". . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside.

Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of -- He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate -- God coming into human flesh from outside it.

His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord's birth was an advent -- the appearance of God in human form.

"My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . ." (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside.

Have I allowed my personal human life to become a "Bethlehem" for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth.

"You must be born again" (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that "Christ is formed" in me.

And once "Christ is formed" in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.