On the night that Jesus was born, which was over 2000 years ago now, an angel appeared to shepherds nearby and told them who He was: “Today…there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). A Savior? What’s that?
A Savior is someone who saves us from something. In the case of Jesus, He would be our Savior from death. Yes, death: “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said, “he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26).
And what does the word ‘Christ’ mean? It is a Greek word which means “the anointed one.” It is a translation of the Hebrew word ‘messiah.’ Christians were first called Christians because they were Greek-speaking Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah promised to them by God throughout the Old Testament of the Bible (Acts 11:20-21).
And the word ‘Lord’? What does that mean? In the Bible it is a word that usually refers to God Himself. So yes, Jesus is the Lord, or in other words, Jesus is God.
How could that be? It could be because Jesus was both man and God. His mother was Mary, but His Father was God (cf. Luke 1:26-38).
Jesus was man so that He could be the Messiah long promised to the people of Israel. And as the Messiah, not set up a kingdom here on earth by conquering Jerusalem, but establish an eternal, everlasting, all-encompassing kingdom by suffering on the cross, dying, and rising again from the dead.
In order to die, Jesus had to be a human being. In order for that death to be significant for every human being who has ever lived, Jesus had to be God.
So then, was the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus just for the Jews who believed that He was the Messiah? No. And that is what the angel told the shepherds as well. The fact that their Savior, Christ the Lord, had been born was “good news of great joy…for all people!”