Consider Jesus: God With Us

Let us continue to “consider Jesus.” (Heb. 3:1) 

Matt. 1:22-25  “Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 23  “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” 24  And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, 25  and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”

In this familiar passage, Matthew opens the record of the birth of Jesus with the story of Jesus’ history and a quote from Isaiah 7. The quote from Isaiah sets the life of Jesus from the very start as central to the prophesied plan of God, it explains the highly unusual circumstances of His birth, and establishes Jesus as divine, “God with us.”

Jesus is “God with us,” sharing with us, being us. He was not just “God to us,” showing us God, which He did.  And He was not “God similar to us,” being like us in appearance only.  

Instead, there is a great comfort in the reciprocal nature of God’s appearance among man “with us”. He came as man, and in every relevant way like us, while also being divine in nature and expressing deity here. And “with” us, “for” us, coming to help us.