Why Are You Celebrating The Birth of Jesus Christ?

Christmas is here again. The shops are full of goodies; sales are going on everywhere; malls are teeming with buyers; gifts are being bought; cards are being exchanged; parties are being planned; carols are being sung; kids are excited; tourism is at its peak; lumberjacks are having a great time cutting down trees, and the first chapters of Matthew and Luke are being read extensively.

As is usual during this time of the year, people are in a jovial mood and merrymaking is at its best. Towns everywhere are painted red as revelers, both young and old, flock to their favorite joints to party, drink and dance the season away. Others use this opportunity to spend some quality time with their families and loved ones. Still, others simply make a lot of money out of it.

Nevertheless, in the midst of all this fanfare, it is good for us to ask ourselves an important question: ‘Why, and what for, am I celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ? Is it because I have received what He came to give me, or am I just celebrating for the fun of it? Has He found a home in my heart, or have other gods been lodging there? Do I walk with Him, or have I been determining my own path? Am I His true follower, or am I just His fan?’

Needless to say, Jesus Christ did not come so that we can have a ball and party till the break of dawn at every end of the year. He came to give us the gift of salvation. Those who have received this gift are the only ones who can truly celebrate His birth because they are the ones who have benefited from His coming. A person may eat, drink, make merry, sing Christmas carols at the top of their voice and receive and give 1001 Christmas wishes, but if they have not received the gift of salvation then in the end all that merrymaking counts for nothing. God will not welcome them into heaven just because they knew how to get their groove on and set the roof on fire with all their singing and dancing. He will welcome only those who got born again.

To understand the foolishness of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ while not saved and devoted to Him, let us take the example of a sick person who is suffering from a fatal but curable disease. A doctor brings him some medicine but instead of taking it, the sick person simply rejoices that the medicine is there and thanks the doctor for bringing it. As he continues to rejoice, the disease gets the better of him and he dies from it. If he had taken the medicine he would have lived, but since he rejected it, all his celebration is worthless. It cannot save him from his disease and it will not bring him back from the dead. The same is true about our Christmas celebrations. When the party is over and God calls each one of us to account for our time and actions on earth, it will be of no use for us to have celebrated with all our might yet end up being rejected by Him and told off as none of His (see Matthew 7:21-23), because we did not repent and become saved. The Bible says that Jesus Christ came to save us from sinfulness (see Luke 19:10, Luke 5:32 and Titus 2:11-14).

In Luke 13:26-27, Jesus talked about people who will tell Him of how they ate and drank with Him but it will be of no use. He will reject them even though they brushed shoulders with Him. How much less impressive will mere merrymaking in His name be? As the festive spirit fills the air, here are some verses to meditate on:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 14:17

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” – John 3:3

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Salvation is a Choice

Revelation 3:20

Salvation is a free gift. You can take it or leave it. If you don’t want to obey God, He will not force you to. All the same, He has made it known to us where our choices will lead us. If we choose to obey Him and live a righteous life, our destination will be heaven (eternal life). On the other hand, if we choose to live a sinful life, our destination will be hell (eternal suffering). He has done His part to make the first choice possible (click here to see how), but has also left room for those who prefer the second option. After all, the choice is ours, and we have the liberty to make it.

Even Jesus Christ made it clear how much of a choice salvation is when He said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) . And, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20).

Of course, many people choose to push away this gift in preference of an unsaved life of carnal and corrupt indulgences. After all, it is a gift. You can choose whether or not to take it.

However, it is important to note that “Although we are free to choose, we are not free from the consequences of our choices.” If someone chooses to live an unsaved life, then they should be ready to go to hell when their time on earth runs out. Nobody ever knows when that time will be (Ecclesiastes 8:8),and so nobody ever knows whether they have just enough time to make that commitment before it becomes too late and they die unsaved. This is quite unfortunate, because many people plan to get saved just toward the end of their lives. After all, that is how valuable God and salvation are to them. They see them as something to be ignored and not really paid much attention to because there are so many other things that are more interesting, worth the while and more to be preferred than God and salvation. Of course, God knows our hearts very well (Jeremiah 17:10), and He can see all this. There is no need to pretend that we adore Him when our lives and choices say otherwise. Actions speak louder than words, and what we do says

i.    whether or not we value God,

ii.   how much we do so, and

iii.  whether we have other ‘gods’ that we have placed above Him.

We may believe that there is a God and that Jesus Christ is His Son who died for the sins of the world, but unless we put this faith into action, it is dead. Hear what the Bible says about action-less faith:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” – James 2:14.

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” – James 2:26.

Therefore, the fact that the Bible says that Jesus Christ came so that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” does not mean that if we simply believe that God and Jesus exist and that they did what they did but leave it at that then we are saved. James corrected those who think this way when he said:

“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.” – James 2:19.

Our faith must therefore be matched by our actions, and believing in Jesus goes hand in hand with repenting and devoting our lives to Him. The Bible says:

“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” – Acts 17:30.

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” – John 3:3.

“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” – Hebrews 12:14

At the same time, the Bible warns us that our good deeds alone will not save us.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9.

“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” – Romans 3:20

Therefore, God will not accept us into heaven just because we did several good things in our lives. We must go the whole way of putting our faith in Jesus Christ, repenting and turning away from our sins, receiving The Holy Spirit, living a righteous life based on God’s Word, and sharing the good news with others, if we are to enter the kingdom of God. As the Bible says:

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” – Titus 2:11-14

Conclusion:

Now that you have read this, you can make what is popularly known as ‘an informed choice’. You can choose to brush salvation aside for now and wait – for who knows what (as we saw earlier), or you can choose to place the security of your soul above the many other things that demand attention, and say “Yes, Lord.” The choice, as we have ultimately seen, is yours.

