Jesus, the Reason for the Season

Christmas means a lot of different things to different people. For some, it’s about decorations and gifts, for others it’s about spending time with family, and for others it’s about extending goodwill toward mankind. Those things are all great in their proper place, but to focus on any of those things alone or together falls short of the true meaning of the holiday as it has been celebrated for centuries. I want to take the time in this post to write about the real reason we celebrate Christmas, and to do so, I want to begin in the book of John.

John begins his gospel by writing “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1) Right away, he establishes that the Word (Jesus Christ) was in the beginning, before time began. The word beginning in the original language carries with it the idea of being an origin or an active cause. Next, we see that the Word was with God (the Father), and that the word was God. So, Jesus is the origin or active cause of creation, He was with God, and He was Himself God. John restates that He (Jesus) was in the beginning with God (V 2). These verses should immediately take us back to the very first verse of the first chapter of the Bible where it states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Gen 1:1) For time’s sake, I won’t go into great detail, but the word for God here is in the plural, meaning three or more. So, the first time the word God appears in the Bible, we see reference to the trinity. We are all probably familiar with this passage that appears around Christmastime: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2) This word for everlasting means the days of eternity or beyond the vanishing point. Jesus was co-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity past.

John continues, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (Jn 1:3) In other words, Jesus is the person of the godhead that is primarily responsible for creation. John is emphatic that Jesus created all things, and that without Him nothing was made that was made. This means everything, including the angels. So, this Jesus who we remember as coming as a babe in a manger at Christmas time is the God and creator of the entire universe and everything in it. This should fill us with awe and wonder.

Many of us know what happened next. Eve was deceived by the serpent into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then she gave some to her husband as well. This plunged the entire human race into sin. The Bible and the rest of history tell the story of the downfall and depravity of mankind as they have rejected God for their own selfish pleasures. All the horrible atrocities that have been committed throughout Antiquity, and even to the present, have been from Man’s rejecting God and His laws. However, God had a remedy from the foundation of the world, and it was about two thousand years ago that He put this plan into action.

The God and creator of the entire universe humbled Himself, stepped off His throne, left His glory behind, and took on human form. Not only this, He was born in the lowliest of conditions. He was born in a barn, wrapped in swaddling (grave) clothes, and laid in a feeding trough by His mother who was seen in the eyes of many as an adulteress or fornicator. John again writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14) The word for dwelt is tabernacled, and speaks to Jesus’ earthly body that He took on. It’s important to note that Jesus did not give up His deity (godhood), but simply added humanity to it. The author of Hebrews writes, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb 1:1-3) Here, we see that Jesus radiates the glory of the Father, and is Himself the express image or exact imprint of the person of the Father. It is this divine essence which He shares with the Father that is the foundation or undergirding of His humanity. He is both fully God and fully man. It is through this God man whom the Father has seen fit to speak to us in these last days.

This begs the question, why did God do this? Why did Jesus leave His throne in Heaven to take on human form.  First, He wanted to show mankind who God is in a way we could relate. As we have already seen, Jesus is the exact imprint of His Father, inscribed with the very same nature and character as Him. While on earth, He told Philip and the other disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (Jn 14:9) Back in chapter one, John tells us that Jesus came full of grace and truth. He is a perfectly loving and perfectly holy God. In our finite minds it is difficult at times to grasp this, but sinners liked being around Jesus. He showed them kindness and compassion, while still telling them the truth about their sin. In this He demonstrated the heart of His Father.

Second, He wanted to walk in our shoes. He lived a life facing all the same temptations and challenges that we do, yet He did it without sin. The author of Hebrews again writes, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15) In this, we have a compassionate High Priest who experienced firsthand what it is like to be a human being, and because of this, we can approach the throne of God with boldness to ask for grace to help in time of need.

Third and most importantly, he wanted to redeem us from our sins. The incarnation of Jesus Christ was truly an extraordinary miracle, but it was only a means to an even greater miracle, that is the cross. Because of His love for mankind, Jesus went to the cross to pay a debt that was never His, and He did so to save you and me. Both Father and the Holy Spirit are credited with raising Jesus from the Dead, but Jesus stated He had the power to raise Himself. He stated, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” (Jn 10:17-18) Jesus raised Himself from the dead, and He offers this same resurrection life to all who will believe on Him. This is the chief reason He came, to save sinners like you and me.

My intent in writing this post is not to draw anyone with persuasive words of human wisdom, but that the Holy Spirit would demonstrate His power by drawing you to Jesus Christ if you are not a Christian. We have all sinned, and the only way to be right with a holy God is through faith in the Jesus Christ of the Bible for salvation. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas what they must do to be saved, they responded, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31) That’s it; it is really that simple! This belief is not a mere intellectual acknowledgement that Jesus exists, for even the demons believe that and tremble. It is a belief that places one’s complete trust and confidence in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross to save them from their sins. If you have not done this, please do so today. The world is ripe for the judgment of God, and Jesus is the only way to escape this judgment. If you are a believer, draw near to the Lord during this Christmas season. If you have allowed sin into your life, confess it to him, for He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. If you harbor bitterness toward someone for something they have done, forgive them as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you. Remember, He is not a babe in the manger any longer, but is the God man who by Himself has purged our sins, and is now seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Thank Him for taking on human form, for walking in our shoes, and thank Him for going to the cross and rising again to save us from our sins.

 

The following is a story told by Paul Harvey, and helps to illustrate God’s desire to take on human form:

“The man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man. “I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound…Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud…At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them…He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms…Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn. And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me…That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. “If only I could be a bird,” he thought to himself, “and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safe, warm…to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand.” At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells – Adeste Fidelis – listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.”