Celebrating Christmas!

During the Christmas season, we tend to read from the old familiar passages about Christ’s birth (Luke 2, Matthew 1-2, etc). These are wonderful passages that we can rejoice in because of the coming of our savior. However, these passages are wonderful because of the need of every human being. The need of a redeemer to save us from the debt of our sins!

Passages like Luke 2 are made so much more wonderful when they are read with passages like John 3:16-21 in mind:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” — John 3:16-21

This Christmas, as we celebrate and look back over the past year (or even further back), remember that you stand free from condemnation because of the birth (life and death) of this sweet baby in a manger. This is the Messiah that the world has been waiting 1,000s of years for. This is the God who would take on human flesh, live a perfect life in our place, and then die for our sins in our place, so that we can be free from our penalty of death. Ephesians 2:8-10 reminds us:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” — Eph 2:8-10

Let’s rejoice in this wonderful gift from our Savior. The greatness of our redemption is magnified all the more by the depth of our hopeless death to sin we once lived. This is truly a season of rejoicing.