WHAT WE OVERLOOK AT CHRISTMAS

“Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. (Galatians 4:1-6)

Christmas is not our reaching out or up to God. Christmas is God reaching down to us. The Christmas story has become too familiar. That is a pity. When the incarnation of God as the baby Jesus becomes as repetitious as turkey leftovers, we lose sight of the significance of God’s incredible act.

In the comfortable warmth of the manger scene, we forget why God chose to become human. A man woke up to find that two birds had somehow flown into his house. He opened doors and windows for them, but they could not find their way out. He tried to show them out, but they only became more panic-stricken. In his frustration, he thought: “they can’t understand that I’m trying to help them. But if I could become one of them, I could show them the way out.” After a while, he stopped and suddenly realized that that was what God had done. All through the Old Testament, God tried to tell humans how to free themselves from sin. Because he would not or could not, God decided to show us. Therefore, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

There is a difference between becoming human, which is what happened in Jesus, and merely assuming a human disguise. God could have taken the form of an instant adult, bypassing thirty years of growing pains. But then God would not really have been one of us. God’s choice was to share the full human experience from birth to death.

In the Christmas story, God sends humanity a message. What is that message? It speaks of a gift that He had for us. The story tells us that God is the giver of the gift. The capability of the giver usually gauges the value of the gift. We would expect God to give the ultimate in gifts, and He did. The Bible says: “He spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all” (Romans 8:32).

The motive of God’s gift was love. “God so loved.” Christmas tells us that God loves us. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee…” (John 3:10). The whole world is the receiver of God’s gift. “God so loved the world that He gave…” Most gifts are labeled for a certain individual, but God plays no favorites: “God is no respecter of persons.” God’s gift is for everyone.

The Christmas story speaks of the value of the gift that He gave. Sacrificial gifts are the expression of genuine love. God generously, lovingly, and sacrificially gave His only begotten Son as the atonement for our sins. The Bible tells us in Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, this is what Christmas is all about. The Word of God tells us that one soul is worth more than the whole world. It is impossible for us to estimate the value of the gift that God gave.

When God gave His gift, He made it personal, to you and me. I am convinced that Christ would have died on the cross if I had been the only sinner on the earth. We think in terms of mass communication and mass production, but God deals on the scale of the individual. In John 3:16 you can write your name over the “whosoever”, for that means you. What a glorious thought at Christmas, that God loves us as individuals! He is interested in you as an individual. In this age with all its emptiness, loneliness, anguish, guilt, suffering, and bereavement, it is a thrilling thing to know that God is concerned for every person everywhere.

A gift is not a gift unless it is accepted. Ownership is conditional upon acceptance. That is why the Word of God says: “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.” God does not force His gift on us, but He asks us to receive by faith His gift.