Part 12

The Renewal of Christmas

Jeremiah 31:21-22 (ESV) - "Set up road markers for yourself, make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth; a woman encircles a man."

The last few months our newsletter articles have been discussing the Holy Spirit and the Means of Grace that He uses to call people to salvation and make them alive in Christ. We’ll resume that discussion next month, but this month we’re going to take a pneumatological rabbit trail and look at something else; something more Christmassy. 

We’re also going to revisit something we explored very early on in this newsletter series: the mission of the Holy Spirit. You might remember that in some of the earlier articles we defined the Holy Spirit’s mission as “to create and give life”. We cited John 6:63 as the Scriptural basis of this assertion, and we noted that the Nicene Creed (the most universal of Christian creeds) calls Him the “Lord; the Giver of Life.” Our assertion that His mission is to create and give life is rooted in God’s Word and in accordance with the doctrines entrusted to and passed down by the Church (1 Timothy 6:20). 

But what effect does all this have on our day to day lives? How does this doctrine bring us joy? How does this help us understand other parts of Scripture? To answer some of these questions we’re going to look at the Holy Spirit’s role in Christ’s birth and in the original creation event.

The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Incarnation and Creation

Consider the similarities between the story of Christ’s incarnation and the accounts of the creation of the world. This is one example of a place where knowing that the Spirit’s mission is to create and give life helps us to better understand the purpose of His work. 

Luke 1:35 (ESV) —  And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Matthew 1:18 (ESV) —  Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

John 1:1–5 (ESV) —  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:14 (ESV) —  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Genesis 1:1–3 (ESV) —  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Psalm 104:30 (ESV) —  When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

When you stack the creation and the incarnation up next to each other, you start to see that there are abundant parallels between the New Testament accounts of the incarnation and the Old Testament account of the creation of the world. We see light triumphing over darkness. We hear of the Word of God going out and creating. Both accounts speak of something that did not previously exist suddenly coming into existence. The Word and the Spirit of God are both credited with creating. 

When God created the universe, the heavens and the earth simply weren’t there, nor was the “stuff” to build them, but then God spoke while His Spirit “hovered above” and boom, through His Word all things were created. Similarly, Christ’s earthly body did not exist. While His divine nature is from “of old” (Micah 5:2) and “always has been” (John 1:2), His human nature was created. But the creation of His body was not according to the old creation. His conception was more than a continuance of the old creation. His conception and birth marked the miraculous beginning of an entirely new creation. 

The typical preconditions for the creation of a human body and life were not present at Christ’s incarnation. Christ’s incarnation did not involve a husband and wife coming together. When the first creation was called into existence, the Holy Spirit hovered above the chaos and the universe was brought into being. Similarly, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the human life of Jesus Christ was brought into existence. There is a parallel here. Both events are the start of something huge, and the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, was over both of them. 

Significance of the “Holy Spirit upon”

I should probably admit, however, that a bit of caution needs to be exercised when teaching this parallel. Not every case of the Holy Spirit being “upon” or “over” someone or something is an instance of an ex-nihilo (literally “out of nothing”) creation event. 

While it’s true that the Holy Spirit was “over” Mary and that the Holy Spirit was also “over” the abyss, and that these are both instances of the Holy Spirit creating something “out of nothing (ex-nihilo), these are not the only times in Scripture that the Holy Spirit is described as “over” someone or something. 

For example, right in the very next chapter of Luke, the Holy Spirit is described as being “upon” Simeon, the old righteous man who was in the temple. Here (Luke 2:25) the Spirit’s presence “upon” Simeon is speaking of the Spirit doing His prophetic work, speaking through Simeon to announce to everyone else in the temple that the consolation of Jerusalem had arrived. Here the Holy Spirit was not “upon” Simeon to do a creative work (other than to create faith). So obviously, we can’t just say “whenever the Holy Spirit is upon someone or something, He must be creating something new.” That would be going to far. So, for clarity, I’m not saying that whenever we read that the Holy Spirit was “over” or “upon” someone it demands we believe that He was in that instance creating something ex-nihilo. Sometimes He is “upon” people for other purposes. 

We can, however, say that sometimes when the Holy Spirit is described as upon someone or something, it’s because He was creating something out of nothing. These events are a clear revelation of the Holy Spirit executing His mission in the world: creating and giving life. The creation of the world and the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ are both examples of this. 

