First let me say, “Merry Christmas!” It is okay to say this as we celebrate the “First Advent” of the Savior.
It is this time of the year when we stop and pause, remembering the greatest gift ever given. Indeed, this is the time when we tend to remember most the “good news of great joy that will be for all people… for unto you a Savior has been born… Christ the Lord.” God sent His Son to rescue fallen and rudderless humanity from an eternity of alienation from His good grace.
As the angel told Joseph “He will save His people from their sins.” “His name shall be called Immanuel (which means God with us)” as the prophet Isaiah promised, foretelling of Christ’s coming 700 plus years earlier.
“Christ the Lord” speaks to God in the manger. One uniquely qualified to achieve for us what we could not achieve on our own—rescue! God became flesh and for a time dwelt among us as Jesus our Lord and Savior.
There has been no greater act of love before or since in the person and work of Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believed in (entrusted their eternity and surrendered to) Him would not perish but have eternal life because He came, this time, to save the world not judge it.
God offers us a gift of forgiveness. It’s up to us to receive and embrace it. Forgiveness is only granted to those who do not push it away. This Christmas, if you haven’t already, I hope you’ll receive the gift of God, forgiveness and eternal life… a gift to be shared with others… a gift that keeps on giving, eternally!
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)
There’s no time like the present to become a child of God! Merry Christmas!