The incarnation of Jesus Christ [God becoming human] is recorded in detail in the first two chapters of both Matthew's and Luke's Gospels. There we read that the angel Gabriel was sent as a messenger from God to the town of Nazareth to a young virgin named Mary who was betrothed to a man named Joseph. The angel announced:
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."
And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"
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. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
Further, the Bible reveals the birth of Jesus as the pattern for our new birth - both are miracles of God the Holy Spirit to be received by faith. Belief in Jesus' incarnation is an essential truth that Christians have always held...
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I think Driscoll points our the key point that we are not merely celebrating a time of the year to spread good cheer, to buy people presents and to sing some cutsie-wootsie songs. But we are recognising a significant time where God stepped into the human world as a human! This was the beginning of God's redemptive act. And in doing so he showed us the way in which we will be saved by being born of the Spirit.
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