Even in the other cases, though, the Holy Spirit’s mission of creating and giving life is still His fundamental work. In Simeon’s case, for example, that mission is still quite visible. Through Simeon, the Holy Spirit was calling people to eternal life by creating faith in Jesus. After all “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Creating faith in people’s hearts is well and truly creating and giving life. 

Yet still, in the cases of the original creation and the incarnation the life-giving work of the Spirit is visible in a direct way. These are cases of the Holy Spirit creating life out of nothing. They are very parallel to each other, and this reveals quite a bit about the meaning of Christmas. When we start to see and understand that Christmas is, in some ways, a re-run of the original creation event, it broadens our appreciation for Christ’s arrival among us. 

God Doing a New Thing

The parallel accounts of the creation and the incarnation do not give us a ton of clarity about how exactly the two things relate. The Holy Spirit’s position above, together with the other parallels, clues us into the fact that there’s some sort of relationship there, yet the exact nature of the relationship isn’t clear. Just exactly how the two things fit together or interact with each other isn’t entirely explained to us in the confines of Luke 1-2, Matthew 1-2 or John 1. The fact that He is born from a virgin is incredible. The fact that He was comfortable in the temple and referred to it as “His Father’s house” is intriguing. The fact that angels proclaimed His arrival and wise men sought Him out from afar is fascinating. But the fact that He’s called a king while He sleeps in harsh and impoverished surroundings, is actually just confusing. What is God doing here? What is the significance of His birth coming from a virgin? Some of those questions aren’t completely answered in the texts of the Christmas story. We must expand our search to the whole of Scripture.

Certainly, one of the things made plain by the virgin birth is that Jesus has no Father except God (Matthew 11:27, John 5:43). His miraculous and super-natural arrival among us gives evidence to His claim of divinity (John 10:30). But what does all that mean for us personally? 

Consider again the Jeremiah text at the top of this article. The whole chapter of Jeremiah 31 is a fascinating one that interacts quite a bit with the Christmas story. There’s Rachel weeping in Ramah (Jeremiah 31:15), there’s a promise of the arrival of a shepherd to gather the flock (Jeremiah 31:10-11), and all of this leads up to a promise of the coming new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31 and following). 

But before the new covenant promise is given (V.31) there’s a simple but obscure promise from God (V.21-22). God will call His “virgin Israel” to return to Him, and a new thing has been created on earth, “a woman encircles a man.” 

“A woman encircling a man” seems like an odd way to describe pregnancy, but not so odd a concept. After Adam, every other man born has been first encircled by his mother, so that part doesn’t seem new or miraculous. Yet, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of there being a day when a man encircled by a woman would be the Lord God’s work, and that through it God would do “a new thing.” Mary’s virgin pregnancy with Jesus was something new. 

Jesus Christ’s birth among us is more than just a novel occurrence in the old creation. His presence among us doesn’t represent an improvement of the old. He is something entirely new.

Jesus Christ’s birth is signified in Scripture as a second creation event (hence the parallels with the first). Christ’s birth from a virgin mother of Israel is an entirely new creation bursting into the old, as God begins the work of renewing and eventually entirely reforming the old, sin broken world. Christ’s incarnation is the point in time when God’s new creation took its first material form.  

“Carne” is just Latin for “flesh” or “body”. “Incarnation” therefore just means to “in-body”, or as we say when we speak of it precisely “when the Word of God took to Himself a Human body.” It’s possible for us to think of this as only slightly more special than the time when some other human was created, but that misses the much bigger point. Your birth represented the start of your new life. Christ’s birth represents the start of an entirely new heavens, earth, and life for all who believe. 

The Promises of Newness

At first, it may seem like a stretch or overstatement to hail the arrival of Jesus as the arrival of an entirely new creation, but you don’t have to look long to find proclamations that this is, in fact, God’s plan. 

Isaiah 42:9–10 (ESV) —  Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”  Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Isaiah 65:17 (ESV) —  “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

Isaiah 66:22 (ESV) —  “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.

2 Peter 3:13 (ESV) —  But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Revelation 21:1–5a (ESV) —  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 

Consider also the whole of Isaiah 48 where the “new” is attached to the arrival of the Messiah. 

