Simply put, God so loved the world that He sent His only Son Jesus to be our savior. This implies to me that God, although He loved mankind, didn’t like what man was doing. The Bible calls that sin; which is our faults, offences, and trespasses which includes anything that we do, think, or say that separates man from God. In other words, all of mankind is a sinner in need of a savior; a deliverer, that is, God or Christ.
But, as the angel said to those shepherds on that first Christmas morning; “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11). God in His great love for us (not what we do) sent His Son to be a Savior for us!
And, He did this BEFORE we even knew about it! God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:6-9)
That is why the multitude of the heavenly hosts SUDDENLY was praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:13-14). They saw that God Himself sent One who would save sinful mankind by His death, burial, and resurrection. He would be the Savior of the world; FOR ALL OF US!
This Christmas we celebrate that Jesus came, not so that we would spend more money than we have on others, but to let us know that God really does love us; inspite of how we live. And He came to help us change; each one of us, if we will let Him. He simply wants us to come to Him and agree with what He calls sin and agree to go a different direction with His help.
“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.”
-- Roy Lessin
And when you do that, Christmas takes on a whole new meaning.
Actually, it takes on its original meaning.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
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