JESUS – The ONLY Reason for the Season

“GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, SO THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH (IN HELL) BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE (WITH HIM IN HEAVEN)” (John 3:16)

Here we have the above passage from the Bible that summarizes what Christmas is truly about, namely the entry 2000 years ago of God the Son, Jesus Christ, into this sin cursed world.  He came in the form of a human baby, born in a small village in Israel called Bethlehem to parents of little means, dependent upon them until He became a man.  His mission in coming was threefold.  First, to intimately reveal to mankind the glory of God – the infinite perfections of God’s eternal being which make Him worthy of being both feared and loved, trusted and obeyed, worshiped and enjoyed above all else in His creation (John 1:14-18). Second, in the ultimate expression of God’s grace and love, to accomplish everything required by God to reconcile and restore sinful men and women back to the glorious relationship with God for which we were created, what the Bible refers to as eternal life (John 17:1-3) (Romans 6:23), And third, to call men, women and children from every nation, ethnic group, language and culture, to repent of their sin and enter into that relationship by entrusting their lives to Jesus as the object of their deepest love and source of their greatest joy – both now and throughout eternity (Acts 3:18-21) (Revelation 5:9) (Luke 10:25-28) .

The question that many have, however, is Why did Jesus have to come in the form of a man to accomplish these purposes?

The Bible tells us that human history began with the eternal God, who is infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful and infinitely glorious, creating in His image and likeness mankind – men and women – male and female, who would share in the eternal love relationship of the triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We would do so not as divine equals, but as beloved children, who would find our greatest joy, our greatest pleasure and satisfaction, our greatest significance and security in knowing and loving and being loved by God, living in glad and perfect obedience to His will and purposes (Genesis 1:26-28) (Psalm 8:3-6).

However, all of mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve, having been deceived by the fallen angel Satan, have rejected God’s purpose for our lives and rebelled against His will and authority over our lives as we daily defy his righteous laws and commandments that were and are given for our present and eternal good.  The Bible refers to this as sin, of which all mankind are guilty (1 John 3:4) (Romans 3:23).  The Bible is clear that the wage or penalty of our sin is death, our being cut off from the glorious life with God for which we were created (Ezekiel 18:20) (Romans 5:12).

Sin has brought upon mankind all of the corruption, destruction, misery, pain and sorrow that marks life in this world today;  all of which are both the natural consequence of sin itself, and the result of God’s just wrath and judgment on our sin (Romans 1:18).  His wrath and judgement will culminate in our physical death and in the eternal loss of the glorious life with God for which we were created, as we are confined forever to a place of judgment and torment the Bible refers to as Hell (Mark 9:43-44).

Thus, in the most succinct and direct statement in the Bible as to why Jesus came into this world as a man, we are told in 1 Timothy 1:15, it was to save sinners from the eternal wrath of God (Romans 5:9).  He was given the name Jesus to identify with His mission (Matthew 1:20-21), a mission He would accomplish at great cost to Himself.  Motivated by love and moved by compassion (1 John 4:7-10), the eternal Son of God comes out of a glorious Heaven, where He has been worshiped and adored by the holy angels and redeemed men, into this sin cursed world, taking upon Himself a human nature. He does so that He could magnify the glory of God’s mercy and grace in accomplishing for sinful men and women what we could never accomplish for ourselves, namely a just means of escaping the Hell we deserve, as well as a means, the only means, by which a sinful man or women could be welcomed into Heaven, a Heaven we could never deserve in ourselves.  (John 14:6).

Through His life as a man of perfect righteousness – of perfect love for, trust in and obedience to God the Father, which is required by God of a man or women to enter God’s unmediated presence in Heaven (Psalm 24:4-6), He obtains for all who entrust their lives to Him the perfect righteousness needed for them to be welcomed into Heaven (Matthew 5:48).  He then takes upon Himself, on a Roman cross, the infinite punishment we deserve in Hell for our sin (Matthew 27:45-46) (2 Corinthians 5:21).

In His miraculous resurrection from the dead three days later (Luke 24:6-7), Jesus becomes the means by which all who die in faith, in spiritual union with Him (Galatians 2:20) are immediately passed from death into God’s presence at their death (John 11:23-27) and given glorified resurrected bodies at His second coming in which we will again image His beauty and perfection and enjoy forever the glorious life with God for which we were created (Philippians 3:20-21) (Psalm 16:11).   This is what is to be celebrated by all who have repented of their sin and entrusted their life to Jesus Christ, not only during this time of the year we refer to as Christmas, but all year long.  And thus, we sing:

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy                                                                                                               “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen” Traditional English Christmas Carol (Writer unknown)

For an enhanced understanding of the greatness, the goodness and the glory of the grace of this One who came that first Christmas to save us from our sin, see the web page titled JESUS.

 Merry Christmas