Christ Our Light and Hope: Reflections for Advent

10 Biblical Truths About Christmas (Advent Reflection)

By Andreas J. Köstenberger

As we prepare our hearts during Advent, it’s good to turn again to the foundations of our faith and remember why the birth of Christ is truly good news. In the midst of commercial noise and seasonal distraction, Scripture gives us clarity, conviction, and joy. Below are ten biblical truths that help anchor our celebration of Christmas in the person and work of Jesus.

1. Jesus is the reason for the season.

The primary purpose for observing Christmas is remembering Jesus’s birth. At Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’s birthday, not the little drummer boy or Santa Claus!

2. Jesus preexisted with God in the beginning before the world began.

Jesus’s birth as a baby in a Bethlehem manger doesn’t mark the beginning of his existence. Rather, as John’s Gospel teaches explicitly (John 1:1, 14) and the other Gospels imply, Jesus took on human flesh in addition to existing eternally as part of the Godhead.

3. Jesus’s birth was the culmination of centuries of messianic expectations.

Jesus’s coming occurred in fulfillment of messianic expectations including his birthplace, virgin birth, and other details surrounding his advent. Later, during his earthly ministry and particularly in his death on the cross, Jesus fulfilled many more messianic patterns and predictions.

4. We should distinguish between cultural and biblical Christmas.

We must separate fact from fiction, and historic, biblical truths from mere Christmas traditions. This includes Santa Claus, presents, reindeer, Christmas trees, and other paraphernalia. Not that these customs are necessarily harmful or unhelpful—but they are unhistorical. Jesus’s birth, however, isn’t a legend; it’s historical fact.

5. Jesus’s birth is part of a larger cluster of events that culminates in Jesus’s death for our sins as God’s suffering servant.

Jesus wasn’t only born as a baby—He grew up as a young man who knew the Scriptures. Then, when He was about thirty years old, He began His public ministry, healing many, exorcising demons, raising the dead, and commanding the forces of nature. In keeping with His own predictions, He died, was buried, and after three days rose from the dead. While at Christmas we celebrate Jesus’s birth, we should remember that it is part of a life unlike any other that brought us salvation and forgiveness from sins.

6. Jesus, the Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in his mother Mary’s womb.

At the heart of Christmas is a biological and theological miracle that requires supernatural faith. Skeptics scoff at the notion of God conceiving a child in a virgin’s womb, calling it a biological impossibility and dismissing it as mere legend. Believers recognize that only a sinless human being could save sinners, and that such a sinless Savior could only be conceived by God Himself.

7. There is no incarnation without the virgin birth.

Andrew Lincoln, in his book Born of a Virgin?, argues that the virgin birth is unhistorical while asserting that the incarnation could still be true in a spiritual sense. This, however, contradicts Scripture. The virgin birth and the incarnation belong together as two sides of the same coin. Only a virgin birth allows Jesus to be the God-man—fully human and fully divine—as affirmed by the early church councils.

8. Jesus’s birth was accompanied by rejection.

Herod attempted to kill Jesus (Matt. 2:16). There was no room for Him in the inn (Luke 2:7). And though the world was made by Him, the world did not recognize Him (John 1:11). Why? Because Christ threatens human autonomy. People love darkness more than light (John 3:19–21).

9. Jesus came to make a second, spiritual birth possible for those who believe in Him.

As Charles Wesley wrote, Jesus was “born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.” John explains:

“But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12–13).

To be born again requires repentance and faith. Those who have not been spiritually reborn are Christians in name only (Rom. 8:9).

10. Jesus’s coming marks the ultimate sacrifice.

He left the glories of heaven to enter a dark, broken world—humbling Himself in flesh (Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:5–8). His birth points forward to His cross. That—not commercialism—is the true meaning of Christmas.

This article originally appeared on Crossway.org and is used with permission. The author is Andreas J. Köstenberger, co-author of The First Days of Jesus: The Story of the Incarnation.