“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.”
Luke 2:10–11

While the Lord Jesus was being born in the city of Bethlehem, outside the city shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep that night. “And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.” It is interesting to note that every time an angel appears in the accounts surrounding the birth of our Lord, the people to whom they appear are afraid—Mary in Luke 1:30, Joseph in Matthew 1:20, even a few months earlier Zacharias was afraid (Luke 1:12–13), and now the shepherds are greatly afraid when the angel’s glory shines around them. Which of us wouldn’t be afraid if an angel appeared among us, glowing?

This word shone is used only one other time in the New Testament—when the Lord appeared to Saul of Tarsus: “At midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me” (Acts 26:13).

As I considered the fear that gripped each of those present at the birth of the Lord Jesus, my mind went back to the Garden of Eden—to Adam and Eve. They had never known fear until sin entered the world. When the Lord called for Adam, we read that Adam answered, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen. 3:10). Notice the three things sin brought with it: guilt and fear—“I was afraid,”—and shame—“because I was naked.” Sin brought in guilt, fear, and shame, and the world has suffered from these three things ever since.

We are guilty before a holy God because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We fear because “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). And we experience shame because of our sin.

But the word that surrounds the birth of our Lord is “Be not afraid!” The angel declared to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” The Lord Jesus Christ came to demonstrate the love of God, and “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

On the Cross, the Lord Jesus—“Him who knew no sin”—was “made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). He took our guilt and shame, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” His death explains His birth.

Anchor For Today:
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
– John Newton