This “new” thing that God is doing is not “new and improved” in the same way that a slightly modified 2025 model year pickup is called “new and improved” over the 2024 model. The “new” thing that God is doing is entirely “new”, as in, God is starting from scratch (ex-nihilo).

That’s what the arrival of that newborn baby, Jesus the son of Mary, indicated to the world. The Holy Spirit hovered over Mary in a way somehow similar to His hovering over the chaos of the abyss prior to and during the original creation. The Holy Spirit created life in Mary’s womb even though it was not naturally possible, in the same way that He created life out of the nothingness of the abyss. The birth of Jesus the son of Mary in Bethlehem thus was a signal to all the powers of heaven and earth that God’s renewal had arrived. Something truly “new” was breaking out into the old. 

Already/Not Yet

That 2nd Peter text and that Revelation 21 text are reminders to us that while the new creation has begun to burst out into the old, it’s not yet fully here. Consider the Revelation 21 one. We know that God has already begun to “dwell with us.” 

John 1:14 (ESV) —  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We even can rightly claim that He continues to be present among us.

Matthew 18:20 (ESV) —  For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. 

Matthew 28:20b (ESV) —  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And yet despite this knowledge, we know also that there remains a day ahead of us when more blessings of His presence will be lavished upon us. Someday all our tears will be dried. Someday death will be no more. Aspects of the “new creation” remain yet to come.

Other aspects, however, are already here. God truly is with us, our Emmanuel has already come. We have many blessings of the New Heavens already, and we have many yet to come. We await a new heavens and earth as Peter says, but even so, there’s still plenty of “newness” for us to enjoy. When we read Revelation 21:1-5, there are some blessings in there that we know are already ours. There are others yet to come. The New Creation that Christ is bringing is in some ways here with Him, and in some other ways yet to come. Christmas marks the beginning (though not the end) of the New Creation’s material arrival. 

We’re the New Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) —  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Christ’s birth is the first arrival of an entirely new Heavens and Earth for us to eternally dwell in. Yet, if that’s the case, what’s the hold up? Why don’t they come fully into our possession already?

Right now Christ’s work of making all things new is focused on souls. For now, His new creation is bursting into the old by taking souls living in the old creation and making them alive in Him. Whoever believes in Jesus is a “new creation”. Their old self has passed away and they are alive to the new creation (Galatians 2:20, 5:24). Christ has burst into their hearts (Colossians 1:27) with all His newness in just the same way He burst into this earth in that cave in Bethlehem. 

Right now, Christ’s mission is to extend that work into the hearts of others (Luke 19:10). The Holy Spirit is creating faith in the hearts of the lost (who Scripture calls sin-dead, Ephesians 2:1-10). Whoever receives this gift and enters faith passes from death to life (John 5:24) and from the old creation to the new (Galatians 6:5, Ephesians 2:11-16). 

So Christmas, all those years ago in that cave in Bethlehem, was the beginning of the end for this old, sin-broken world. Yet Christ came as a baby so that as many people as possible could be baptized into His name and also become part of His “new creation” (Romans 6:4, Colossians 3:10, Ephesians 4:24). All of the incredible, miraculous power that God wielded in the 7 days of creation were also on display when Jesus arrived here, as a man. The Holy Spirit is the giver and maker of life, and right now a major part of that work involves renewing and regenerating (i.e. giving a “new birth” or “rebirth”, John 3:3,7 1 Peter 1:3,23) to sin-dead lost sheep so they also can be alive in Christ. 

At creation, the Holy Spirit created life, and the world that supports it, out of nothing. 

At Christ’s conception, the Holy Spirit created new life, and the human life of the Savior who freely gives new life, out of nothing. 

The moment you came to faith, whether it was at your baptism or at some other time when Word and Spirit of God grabbed ahold of your heart, in that moment the Holy Spirit created faith in your heart out of nothing. In that moment, you passed out of the old creation and into the new. 

So through our study of the Holy Spirit’s work, we see that Christmas is more than just the birth of a baby who had no earthly father, and we see that your faith is more than just you cleaning your life up for God. Christmas is the miraculous start of a New Creation, and faith is the living experience of your citizenship in it.