True Celebrating of Christmas

As we enter December there is growing excitement for the holidays, however, a great portion of the world is excited for the wrong reasons, and thus miss the true joy intended for them that never ends.

Oh, people in general realize that there is something “special” about this holiday – that it is not all about what kind of or how many presents they get, that it is “something more”.

     For these folks, there will be pious reminders to themselves and those around them about remembering the meaning of Christmas – or get back to the “spirit of Christmas”.  Which in their minds is referring to a feeling of generosity and giving of themselves to others; remembering those less fortunate; giving to charity; trying to be nicer to the folks around them.  All nice things, (and can in fact be the result of knowing the true meaning) but hardly anything to do with the True meaning of Christmas. 

     Let’s get it straight once again: Christmas is about God’s gift to us – the sending forth a Savior, One Who was both God and man, Who would rescue us from our sin and guilt and the resulting death, and once again restore us back into a relationship with Him, and with it, give us back true life forever and ever.

     Christmas is about the Incarnation and birth of God the Son. (Isa 7:14) Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Immanuel – God with us!  What an awesome thought!  The Creator of the Universe, the One Who supports all things, is now cradled in the arms of His mother, dependent upon her for all things. Now God has a belly button, and this Baby Who created and sustains the universe is sustained and held by His mother – incredible!  We celebrate on Christmas that the Incarnate/in-fleshed Son of God had now been born of the Virgin Mary!

But there is much more to this Christmas celebration than just the birth of the Incarnate Baby Jesus.   We must also see the Cross hovering over the manger.  Christmas is more than just about “Baby Jesus”, it is about God being born to die, about God having come to us in the flesh in order to save us from our sinful guilt and death.

     This baby boy who is at the same time fully God Almighty, had come to take our place under the Law of God and fulfill it perfectly.  He then would offer that perfect, infinite life as a payment for the wages of our sin, and upon the Cross would die the death we deserved to satisfy the justice of God. 

There is a cross hanging over the crib/manger of Jesus.  But there is also an empty tomb!  For Jesus would conquer death and the grave, and by His Resurrection He would prove that the debt has been paid in full and that we once again can be connected to the Tree of Life, be placed once again in the Family of God as it was always intended to be.  Christmas is about the most expensive gift ever given to us – and the best one of all!

And please note, that this is a GIFT – it is not earned or deserve, but simply given.  It is God’s free gift to us!  Unlike the sad secular Christmas (worldly religion), God never looks over us to see whether we have been naughty or nice and then based on our actions/life decides whether or not to give us the gift of His Son (what an absolutely disgusting adulteration of the true Christmas!), rather, while we were already all “naughty”, all still sinful, all still enemies of God, with nothing good in us whatsoever that could possibly move God to help us/save us; While we were still rotten to the core, God still chose to give us the greatest gift of all – His Son.  How much better the true gift of Christmas is compared to the sad version the world celebrates. A truly Holy-day to celebrate every week, every day!

Pastor