Tag Archives: Christmas

December 4, 2025 · 11:51 am

The patriarchy ends at Christmas

Anyone who has read through or has tried to read through the Old Testament has run into the genealogies. You know, the “He beget so and so-s” that seems to go on interminably.

But there is a reason for them. God promised that he would send a redeemer. Through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through David, Solomon and so forth.

He promised that through the nation of Israel, he would redeem every nation on earth. Israel was his “firstborn son” and would inherit everything in the heavens and the earth if they were obedient and faithful. And so fathers beget sons, the Lord “seeking the godly seed”.

Originally, the patriarch of the family served as the priest for the family, but this went away when Aaron and his sons were appointed. It wasn’t “fatherhood” that made men priests. It was the promise of God pointing to his “godly seed”.

For even the sons of Levi needed purifying. Even Israel needed redeeming.

Throughout the Old Testament, you read about slaughters, murders, destruction, executions, rapes, slavery, idolatry, sacrificing children to Molech. God eventually cast Israel away. They would not be the firstborn son that God was seeking.

Jeremiah 15:3–6 (RSV)
3 “I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the LORD: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
      5 “Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
      or who will bemoan you?
      Who will turn aside
      to ask about your welfare?
      6 You have rejected me, says the LORD,
      you keep going backward;
      so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you;—
      I am weary of relenting.

In case you were wondering how a God of love could do this, remember what Manasseh did. He burned children alive as sacrifices to Molech. The air of Jerusalem was filled with the screams of children and the weeping of mothers.

But the God of Love redeemed even Manasseh eventually. (But that is another story).

For our story, God had cut Israel off. This is Satan’s great work. He is the accuser. He says, “God, how can you be just? Look at the atrocities that your people are committing? And yet you continue to permit them to live. How can you be just? If you declare them righteous, you are the worst judge ever. If you declare them guilty, then how can they be saved? It looks like you are stuck to me.”

The scary part is that Satan was right. How can a judge be just and allow the atrocities that God allows? And if God’s justice responds to rape and murder and hate and theft and war and greed and the slaughter and starvation of children then how can he be Love?

But the genealogies continued. It is almost as if God wasn’t listening. Everyone is waiting. What will he do?

And while the world waits for God’s response, like Habakkuk on the tower, the genealogies continue.

1 Chronicles 3:16–24 (RSV)
16 The descendants of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son; 17 and the sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son, 18 Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah; 19 and the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shime-i; and the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith was their sister; 20 and Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed, five. 21 The sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah, his son Rephaiah, his son Arnan, his son Obadiah, his son Shecaniah. 22 The sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. And the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat, six. 23 The sons of Neariah: Eli-o-enai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam, three. 24 The sons of Eli-o-enai: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani, seven.

I know… long and dull. But in the midst of all of these names, there was still hope. Fathers beget sons and the world waited for the Son of David.

There is even a hint of what is to come – Shelomith, his sister… Is this about patriarchy, rule, power, strength and control? That way already came to a bloody end when Jehoiakim was taken captive. What does Shelomith the daughter of Zerubbabel have to do with the promise of the coming Son of David? (Hebrew: Messhiach- the anointed)

C.S. Lewis said through the mouth of Aslan “there is a deeper magic that the witch doesn’t know” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

She knows about the magic of the natural order. She knows about the “soul that sins shall die.” She knows about law and order, about justice, and all of the “begets”. And she knows how to wage war and pit God’s justice against God’s love, which is really all that patriarchy has to offer.

But there was a “deeper magic” that she didn’t understand, written before the foundation of the world.

The “seed of the woman” would crush the head of the serpent.

Through all of the begets, one right after another, the deeper magic seemed forgotten. Perhaps God is reminding us by mentioning a daughter that he hadn’t forgotten the deeper magic

How can a woman has a seed? Men have seed (Latin: semen). There is something outside of and beyond the natural order that will come through and redeem the world of murder and hatred and racism and genocide and death.

The New Testament starts with…a genealogy. The very first words of the good news: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”

You have probably skipped it every time you read the Christmas Story. I do too.

But this year, take a minute and go through it. Each name – the heartache, the loss, the fear of death, the judgment, the destruction, the wars, the earthquakes, the crucifixions and impalings and slow tortures. The harems of the rich, the abandonment of the daughters, the harsh rule of cruel men and the viciousness of cruel women.

And the brokenness and loneliness and hunger and want and nakedness and terror. The slaves without hope, the widows starving at the gates, the orphans, the desperate, the prisoners, those condemned to death.

And another “beget” and another. Another. Another.

And then – Jesus Christ.

And please hear me now. This is crucial:

This is the last genealogy in the Bible.

(Yes, I know about Luke. That is parallel, it doesn’t come after Matthew).

All of the genealogies from Adam through the centuries of pain and promise end with Jesus, the deeper magic.

