It is the time of the year when movies with a Christmas theme fill the TV schedule, and one of the most beloved is It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. Stewart plays the character of George Baily, who as a child and young man had great ambitions to get out of the Podunk town of Bedford Falls, travel the world, and make a name for himself. He ends up sacrificing his dreams and ambitions, giving himself and his resources to emergent family needs and town crisis’. Due to circumstances beyond his control, (truth be told they all are) he finds himself despairing of life, ready to commit suicide, and stating (like Job) that he wished he had never been born. In response to prayer, God sends an angel in training, Clarence, to help George. Clarence does so by showing George what life in Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never been born, and conversely how his life had greatly helped and enriched so many. George comes to his senses and continues with his wonderful life (and Clarence gets his wings).
Have you ever wondered what this world and life in it would be like if Jesus Christ had never been born? What if the skies over Judea that first Christmas were truly silent that night; no cosmic light show; no angelic choir singing “Glory to God in the Highest and peace to men of good will;” no announcement by the angel to the shepherds of the birth of the long-promised Savior, and no directing of the shepherds to the stable in Bethlehem to see the miracle child, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin (Luke 2:1-20).
What if the manger in the stable in Bethlehem on that first Christmas Eve was empty? What if Mary out of the shame of being pregnant outside of marriage and fearing the potential consequences of being rejected by Joseph, her friends and family, or even worse being stoned to death for adultery, (the penalty under the Mosaic Law), had aborted the child within her womb?
What if God the Father said no way to having His eternally beloved Son come into this sin cursed world in the form of a man, only to be ignored, rejected ridiculed, tortured and placarded on a Roman cross to die a shameful and horrifically agonizing death on behalf of men and women who had willingly defied His righteous laws, denigrated His majesty and slandered His infinite glory?
I would suggest the answer to these what ifs, is that the world, absent Jesus’ birth, surprisingly would not be much different than the world we live in today, which is not much different than the world was prior to Jesus’ coming that night in Bethlehem – minus the technology. It would be a world in which we enter through the pain of childbirth, and within a relatively very short time (70+ years) we exit through the weakness, helplessness and hopelessness of physical death, living in fear of death throughout our life.
In between these two events, the universal afflictions of life in this world; namely sickness, disease, crime, injustice, war, poverty, addiction, domestic violence, child abuse, natural and technological disasters would continue unabated, bringing misery into our lives, frustrating our best efforts to know true and lasting joy and happiness.
So, you might be asking, if Jesus’ coming into this world would result in little if any change to this world and our life in it, what was the point of His coming?
The Bible offers us a very succinct and direct answer to this question in 1 Timothy 1:15-16, where we are told by the Apostle Paul that “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” … sinners referring to men and women who having rejected God’s purpose for and rule over their lives, are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3), cut off, alienated from the glorious life with God for which we were created to enjoy (Ephesians 4:18), and condemned to an eternity in Hell (Psalm 9:17), which is inclusive of the whole human race (Romans 3:23).
The term save in the dictionary refers to the state or experience of being rescued from peril or danger, protected from harm or kept from calamity, loss or ruin – deliverance from destruction. It includes the preservation of something of value or the restoration of something that has been lost or damaged.
Jesus came into this world not to make it a better place for us to live, but to save, to deliver us from God’s judgement on it (Galatians 1:4) and restore us to the glorious world and wonderful life with God for which we were created (John 3:16). Jesus is referred to in Luke 2:11 as Savior, as through His life in this world of perfect obedience to God the Father (Philippians 2:8), His sacrificial death on the cross for our sins (Isaiah 53:5-6), and His victorious resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:54-56), He would accomplish everything necessary for the salvation of all who would acknowledge and repent of their sin, trust Him as Savior and submit to Him as Lord (Romans 10:9-12). This salvation includes the forgiveness of our sins and being accounted as righteous, wherein we are reconciled and restored to intimacy with God while in this world, welcomed into Heaven at our death, and restored to the glorious beings God had created in His image, fully able to share in the unimaginable joys and pleasures (1 Corinthians 2:9) found in the new earth and universe which Jesus will create at His second coming (Revelation 21:1-5).
I pray that it is the wonderful life of Jesus Christ, your savior, that you will joyfully celebrate December 25, 2020, as the one who saved you to know and love and be loved by Him, both now and forevermore. Amen.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Maranatha