At this time of year, we typically go around asking those close to us what they want for Christmas. Most of us don’t need anything, but we make a list of things we want. In all of our obsessing about possessing and procuring what others are preferring we can easily miss the point of Christmas.
Christmas isn’t about getting what we want for or from others, but about receiving God’s provision for our greatest need.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need would have been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
(Anonymous)
Sadly, most of us don’t see our need for forgiveness, but God certainly does. “There is none righteous, not even one… There is none who does good, there is not even one.” (Romans 3:11-12)
Our passive indifference (“I’m doing just fine without listening to God.”) or active rebellion (“I know what God wants but I refuse to comply.”) is what the Bible calls “sin” (Romans 3:23).
Our failure to measure up to God’s standard of moral perfection (sin) deserves God’s just wrath. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) means the payment we receive for our rebellion is spiritual separation from God in conscious eternal torment (Matthew 24:51).
Mankind’s greatest need is to be forgiven and restored into right relationship with our Creator forever. We cannot accomplish this on our own, but only through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-22).
The cradle of Bethlehem sits in the ominous shadow of Calvary’s cross because Christ was born to die as the sinless and sufficient payment for human rebellion. God’s gift of Jesus wasn’t to supply our want, but to secure our pardon (1 Peter 3:18).
Chief of sinners though I be,
Jesus shed His blood for me;
Died that I might live on high,
Lives that I may never die.
(William McComb)
“He Himself, bore our sins in His own body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, by His wounds we are healed.” (1Peter 2:24)
This gift of forgiveness becomes ours only when we personally believe Christ died to pay for our sin and rose again as proof He conquered death. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
This Christmas, I want the pardon God made possible through Christ’s birth to be personal for you because you believe.