He has no wife and no son. And he was the “seed of the woman”. Mary, the virgin, gives birth without a man at all.

The deeper magic – where God’s love and God’s justice meet in one Human, the True Israel of God, the second Adam, the godly seed, the righteous Son of David, and the heir of all things. He is the perfect, obedient, loving Son of God who inherits where Adam failed and Israel failed.

And because he was the “seed of the woman” he begins a new humanity out of the ruins of the old. Where love and inclusion and peace and justice all kiss each other perfectly. He doesn’t do away with the human race, he delivers it. All of the rot and fear and shame and guilt he nails to the cross as the representative of the Human Race, the second Adam, and lifts it all out of the dust of death at his resurrection.

And the power of the Accuser is taken away. And yes, his voice is very powerful. He alternates between calling for the destruction of the wicked to the destruction of your own heart. Look at that filth. Look at it! How can God love someone like you?

And we reply – look at the cross. Better, look at the resurrection! Look at the one who created the universe laying in a manger. The power of mankind doesn’t save anyone, and ends up the same way every time. Death, slaughter of innocents, rape, abuse and greed.  A different order is needed, where weakness crushes the serpent. Where bruised heels disarm and destroy.

The era of patriarchy ended on Christmas. Paul tells us that the seed of the woman, born under the law, redeems us from the curse of the law.

And now, the blessing of Abraham (that we will become the heirs of the world) is fulfilled in us. The curse of the old magic is taken away; the blessing of Abraham is freely given in Christ.

Whether you are male or female, slave or free, rich or poor, you are a firstborn son because Jesus is the firstborn son, and everything he has he gives to you.

Galatians 4:4–7 (RSV)
4 But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

And Paul’s whole point in the book of Galatians is this:

Why on earth would anyone want to return to the law? The “magic” of the natural order? It only leaves us condemned. The rule of hierarchy, of supremacy, of patriarchy, of might makes right, destroys humankind! Why would anyone want to return?

The modern lust for patriarchy only brings ruin and death. It is disguised as Christianity, but it is the religion of Manasseh – we appease the stingy gods with the sacrifices of our wives and our children and maybe if we are hard enough on sinners God will be merciful to us.

Thus the lust to crush and destroy those that the powerful deem as “sinners”.

Our president vowed to crush Somalis. We won’t be great until we rid the world of “garbage”. This isn’t Christianity. This is Baal.

This is why the modern evangelical church wages war against LGBTQA+. “God can’t bless America with this filth!”

And on and on it goes. Rid the world of sinners so God can bless us again!

And they will erect the nativity scenes and miss the point entirely.

It isn’t the firstborn seed of the virile man that will change the world.

It is the seed of the woman. In ways you won’t ever expect.

A glass of water. A bit of food. A place to sleep. A kind word. And a willingness to endure reproach for being a “friend of sinners”, just as Jesus was.

This is Christmas. And you can celebrate it aright by ridding yourselves of the remnants of the old magic, and embrace the new humanity, where all are firstborn sons in Jesus Christ.

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December 22, 2024 · 7:57 am

Advent

I’ve been really sick lately. Just a seasonal cold, but it has knocked me out. So I don’t know if I my words come across.

But I know that there are so many that are suffering this advent. I wish I had paid more attention to advent when I was Reformed. It is a beautiful reminder to all who are hurting, lonely, hopeless – that God sees and knows and is coming to save.

Advent is hurting, and longing. Advent is wondering and waiting. Advent is screaming and crying and wondering when the pain will stop.

Advent is locked in, lonely, outcast, wandering – longing for home.

Advent is labor pains but not yet knowing the birth.

Advent is expectation – but not like a child excited for Christmas. It doesn’t always look like that. It is expectation that looks like hopelessness.

Like a dark night, like a barren field, like desert, like a wilderness – like stuck in an upper room with a ton of strangers about to give birth and having to sneak down to where the host keeps the animals to have some privacy.

It is asking “What is God doing? Does he care? Does he see? Does he know?”

And then the dawn breaks. Then the trumpet sounds. Then the angel choirs sing.

The first advent was in the dark. Announced to the shepherds and the foreigners and the outcasts. It was the first advent. It isn’t yet complete.

The next is coming. Advent reminds us of the next. Stay awake. Open wide your doors. Open your wallets.

Give to those who have none. Love those who don’t know what that is. Be present for those who have never had anyone present or anyone who cared.

Be the ear for those whose voices scream out unheard.

Be the eye for those who go unseen.

Shine the light of Jesus in the dark while we all wait for home.

The groom is coming. He is coming. Wait. The consummation is at hand.

