As we come upon this Christmas season, it’s so easy to get caught up in the activities, festivities, and shopping and forget the real reason behind Christmas, the birth of Jesus the Christ. Why is it so easy for us to gloss over the fact that the Supreme Lord and Creator of the universe humbled Himself and became a man like us? If not for His incarnation, we would have no hope of salvation. Scripture tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and that “the wages of sin is death.” Praise God that “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). There is great importance in the fact that “in Him the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily.” Jesus did not just appear to be human, but was fully human and was tempted in the same way that we are, yet He remained sinless.
In mankind’s depravity (complete sinfulness), we needed someone to pay the debt that we built up and someone to represent us before God. Job himself cried out for an arbiter (Job 9), someone who could stand and plead to God on our behalf. If Jesus were not fully man, it would be impossible for us to attempt to imitate Him, to be made into His image. God made man in His image during Creation and since the fall (Gen. 3) we are being remade by the Holy Spirit conforming us to be like Christ (Eph. 1:3-14). Praise God for the wonderful gift that He has given us through the birth of His Son in that tiny manger in Bethlehem, where the Sovereign Lord showed His compassion and love by sending His Son, very God of very God, to be born of a woman in order to redeem humanity from their sin. Enjoy the beautiful decorations and festivities, but don’t let anything distract you from your worship of God for the wonderful gift that He has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Grace and Peace,
Jeff Scroggs
No comments:
Post a Comment