“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” (Matthew 1:23)
“Never let us for a moment hesitate as to the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, for His Deity is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. It may be we shall never understand fully how God and man could unite in one person, for who can by searching find out God.
These great mysteries of godliness, these “deep things of God,” (Job 11:7) are beyond our measurement: our little skiff might be lost if we ventured so far out upon this vast, this infinite ocean, as to lose sight of the shore of plainly revealed truth.
But let it remain as a matter of faith that Jesus Christ, even He who lay in Bethlehem’s manger, and was carried in a woman’s arms, and lived a suffering life and died on a malefactor’s cross, was, nevertheless, “God over all, blessed forever,” (Romans 9:5) “upholding all things by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:3)
He was not an angel— that the apostle has abundantly disproved in the first and second chapters of the epistle to the Hebrews: He could not have been an angel, for honors are ascribed to Him which were never bestowed on angels.
He was no subordinate deity or being elevated to the Godhead, as some have absurdly said— all these things are dreams and falsehoods; He was as surely God as God can be, one with the Father and the ever-blessed Spirit.
If it were not so, not only would the great strength of our hope be gone, but as to this text the sweetness had evaporated altogether.
The very essence and glory of the incarnation is that he was God who was veiled in human flesh: if it was any other being who thus came to us in human flesh, I see nothing very remarkable in it, nothing comforting, certainly.
That an angel should become a man is a matter of no great consequence to me: that some other superior being should assume the nature of man brings no joy to my heart, and opens no well of consolation to me.
But “God with us” is exquisite delight.
“GOD with us”: all that “God” means, the Deity, the infinite Jehovah with us; this, this is worthy of the burst of midnight song, when angels startled the shepherds with their carols, singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” (Luke 2:14)
This was worthy of the foresight of seers and prophets, worthy of a new star in the heavens, worthy of the care which inspiration has manifested to preserve the record. This, too, was worthy of the martyr deaths of apostles and confessors who counted not their lives dear unto them for the sake of the incarnate God.
And this, my brethren, is worthy at this day of your most earnest endeavours to spread the glad tidings, worthy of a holy life to illustrate its blessed influences, and worthy of a joyful death to prove its consoling power. Here is the first truth of our holy faith— “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Timothy 3:16)
He who was born at Bethlehem is God and “God with us.” God— there lies the majesty; “God with us,” there lies the mercy.
God— therein is glory; “God with us,” therein is grace. God alone might well strike us with terror; but “God with us” inspires us with hope and confidence.
Take my text as a whole, and carry it in your bosoms as a bundle of sweet spices to perfume your hearts with peace and joy. May the Holy Spirit open to you the truth, and the truth to you.”
-Charles H. Spurgeon, “‘God with Us,’” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 21 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1875), 21: 710–711.
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