 

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December 20, 2019 · 1:50 pm

The Point

In case you didn’t catch this, here’s the point of the season –
The human race is so corrupt, so hopeless, so depraved –
Every single soul ever born carries within an incurable disease called sin,
It can’t be cured by the state, by will-power, by education, by wealth, by medicine, by giving, by receiving, by acting better…
The proof is death, which comes for Republicans, Democrats independents, conservatives, liberals, Jews,Gentiles, rich and poor –
Every single political system failed
Every single religious system failed,
Every single philosophical system failed,
Every single self-help campaign failed,
Every economic system failed
Every system of law and order failed
– yes, even the perfect one given by God himself
The disease is so entangled through every cell of the human body, and every part of the human soul,
The rot is complete. Death comes for all.
All have sinned
All are subject to death
Nothing we do can fix it.
It is so hopeless that the only cure is God himself coming to earth in the womb of the virgin, Mary…
Not the seed of the corrupt race of men,
But the miraculous seed of the woman by the power of the Holy Spirit
He became flesh, so that we might live.
He was given a body for the purpose of dying a cruel death
He was given hands to stretch out on a cross
Feet to take the nails
A side to take the spear
A forehead to take the thorns
He took a body in order to lay it down as a perfect sacrifice for sin, that we might have eternal life.
The lips that suckled Mary’s breast were slapped by the soldiers
The face that Joseph kissed was spat on
The hands that grasped Mary’s fingers was bound to the pillar and the body was scourged
He was poor, so that we might be rich
He was despised, so that we might be loved
He was broken, so that we might be healed.
And then he was raised, that we might be justified.
When you begin to place your trust in your goodness
When you begin to think that some kind of political process will fix this
When you think that modern medicine will hold the cure for death,
Take a look again at who is lying in the manger.
The disease is so incurable that the only hope is the Word of God made flesh
It is the only hope.
It was the only hope in Augustine’s Rome; it is the only hope today.
It will be the only hope tomorrow.
Do you see the love of God? Look at the manger.
That’s the point. Don’t miss it.

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December 7, 2018 · 12:18 pm

Put Christ back into Christmas

‘Tis the season for the hysterical fearful to retreat into their separatist caves and worry about the secularization of the Christmas Season.

This isn’t a post about that. Sorry.

(Just one pet peeve – the “X” in Xmas is the Greek letter chi, and is the abbreviation for “Christ.” It has been since the first century. So everyone relax.)

OK. Now I’m done with that particular pet peeve.

So, here is what I would like to advise. Put Christ back into Christmas.

John wrote,

No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. (1Jo 4:12)

It is God’s will that Christ be seen in the world NOT by images, not in words only, not in traditionalism or icons, but in love.

No one has seen God. Not in a nativity scene, or a living Christmas tree, or in your very thoughtful rebuke of the poor Starbucks barista, but in love.

YOUR love, as a Christian, in particular. We love, because he first loved us.

So put Christ back into Christmas by your love.

Give a smile and an encouraging word. Look into the eyes of that image-bearer of God that is different than you are, and show her respect and dignity and honor, because Christ died for you.

Give a glass of cold water, clothe the naked, feed the hungry. Give a kind word, a timely prayer, a good tip, a thoughtful gift.

Put off your fear, your anger, your contempt. Quit fretting about your neighbor, and love them. Quit ranting about “Happy Holidays” and “Xmas” and trees and lights and malls and commerce, and rejoice.

Be cheerful, be happy – for God now accepts your works. Be at peace, for nothing can take you from his hands.

Look at the beauty of the lights and the joy of the trees and snow. (Or fake snow, for Northern California people).

When you come to a work party or a family dinner, does everyone say, “Ugh. That guy”? Or do they rejoice, because you are coming?

Help people walk a little taller. Bear a burden. Be kind. Be the kind of person that people want to be around. Be generous.

Put Christ back into YOUR Christmas. Love one another fervently, for God is love.

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December 21, 2017 · 7:52 am

A Greater King

I’ve been thinking lately about a challenging passage in the Bible. I think that too often, we read the stories of the Old Testament as quaint fables of old, or stories of another people and another time and we wonder what it has to do with us today.

But those stories are written records of God’s redemptive history. The written accounts of the Old Testament are given to us by God to teach us how God has prepared the world for his Redeemer, who would save his people from their sins.

The disturbing account that I have been meditating on is found in 2 Samuel 24, and the parallel account is in 1 Chronicles 21.

If you haven’t read these accounts lately, or if you have never read these accounts, please do so before you read my comments. I’m just a guy trying to point you to Christ. The Word of God gives life to the dead. So read it. I’ll wait….

OK. The first thing that you see is that 2 Samuel says that the Lord was angry with David and stirred him up to number his army. Then you see that 1 Chronicles says that Satan incited David. This brings us to a deep subject that cannot really be exhausted in one blog, but the fact is this. Satan does nothing apart from God’s decree. It is God who is sovereign over every event that comes to pass, even the temptations of the devil.

