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Were you made for Christmas?
Christmas is a time of holiday and celebration, of giving presents, entertaining
and being entertained, for most people. For some however it is a time of
loneliness or disappointment, of pain and isolation. Sometimes, even for those
who enjoy Christmas, the burden and the pressure of Christmas seems more than
the joy. Sometimes it feels that we are the slave of Christmas, with so much
pressure and demands coming with it that it is as though we were made for
Christmas instead of it being for our benefit.
Would it be surprising to learn that the Bible’s message is indeed that we
were made for Christmas, though in a different sense to the feelings of
weariness and domination that we may perhaps feel?
In the Christian calendar Christmas celebrates the time of the birth of
Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus was special. He was special in that His
birth was not His beginning. In fact the Bible claims that before Jesus was born
He was God and He made everything –
JOHN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the
beginning with God. 3 All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him
nothing came into being that has come into being.
At the first Christmas this person that the Bible describes as the Creator,
was born into the world as Jesus –
JOHN 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and
dwelt among us …
If this was all that the Bible has to tell us it might be an interesting
story, but it would really only be of any relevance to those who were around at
that time and at that place. But the Bible has two even more astounding things
that it wants us to hear.
1. The first is that the very reason that we exist is
so that Jesus could become a man, become incarnate. In that sense, yes we were
made for Christmas!
The story of man’s beginning (Genesis1) tells us that God made man ‘in His
image’. The Bible also tells us that Jesus is
COLOSSIANS 1:15 … the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of all creation.
The incarnation of Jesus is the main reason for the creation. The point is
that God made and designed man in order to be the means through which the Son of
God could enter into the creation and become physically real.
Man was made to be the means for the incarnation; mankind was indeed made for
Christmas.
2. The second astounding thing that the Bible shows
us is that the purpose of the incarnation of Jesus is so that this creature man
might become members of God’s own family. It tells us that God’s design was that
we would become His children in as real a way as the incarnation made Jesus a
real physical being. This was God’s plan, God’s design from before the dawn of
time.
EPHESIANS 1:4 … In love 5 He
predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself …
God predestined (that is designed) us so that we could (through Jesus) become
members of His family.
And the book of Ephesians goes on to claim that God did it –
EPHESIANS 2:7 in order that in the ages to
come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus.
| The creation of man in Genesis 1 was
only the first step in God’s design; Christmas was the second, and bringing
us into His own family is the third. |
If all this is true, why then is everything not perfect? The Bible’s
explanation is that man chose to turn away from God and do things his own way.
This is what the Bible calls sin; and it has brought misery and death. Has sin
then defeated God’s design? NO! Perhaps the greatest part of the Bible’s message
is that, in the event that Christians celebrate as Easter, Jesus, the Incarnate
Son of God, took our sin upon Himself and died to remake us (regeneration/being
‘born again’) –
ROMANS 5:6 For while we were still
helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
This means that each of us has the choice of remaining independent of God,
and separate from God’s plans (designs) for us, or to come back to Him and ask
Him to put us back into His plans for our good. The Bible describes this as
repentance and faith, and assures us that all who do this are brought into the
family of God, as God originally planned –
GALATIANS 3:26 For you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.
Yes we were made for Christmas, but Christmas was also made for us.
If this message just might be true, would it not be worth checking it out?
The Bible is the place to start.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, ©
Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The
Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org
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