Tis the season for gift giving, Christmas cards and carols, gatherings that include delectable homemade goodies and Wassail, and listening to my Bing Crosby Christmas CD while wrapping gifts.
I’ve always loved the Christmas season.
It seems that people—for the most part—are happier, with an extra skip in their step.
Maybe it’s because they are thinking about what they can do for others and are less focused on their own problems.
I don’t know about you, but it always seems to me that the season enters and leaves too soon.
I have to work at not letting it overwhelm me, with all of my lists.
This Christmas, when family members are asking me what I want, I’m just telling them to get me gift cards so I can get some things I need.
It got me thinking, though.
What I want more than anything this Christmas can’t be bought in a store or redeemed with a gift card.
What I want more than anything is for everyone in this world to see the beautiful gospel and to personally experience the unconditional love of Christ.
I want them to understand why Christ came to this earth as a babe in a manger:
“When the right time came, God sent his Son who was born of a woman and lived under the law. God did this so he could buy freedom for those who were under the law and so we could become his children.”
Galatians 4:4-5 NCV
Before Jesus came, the whole world was separated from the Spirit (life) of God, enslaved to a list of dos and don’ts (Galatians 4:3).
For Jews, it was 613 rules and regulations which included the Ten Commandments, ceremonial, and sacrificial laws.
For Gentiles (everyone else), it was the law of conscience—the law of right and wrong (Romans 2:14-15).
The only way anyone could be right with God (or so we thought) was through good behavior.
As a child growing up (after I became a Christian), I remember operating under the false assumption that if I tried really hard to be good, God would be happy with me.
But if I was bad, then He would be super disappointed in me.
So, then I would have to work really hard to get back into His good graces.
You know, the balance scales where the good works outweigh the bad.
It was all about me and what I was doing for God to keep Him happy with me.
Let’s get real.
Where is the good news in that?
That system puffs up those who think they are doing a pretty good job of keeping God happy, but completely discourages those who just can’t seem to get their act together.
The good news is that a works-weary world can now rejoice because Jesus came to change everything!
He came so that we could be made forever right with God through simple faith in Him, not through our self-righteousness. (For a big picture of faith-based righteousness, click here.)
It sounds super unfair that anyone could be made forever right with God simply by grace through faith in Jesus.
The thing is, grace will never be fair.
That’s why the Good News is so, so good!
Jesus died on a cross for the forgiveness of our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life in Him. (See 1 Corinthians 15:1-6.)
“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 TLB
Before I conclude this post, I want to make sure you don’t misunderstand me.
In celebrating the good news of the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ, I am not saying that godly attitudes and actions aren’t important.
It is a good thing to express godly attitudes and actions because God recreated us as holy, righteous new creations when we believed into His Son.
When believers in Christ are good, they are just being themselves.
That’s all God really wants for Christians: To learn (get their minds renewed with truth) who they already and forever are in His Son and to just be themselves (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21).
I know it’s unrealistic to think that everyone in this world would receive this gift, so I know I’m not going to get what I really want this Christmas.
But, if only one person believed in Jesus through reading this post, I would be over-the-top ecstatic!
Friend, have you believed this beautiful gospel?
If you have, and you long to experience transformation through getting your mind renewed with truth about who you already and forever are in Him, both of my books are filled with this wonderful message.
If you haven’t, what do you think is keeping you from believing it?
I would love to hear from you!
Leave a Reply