God So Loved the World

I wrote this post before Christmas, but somehow never got it posted to my blog until now.  I’m posting it now because it’s important to me!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  John 3:16-17
By now most of us have our homes decorated for Christmas.  Fragrant aromas are coming from our kitchens.  Gifts are being wrapped and cards are being mailed.  This Sunday evening, we will meet together for worship, sing praises to God for the gift of His Son, pray together in communal thanksgiving, and follow it all up with an all-church Christmas party afterward. It’s our tradition; and we enjoy these unchanging traditions because we know we serve a God who never changes.   Christmas is the second-greatest proof in history of the love of God.   (The first is, of course, the cross.)  The God of Christmas loves us so much that He laid His Son in a humble manger knowing the shadow of the cross fell across it.  This is the good news that we proclaim every week when we gather around His table and experience communion with Him.  We believe that bread and that cup represent the flesh and
blood of God!  God was “with us” and God died for us because He loves us that much.   We don’t need Christmas to know God is powerful.  We can look at the Creation for that.  We don’t need Christmas to know God is wise.  We can look at the way the seasons change and the cycle of life in everything around us and observe His wisdom. We need Christmas to know God loves us.  We needed God to come down here and live “with us” to know the expanse of His love for us.  Only divine wisdom could conceive of such an answer for the sinful condition of men.  But only divine LOVE could let this answer be born as a child, laid in a manger somewhere in Bethlehem. When we celebrate Christmas with our families, we need to ponder the enormity of this thought – that God became flesh, that God was with us and that God died to save us.  Ponder the reality of Christmas – God in the flesh – taking on flesh and bone and blood because it was the only way to satisfy the sin problem of men.  As you put out your beautiful decorations, with the glitter and lights, realize your efforts to make your home lovely and filled with light and fragrance, are an act of praise to God for the
love that Christmas represents.   Christmas points to God and that is what we are really thankful for and what we are sharing in the gifts we give and receive.  God is the author of the Christmas story.   God is the main character.  God is the hero.   The Bible says in Titus 3:4-7: But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  We can’t talk about the birth of Christ without giving glory to God.  The kindness of God and His love for mankind appeared in the life of a baby boy born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger.  God is the One who made us heirs and gave us the gift of eternal life.  Jesus is God’s love for us.  He is our gift.