Do any of you really like shopping for Christmas gifts? While I enjoy giving gifts at Christmas, I do not enjoy the act of shopping for them. It is, to put it plainly, a hassle. My mother gives everyone money, which makes things easy for her and generally satisfies all the recipients. On the other hand, I have both been the recipient of gifts that made me gasp in delight, and I've been the giver of such gifts.
Unfortunately, in our American society, the gift-giving surrounding Christmas has become a distortion of what it should be. I don't even need to elaborate here; the discerning reader knows exactly what I mean. So, why do we even give Christmas gifts, anyway? ("Anyways" is not a legitimate word, by the way.)
The initial reason we began to give Christmas gifts is explained in one of my very favorite Scripture passages (John 1:1-18, particularly verse 16 & 17) and modeled for us in the acts of the wise men in Matthew 2.
From the NET version:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.
6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children 13 —children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.
14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. 15 John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’” 16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.
John tells us that we have all received from Jesus Christ's fullness one gracious gift after another. He goes on to elaborate: God first gave the law to the Jews. But, Jesus fulfilled the law by giving us grace and truth. John said in verse 14 that Jesus was full of both.
The gift of grace is the greatest gift ever! God's gift of His Son reconciles and restores any human being to Him, if that person accepts God's offer of salvation by grace, only available through "the Only Begotten", Jesus. What is grace? Grace is God's unmerited favor - - - giving us what we do not deserve, which is His lovingkindness, His approval, His benevolence.
Our English word "grace" comes from the Greek word, "charis". This word is closely related to the Greek "chairo", which means "to rejoice". In the days of Homer, who wrote The Iliad and it's sequel, The Odyssey, long before the birth of Christ, the word meant "sweetness" or "attractiveness", later coming to mean the "undeserved favor bestowed upon someone by someone greater, that is, someone in a superior position."
It is important to understand the context of God's grace. To fully comprehend this gift, we must look at God's holiness, something often pushed aside in Christianity today. According to the Bible, God is holy, which means totally without sin. Jesus, being God Himself, is also holy, and lived the perfect human life while on earth. Holiness is a state of being that cannot tolerate the smallest smidgen of sin. Sin provokes wrath/anger in the heart of God. Wayne Jackson, writing in The Christian Courier, puts it like this:
"Divine wrath is the reflection of a deliberate and measured reaction of a perfectly holy Being toward sin — a response that is entirely consistent with the righteous nature of a loving God. Standing over against the starkness of sacred wrath, is the dazzling concept of “grace.”1
Who can tolerate the wrath of God? Who can stand against it? Who can be "good enough" to negate it?
No one.
And, that is why we have Christmas.
That is why Jesus had to be given, to be "made flesh and dwell among us" (vs. 14). He "took up residence among us", "made His home with us". One version says "pitched his tent with us". He IS grace and came, bearing grace, that first gift of Christmas.
Oh! Have you received His grace in your heart and life? While peace with God is made available to all people (Luke 2:14) God's grace is conditional in that each person must understand and obediently receive it. John Calvin distorted Scripture when he asserted that God's grace is bestowed through the sovereignty of God, irrespective of human will. The Calvinist position is negated elsewhere in Scripture, one notable example being that of Noah, another of Abraham, and so on.
The gift of grace is the greatest gift ever! God's gift of His Son reconciles and restores any human being to Him, if that person accepts God's offer of salvation by grace, only available through "the Only Begotten", Jesus. What is grace? Grace is God's unmerited favor - - - giving us what we do not deserve, which is His lovingkindness, His approval, His benevolence.
Our English word "grace" comes from the Greek word, "charis". This word is closely related to the Greek "chairo", which means "to rejoice". In the days of Homer, who wrote The Iliad and it's sequel, The Odyssey, long before the birth of Christ, the word meant "sweetness" or "attractiveness", later coming to mean the "undeserved favor bestowed upon someone by someone greater, that is, someone in a superior position."
It is important to understand the context of God's grace. To fully comprehend this gift, we must look at God's holiness, something often pushed aside in Christianity today. According to the Bible, God is holy, which means totally without sin. Jesus, being God Himself, is also holy, and lived the perfect human life while on earth. Holiness is a state of being that cannot tolerate the smallest smidgen of sin. Sin provokes wrath/anger in the heart of God. Wayne Jackson, writing in The Christian Courier, puts it like this:
"Divine wrath is the reflection of a deliberate and measured reaction of a perfectly holy Being toward sin — a response that is entirely consistent with the righteous nature of a loving God. Standing over against the starkness of sacred wrath, is the dazzling concept of “grace.”1
Who can tolerate the wrath of God? Who can stand against it? Who can be "good enough" to negate it?
No one.
And, that is why we have Christmas.
That is why Jesus had to be given, to be "made flesh and dwell among us" (vs. 14). He "took up residence among us", "made His home with us". One version says "pitched his tent with us". He IS grace and came, bearing grace, that first gift of Christmas.
Oh! Have you received His grace in your heart and life? While peace with God is made available to all people (Luke 2:14) God's grace is conditional in that each person must understand and obediently receive it. John Calvin distorted Scripture when he asserted that God's grace is bestowed through the sovereignty of God, irrespective of human will. The Calvinist position is negated elsewhere in Scripture, one notable example being that of Noah, another of Abraham, and so on.
"Grace, grace, God's grace! Grace that can pardon and cleanse, within. Grace, grace, God's grace! Grace that is greater than all my sin!"
"Grace Greater Than Our Sin", by Johnston/Towner, 1911
Please accept His matchless gift of grace today, and if you already have, rejoice! Thank Him for it, this first and best gift of Christmas!
Oh Lord! As I contemplate the many, precious gifts you have given me, the first on the list is your marvelous grace! Your love chased me and I was overwhelmed by your beauty and holiness, your lovingkindness and mercy. Thank you for this most wonderful gift of all. Thank you for Your Son, the One and Only, my Savior.
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