Jesus Is Born

BY Amanda Bible Williams

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:1-25, Matthew 2:1-23, Isaiah 9:2-7, Isaiah 11:1-9, Jeremiah 31:15

“Who is Jesus?”

They all asked the question. Those who walked the streets with Jesus, who encountered His teaching in the synagogues, who witnessed Him healing the sick and eating with sinners—they were compelled to understand who this man was. That was 2,000 years ago. And here we are, asking the same question today.

Even now, sitting in my Nashville office, surrounded by modern technology and Western comforts, I can think of no more foundational question to ask. The answer frames what I believe about God. It frames what I know about myself and how I view the world around me. And, on one hand, my response as a Christian is simple: Jesus is the Son of God. But because that is true, is there not infinitely more to know?

Theologian Charles Hodge said, “The gospel is so simple that small children can understand it, and it is so profound that studies by the wisest theologians will never exhaust its riches.” I believe he’s right, and I believe the same is true with the central figure of that gospel, the person of Jesus Christ. We cannot exhaust the depth of Him, but we can know Him.

The Gospel of Matthew is a great place to start.

Beginning with a genealogy, Matthew lays out his account of who Jesus is: the Messiah that the Jewish people—and the world—had been waiting for. He presents Jesus as the Son of God, born of the Holy Spirit, baptized by a prophet, and tempted by the devil. He shows Jesus as teacher, healer, servant, and friend—a man who walked the earth but was not bound by it.

In telling us who Jesus is, Matthew tells the story of our salvation.

It is a story written from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). In these two chapters alone, our historian Matthew references five Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Christ’s birth (1:22; 2:5, 15, 17, 23). He is Immanuel, “God with us,” the one who “will save his people from their sins” (1:23, 21). Jesus is not just part of this story—He is the story.

I hope you’ll read along with us these next four weeks as we explore Matthew’s Gospel together and discover the true answers to that all-important question. Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah.

This is the story Matthew tells. This is Jesus.