Today and in recent days you will hear or have heard and read messages about the meaning of Christmas. That God came to be with us: that he is Emmanuel. That we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. That God came to bring peace on earth. That we are made in the image of God and God loves us all, each and every one. All of that is true.
But if that is the only reason God came to earth in the form of a man named Jesus then his death on the cross failed. We do not love our neighbors. There is not peace on earth. Though we may be made in the image of God, we are poor replicas. Anyone who takes time to read the Bible – or at least the New Testament – will find that the overwhelming reason that God came in the form of a man named Christ was to save us from our sins.
We are made in the image of God; that is true. But we serve a lesser god. We serve Satan. And until we acknowledge that we serve a false god and cry out to be free from his tyranny, we are destined to remain slaves to sin and die in our sins. The true meaning of Christmas is that God came to liberate us from the life we live and the death sentence we received. To elevate any other message above this as the reason for Christmas is to treat the death of God and his resurrection as a social movement that will fade – as have all other human fads.
The mystery of God coming in the form of a man named Jesus has perplexed men and women and religious scholars for years. Here is one way to think of the event and why it is crucial to your soul.
Adam was created by God. Adam was not born but built from dust and received his life from the breath of God. In that mouth-to-nostrils moment Adam received the divine spirit into his being. Then Adam faced a choice: side with Eve who had already disobeyed God and be with his mate partner, or side with God. Adam picked Eve – the creation over the creator – and the DNA of man (Adam) changed from divine to mortal. This is a mystery. But it also is an undeniable fact that every human born since Adam died or will die.
God in his love sought to restore us to his divine nature, to breathe his spirit into us anew and return us to our intended divine nature. So God picked a virgin to be his mother. This too is a mystery: that God would seed himself into Mary through his spirit and then be born from Mary as an infant. This act was necessary so that the DNA of God could be born into a man named Jesus. Christ possessed the DNA of Mary, his mother, and God his father: the divine and the mortal. To prove he was both divine and mortal, Jesus lived as a man, lived without committing one sin, and allowed himself to be falsely accused and executed for daring to claim his father was God: that in fact he was God. Dead and buried, three days later he came up from the grave and appeared to hundreds to prove his words were true and that he was God in the flesh.
Today, tonight, the next day, if you know in your heart that you cannot keep yourself from doing the things you know are wrong … if you sense in your soul you were created for something more, have a destiny greater than can be contained on this earth … if you fear death … ask Christ to meet with you. That’s it. That’s all. Just a meeting between you and God. If you don’t like his terms walk away. His terms, are simple: his life for yours – his spirit’s divine DNA for your spirit’s mortal DNA. If you accept his offer and receive his spirit, you will be changed: if not overnight then over time. The fruit of his spirit will testify to this transaction. But you must ask for his spirit, confess you need God the Christ to save you, and believe he will – believe that he has power over death and sin.
Today, tonight, the next day if you think exchanging your life for the divinity of God’s is a good deal, accept his terms. It is by far the best Christmas bargain you’ll ever find.