A new beginning was ushered in

Someone recently asked me about Christmas. What’s the significance? Why do you celebrate it? Is it not just another commercial holiday? Well, for me, Christmas is not just another holiday or a time to rest and spend with loved ones. Though these things are quite important, it’s a whole lot more than that. So, I will try my best to explain why I celebrate Christmas and what it means to me.

Christmas is a celebration of a significant event in history. It is a remembrance of an important birth, one that marks the ushering in of a new era for me and for many believers like me. Approximately 2030 years ago, give or take, a child was born. The exact year and the exact date of His birth is not known though many scholars have estimations on when that would have been. That’s okay because it’s really about a birthday. It’s about celebrating God taking on human form, coming into the world and saving us. More on that in a moment.

One thing that makes this birth significant is that it had been foretold in Scripture at the time, and therefore, was a long-awaited event. One prophet, Isaiah, foretold it in Isaiah 9:6 -7 ESV saying “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.” Micah, the prophet, foretells the place of birth as well in Micah 5:2 ESV, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

This Son who was born ushered in a new kingdom – the kingdom of heaven – a kingdom of light instead of darkness; freedom instead of captivity; healing in place of sickness and infirmity; joy and rejoicing in place of sorrow and moaning; abundance in place of lack and spiritual enlightenment and prosperity in place of ignorance and spiritual poverty. In Matthew 11: 5 – 6, Jesus said, “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Jesus did and still does heal those who are blind, sick, deaf, sick, and dead, both literally and figuratively. Jesus provides for those in any kind of need.

I have also heard it said that He came into the world to testify about the truth and I believe that. What truth? The truth about who God is, His heart for us and what it takes for us to have a relationship with Him. God is our Father – He created us in His image and we were designed to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to have eternal companionship with Him. He loves us more than we could even understand and wants only good things for us. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’”

At some point, because of sin, we were separated from this friendship with God. Sin is living outside the design of God and choosing to do our own thing or go our own way instead of what God wants for us. The serpent who represents Satan, the enemy of our souls, asked that age-old trick question, “Did God really say…?” He would still have us ask that question today, and it is a trick question because of what that question represents. See, asking questions is not a bad thing. God would have us ask Him anything. It’s the desire and the purpose of the questioning that was problematic.

Several times in the Bible, God invites us to talk it out with Him and to get to know Him. For example, in Isaiah 1:18 we hear, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Amos 3:3 BST echoes the same sentiment, “Shall two walk together at all, if they do not know one another?” When the serpent asked if God had really said not to eat the forbidden fruit, he was inviting man to deny God’s authority and rule and choose their own in an attempt to be like God. He still sends out that invitation today, every day – our design and wisdom over God’s. 

Now, God takes a very hard stance on sin because it breaks our friendship with Him and has us living as far less than He ever intended us to be. It separates us from God and we incur a penalty for denying God. That penalty is death, and not just literally, but figuratively as well. Many times, I have been asked why I would follow a God who dishes out death and penalties. Here is the thing, God is the author of life and without Him, there can be none. God is peace. He is love. God authored joy and everything good. God wants us to understand that the moment we do not choose Him, we are also turning our back on everything that He personifies.

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. 
Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. 
Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” 
Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 6:23 NLT. So, God sent the only remedy to the problem of sin, His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6 ESV, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.” In John 10:9-10 ESV, He says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Over the centuries, we forgot how we came to live in sin, separated from God. We forgot who we are according to God. Our desire for Him grew cold. Who is He? Does He even exist? Do I need Him? What does it mean for my life to believe in Him. Then, enter in Jesus, the Son of God to answer our questions. Jesus revealed and still reveals the character of God our Father, what His heart for us is and what His plans for our future are. Jesus showed and still shows how God would have us live our lives, what our true identity is in Him, and how to be reconciled with Him in friendship. 

When man ate of the forbidden fruit, everything in creation fell under the curse of sin. “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time,” Romans 8:20-22 NLT. Jesus, being the only perfect person and being God, is able to take on all our sin upon Himself (past, present and future sins) and pay the penalty for sin that we are supposed to pay.

Hebrews 10: 11 – 12 NLT tells us this, “Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honour at God’s right hand.” That is why Christmas is significant to me. It is a day on which followers of Christ have chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ because it marks the beginning of salvation and the end of the hold of death and sin over my life. It is the beginning of a new era! John the Baptist said it aptly in John 1:29 ESV when he said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Love,