'Tis the Season. 'Tis the Reason.

What a wonderful time of the year. We shop, we eat, we get together with family and celebrate. However, do we really remember the significance of the season?

This article doesn't debate whether Christ was actually born on Christmas Day (most people know this wasn't the case). It doesn't debate whether or not we should have a Christmas tree or whether we should indeed celebrate Christmas at all. This article focuses on the reason why He came and why the Christmas Story is so significant.

Let's start at the beginning. Why did Jesus have to be born and why did we need a Saviour?

At creation everything God created was perfect including the man (Adam) and his wife (Eve). They enjoyed an intimate relationship with God and each other. Then they sinned against God by disobeying Him which caused the fall of man. The fall of man was not God getting angry and kicking Adam and his wife out of the Garden of Eden for the sake of it or to teach them a lesson. The fall of man refers to the change in the whole order of things after Adam and his wife Eve gave over all their spiritual rights, and their authority and power, to the devil. It set a course which made it impossible for them to operate spiritually as they did before. It brought about death and separation that was ireversable and they could not dwell with God in His presence anymore. They went from having glorified bodies to becoming mere flesh. God had to protect them from more destruction and for their own good banished them from the Garden.

It was never God's plan for this to happen but He had given man free will and Adam made the choice but his choice would mean permanent seperation from God. God could not allow that to happen. His deep love for us as a Father meant He had to come up with a plan to save us, to redeem us, to rescue us. In fact when we say that we are saved, this is what we are referring to, salvation from being eternally sperated from God. Salvation from the destruction and decay brought about by the fall of man. Salvation from the consequences of sin and spiritual death and salvation from the grave and eternal damnation.

God's plan however, had to be legal. In other words He couldn't just come to earth and pull us all out. Why? Because He was limited by His own laws that he had set at the beginning of time. He gave man authority and He gave man choice (Deut 30:19). Man chose to give that authority to Satan after being deceived by the serpent in the Garden (Genesis 31-7). God couldn't legally come into a place that He didn't have authority in. God does not go against His own laws. He does not change the laws as He feels like it and He does not break His laws. He doesn't change His Word (Is 55:11, Num 23:19, Ps 89:34).

God had to redeem us legally. He couldn't come as God but He could come as man. Jesus was all God and all man. Jesus was born from the incorruptible seed of God. Jesus was God and because of that He was completely Holy and therefore He would be the perfect sacrifice, better than any animal, to take the punishment for our sins. The Bible says that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood (Heb 9:22) so blood has to be shed to remove sin. However, the blood of bulls and rams could never permanently remove the stain of sin but the blood of the Holy Lamb Jesus is so powerful that it can remove the effects of sin eternally once and for all, forever (Romans 6:10). 

The reason why we celebrate the birth of Jesus is because His birth signified the reason He came. To save the lost through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross by paying the price for the punishment of our sins and in so doing, completely defeating sin and the death that comes through sin. Jesus' death and resurrection enabled Him to give the power of LIFE back to us. Spiritual life. The spiritual life we lost at the fall so that we can return back to our pre-Adamic state of union with God and have our spiritual authority restored.

This means that we are back in control of our lives. We have control over sin and death, sickness and disease. We have been redeemed from the curse of the law and all its consequences. We have been given a new nature. The nature of God. We are new creations. But most importantly, we have been restored back to relationship with our Father.

This is almost too good to be true news. THIS is why we celebrate and celebrate we should. This is the best thing that ever has or ever will happen to humanity. If this doesn't get you on fire then your wood is wet!

Merry CHRISTmas as you celebrate the true meaning of Christmas!