According to Paul Gauguin, Te Tamari No Atua loosely translates to The Child of God and showed the cultural synchronism in the Christian religion. The painting showed his version of Christ and how he felt the birth happened. In the portrait, a person is seen sleeping on a ceramic bed with creamy beddings. She or he is halfway covered with a blue robe with the chest and the legs bare. A little farther, two other people are seen whereby one is seated and holding a baby. The baby has a luminous shade on its head. The person holding the baby is in a white robe, while the other woman stands in a blue robe. In the far end are cows. The artist used interesting shades of colours such as brown, blue, white, cream, green, and beige to depict various features in the still portrait.

Analysts felt that Gauguin's major interest was in showing the spiritual, emotional, and psychological experience of the birth of Christ. The artist used a Tahitian scene and showed the young new mother lying on the ornately decorated bed. The young Tahitian woman lies on the bed and faces the baby. The two people in the background are women who watch over the newborn baby. Near the seated women is a figure of an angel with green wings. It translates to the angels who watched over Jesus in the Biblical setting. To show the baby's importance, it has a golden yellow halo on its head. The two cows in the background ascertain the Biblical story that Jesus Christ was born in a manger.

The artist's rework of the Biblical scene attracted several comments from the general public; some felt great religious imagery, while others felt that it was wrong to use a Tahitian scene. Birth and motherhood are essential themes in all places. It is a human experience that everyone has seen around them or in their families. Gauguin's aimed to show the world that the mythologies and religious values are practically the same everywhere. He portrayed nativity as more superior than Christianity and further stated that religion and nativity are symbols of beauty and spiritual power everywhere. He gave meaning to human life with reference to the Biblical setting.

Te tamari no atua (The Birth of Christ) in Detail Paul Gauguin