The Chris. Christmas is a week from today and as we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus

it's important that we remember the whole story to fully appreciate the significance of this

holiday.

Today on Truth for Life will trace a line from the Manger to the heavenly throne.

Alistairbegg is teaching from the book of Isaiah chapter 9.

We're looking today at verse 6. I think probably every Christmas since I ever read this quote I have it in my mind

it's a quote from Jim Packer, the theologian and professor from England.

And it goes as follows, nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the

incarnation, the more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.

And for many of us, we would affirm that statement, having spent many years of our lives enjoying privileges

such as we have before us now to take our Bibles and to turn to them and to investigate what they have to

say concerning this most staggering claim. Years and years and years before the arrival of Jesus, the Prophet Isaiah and his contemporaries

wrote.

Pitched forward, as it were, in their minds, they described scenes as so certain as if they had already

taken place. Obviously for us, living on the far side of the birth of Jesus, we

look back to it. And we realize that what Isaiah is describing here

is of impact to us. Describing the future is something that has already taken place.

So that we read verse 2, for example,

the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shine. That is set within a geographical

and historical context such as we've considered before. We don't need to go back to

it. But we need to realize that when Matthew picks up those verses he employs them in the arrival of the Lord Jesus himself.

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