and restored. In this way, Christmas is personal for us for it means each of us being made human again. The Word of God becomes flesh – becomes human – so that we each might have our humanity restored to us. In Christ’s birth, humanity is also born again, so at Christmas we are also celebrating our rebirth. St Nikolai Velimirovich comments:
The God-man has demonstrated and proved this most convincingly: man is only a true man when he is completely united with God, and in everything in every way completely lives in God, thinks in God, feels in God, acts in God, is virtuous in God, is immortal in God, the eternal in God. Only and solely in God is man a man, a true man, a perfect man, a man in whom all the fullness of the Godhead lives. We can analyze this fundamental, evangelic, Divine-human truth about man.
The soul of man? – Only and solely as the Divine soul in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal.
The mind of man? – Only and solely as the Divine mind in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal.
The heart of man? – Only and solely as the Divine heart in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal.
The conscience of man? – Only and solely as the Divine conscience in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal.
The will of man? – Only and solely as the divine will in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal.
The body of man? – Only and solely as the Divine body in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal.
The life of man? – Only and solely as the divine life in the God-man does it become and forever remain sinless, immortal, God-like, holy, perfect eternal. (THE STRUGGLE FOR FAITH, p 104)
Christ becomes human to make us all human again – as God created us in God’s image and likeness. As we sing for the Feast of the Nativity:
BEHOLDING HIM WHO WAS IN GOD’S IMAGE AND LIKENESS FALLEN THROUGH TRANSGRESSION, JESUS BOWED THE HEAVENS AND CAME DOWN, WITHOUT CHANGE TAKING UP HIS DWELLING IN A VIRGIN WOMB: THAT HE MIGHT REFASHION ADAM FALLEN IN CORRUPTION, AND CRYING OUT: GLORY TO YOUR EPIPHANY, MY SAVIOR AND MY GOD!
Fraternized 