As we approach another Christmas season, I feel that too often the one left out of the festivities is the One for whom the holiday is named: Christ. There is a reason it is called “Christ”mas and now so many want to do away with His name and fame. This may spoil the schemes of many, but try as you might, one cannot “do away” with Christ.
The holiday may end and the decorations come down, but the reality of the person of Christ as a true historic figure remains. He is not the imagined person that some would like Him to be, but rather a living breathing man who walked this earth. And there is a day when we will all stand before Him to answer what we did with Him.
There is an eternal life of bliss and joy, and it is found only in Jesus Christ. Soon after Jesus had ascended into heaven to be with His Father, Peter the apostle said the following words: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This is a timeless truth and a message the desperately needs to be heard in this world, especially at this time of year.
Peter was echoing Jesus’ earlier statement; “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father, except through Me” (John 14:6). Even Christians at times balk at this truth, but think for a moment, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Jesus merely illustrated that He was the straight line from where they were, to God the Father.
The Christmas message is summed up by Paul the apostle in Galatians 4:4-5; “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.” At just the right time in human history, Jesus arrived on the scene so that mankind could be rescued from the wrath of God against evil perpetrated by mankind’s most dreaded enemy – themselves.
God is holy and perfect and good, and when sin entered into the world, He had to judge sin, as it is the polar opposite of all the He is. Humans are carriers of this dreaded disease called sin and if nothing is done to stop it the end result is certain death. But Christ Jesus was born so that we might be delivered from the inevitable and deserved penalty of sin. He came at the right time.
So this Christmas season, be reminded why Jesus came. Let your thoughts rest on the eternal hope of salvation purchased for you with the precious sacrifice of God’s own Son. No one wants to be forgotten at Christmas, no one wants to experience the sting of embarrassment at realizing everyone is opening a gift except you.
Might not Jesus feel that way when we become so entwined in the wrappings and symbols of Christmas that we forget the greatest gift ever given? Hold Him close this Advent season; embrace Him as you would the most beloved member of your family. God desires only one gift from us. To love Him as He loves us. Merry Christmas.