The real deal!
So many times, we see in our world where there is a substitution for real thing. You hear commercials all the time that portray an item in a manner which does not provide you or me with the real deal, but instead an imitation. One such portrayal that comes to mind is the statement, “I can’t believe its not butter!” Now if I am looking to use butter in a recipe, I do not want to be lowering my standard by getting a product that only appears to be like butter. There are other products available to the consumer such as imitation flavors, fruit juices, flowers, animals, wood, or cheeses. So many times, it is hard for us to decipher what is real and what is not real in today’s world.
The one thing we can completely and confidently depend on being real is the Babe of Bethlehem as the very Son of God, born in the flesh. He came to this world as “Immanuel”, God with us. This was not an angel, a man called to be a prophet, or any other representation of the Lord God Almighty. No, He was God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, who became a human being.
Although Jesus, was very much like any other human there was one thing that was significantly different about Him. This child, born of a woman, born under the Law was without sin. Conceived not by man, but of the Spirit, Jesus came into this world not carrying the curse of original sin. This was how Jesus, as God in flesh, would one day be able to offer Himself up as the perfect, sinless sacrifice, on our behalf. By His real wounds and death on a cross you and I have been healed.
There may be a lot of imitations being offered to you and me in our world. They may seem real on the surface, but when you do a little investigation into their validity, you find out their real identity. In Jesus Christ there is no hiddenness, façade, or falsity, only the real deal. Thanks be to God for sending His true Son, to live and die in the flesh, as one of us, so we might have the joy of sharing in the gift of eternal He has won for you and me. Pastor McCarty