If you would like to say the salvation prayer and turn your life over to God, click here.

“For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” – 2 Corinthians 6:2.

Why Jesus Christ Had To Die

An actor portrays the crucifixion

Before I got born again, I didn’t quite understand why Jesus Christ had to die on the cross. Like many other people, when asked that question, I would mechanically echo the words that I had heard ever since I was a child: ‘He came to die for our sins.’ Nevertheless, if you would have asked me to explain it in greater detail, I couldn’t have. I didn’t understand why God couldn’t just forgive us without going through all that trouble. I thought that simply asking Him for forgiveness every now and then whenever I felt guilty was all that it took for sin to be dealt with. However, I was terribly wrong. If that had been the case, then Jesus Christ would not have needed to go through all the torment and pain that He did. The fact that He suffered so much is a clear indication of the gravity involved in this matter. It is important to understand the whys, whats and hows of His mission on earth in order to have the right standing in one’s spiritual walk. Failing to do so makes us prone to the many misconceptions and deceptions that plague mankind.

In light of this, I would love to share the wealth of knowledge that came my way when this vital truth finally became known to me.

In the Bible, God makes it clear that blood is required in order for any sin to be forgiven. Hebrews 9:22 says that “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.” This means that in order for us to receive forgiveness from God, blood must be involved.

Image from bibleplaces.com

In the Old Testament days of Moses, God affirmed this policy when He gave Moses instructions about what was to be done when the people had sinned. An animal without any defect had to be slaughtered and its blood presented before God in order for Him to hear the penitent person’s prayer and pardon him/her. Similarly, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, God made garments of skin for them to cover their shame with. Skin, as we all know, comes from a slaughtered animal, which means that blood had to be shed in the process.

Now, recounting what happened in the garden of Eden, God firmly declared that committing a sin would result in death. When God says something, it must come to pass unless valid compensation can be made for it. In Leviticus 17:14, He stated that “the life of every creature is its blood”. In addition, Romans 6:23 describes death as the wages of sin.

Based on these facts, we can therefore conclude that:

1)         Death = The Payment(Punishment) for Sin   (Romans 6:23,Genesis 2:17)

2)         Death = Loss of Life

3)         Blood = Life     (Leviticus 17:14)

4)         Loss of Blood = Loss of Life = Death

   Therefore:

5)         Loss(Shedding) of Blood = The Payment(Compensation) for Sin

   And:

6)      No Bloodshed = No Compensation for Sin = No Forgiveness     (Hebrews 9:22)

Having understood all this, the question now becomes: “What is its implication to us?” Do we have to slaughter an animal every time that we have sinned and present its blood before God?

The answer, as you may have well guessed, is No. Nevertheless, God’s requirement of blood as the atoning sacrifice for sin still stands. All that has changed is the source of that blood.

Image from farm-dreams.com

In the Old Testament, animals merely served as a temporary substitute for the real thing. This is because the blood (i.e. life) of an animal cannot in any way be equated to that of a human being. Human beings are of a higher status and nature than animals. The Mosaic ordinances that God had instituted were simply representative of the final and ultimate sacrifice: the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Jesus Christ is described as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He offered His own blood as the payment for man’s sin. Just as the animals offered in Moses’ days were required to be blameless, Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of God, was innocent of any sin. His death and suffering served as the substitute for the eternal death and suffering that we deserve for our sins. It was a case of life for life – the momentary loss of His life in place of the eternal loss of ours. He was the one-time sacrificial offering for the sins of every person who has ever, and will ever, live.

However, in order for any of us to obtain the forgiveness that was purchased through this blood, one thing is required from each one of us: We must all individually turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and accept Him to be the Lord (i.e. governor) and Savior of our lives, acknowledging and confessing our sins, and making the firm decision to thereafter walk in holiness as stipulated in God’s word.  This is what being born again entails, and baptism is done so as to symbolize it.

In John 3:3, Jesus said that “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Image from gracecounsellors.com

This involves being transformed through the power of Jesus’ blood and The Holy Spirit, into a new being ordained to walk in righteousness in obedience to God. It is in this way that a person becomes a child of God and is filled with The Holy Spirit, the seal of God’s ownership and approval upon a person (Ephesians 1:13, Galatians 4:6, Ephesians 4:30, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Romans 8:15).

As the spirit of the holy God, The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in an unclean place. The blood of Jesus Christ must first cleanse a person in order to make him/her habitable. The person must also remain habitable if The Holy Spirit is to continue living in him/her. This can only be achieved by living a life that is founded on God’s Word.

This call to holiness is outlined in Hebrews 10:26-31 which says:

“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

The blood of Jesus Christ is holy, and it is the only kind of blood that could have met the demands of the sacrifice required for our redemption. Only Jesus Christ ever walked (and will ever walk) this planet without committing any sin, and therefore only He could have overcome death – the punishment of a sinner. The rest of us are all guilty of sin and must either repent and turn away from it to receive Christ’s blood-bought forgiveness, or rebel and receive the due punishment for our sins – eternal separation from God in the place of eternal torment, what is referred to as “the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

Now that you have known the truth about God’s plan of salvation, you are better placed to position yourself appropriately as an heir of His saving grace. May His peace be upon you as you do so, and may the following words bless you in a brand new way:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16

You may click here to say the salvation prayer.