Now, that being said, it seems very odd to us that God would be angry with David and allow Satan to tempt him to sin, especially since God knows that this chain of events will end with the death of 70,000 men in Israel. This doesn’t seem to fit our notions of God.

But very briefly, in this short blog, I want you to see something about God.

God is holy and cannot dwell with sinful man. David was a sinner. He was proud, lustful, bloodthirsty, fearful. He was a real sinner with real sins. In fact, not only was David a sinner, but every person alive in Israel was a sinner and deserving of the eternal wrath of God. Not one of those who died in the plague was treated unjustly by God.

Which brings us to the next point. Because Israel was sinful, God gave them a king and a priest. David was the king, and Zadok was the priest. David protected them from their enemies and ruled over them as the representative of God. In fact, the earthly kingdom of David on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem was so closely related to the Kingdom of God that the term “Zion” was used interchangeable for the Church in the Psalms. God ruled and met with his people on Mt. Zion, through the priesthood, and through the line of David. David also was given a promise: that his seed would reign forever and ever, and of his kingdom there would be no end.

But David was a sinner – as we established. He caved to the temptation of the devil and turned his trust onto his troops and his prosperity, rather than to the Lord God of Israel. And God is holy, and cannot abide with sin.

God said very clearly, “The soul that sins shall die.” And God cannot lie. What happens when those who are mediating between God and man are themselves sinners? What happens is that everyone dies. Not only the mediator, but also those who are represented by the mediator. How can a mediator save anyone if he himself is a sinner?

This is what we learn about God in this difficult passage. It is difficult because it shows us a God that doesn’t fit with our notions of what God should be like.

But the story doesn’t end there. If the story ended there, none of us would be alive.

Jerusalem was the newly conquered capital of David. David took it from the hands of the Jebusites and established his kingdom there. Now the angel of death is passing through Jerusalem with the sword of God’s wrath unsheathed and destroying. But then God commands the angel to stop. In the air above the threshing floor of a Jebusite named Ornan, the angel waits the command of God with his sword raised, prepared to destroy.

And God commands David to offer a sacrifice right there. When the sacrifice is offered, the angel puts up the sword. Get this point: God accepted a substitute for the death penalty decreed upon man.

Of course, this substitute could only be temporary, for the blood of bulls and goats could never atone for sin in the eyes of God. But that blood pointed to something far greater…

David understood the message from God and purchased the land from Ornan. David had been preparing to build a permanent temple for the worship of the Lord. But the law had clearly stated that the location for that temple would be revealed by God himself. No one could just decide for himself on a good location. It is only God who sets the terms for sinful man.

And David got the message. That plot of land became the site of the Temple of Solomon, where God met with his people, where the sacrifices were offered and accepted. But the priests were still sinful. The king was still sinful.

People kept dying. God’s wrath kept being unleashed because of the sin and idolatry of the people and the mediators. Eventually the line of David was offering human sacrifice outside the gates of Jerusalem and worshiping the gods of the Canaanites right in the very Temple of Solomon! God is just and holy, and Jerusalem would eventually be destroyed, God’s presence would depart, and the king would be imprisoned in Babylon.

What happens when the mediator is sinful? We are still in our sins and the sword of the angel is still raised.

And this all points to something even greater. The time would come when the angels would appear again, this time to shepherds outside of Jerusalem. But this time their swords would be sheathed, and they would be singing, “Peace on earth.” God provided the terms of peace.

This baby born wouldn’t be a sinful mediator. He would be the spotless lamb of God. This baby wouldn’t cave to the temptation of the devil, but would hold faithfully to God’s word without failure.

And the day would come when the perfect and sinless lamb of God would take the sword of God’s wrath upon himself.

When the mediator isn’t a sinner, the world is saved. When the mediator isn’t a sinner, the kingdom of God thrives and prospers. When the mediator isn’t a sinner, he can be offered to God as the perfect substitute for sin and the sword of God can be sheathed forever.

The Heidelberg Catechism puts it like this:

What kind of mediator and redeemer then must we seek?

One who is true and righteous man, but also more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.

There is only one who fits THAT bill. There are a lot of men and a lot of women. But there was only ONE who could be called righteous before the judgment throne of God. Only one who never caved to Satan. Only one who was born without the corruption of Adam. And we are celebrating that birth this week.

And this same one is also true God. Everything you can say about God you can say about the baby in the manger. He is omnipotent, simple, everywhere present, eternal, infinite in power and majesty, upholding the universe by his decree. How one person can be omniscient and sovereign and have to learn how to walk and read is a mystery that we cannot explain. But we confess it and sing it and remember that his name is Wonderful.

Why then would we exchange the only mediator between God and man with a sinful creature? Why do we look to husbands or wives or kings or presidents or pastors or popes to act as the bridge between God and man? There is only ONE mediator.

David was anointed by Samuel, appointed by God, given a kingdom. God placed his name and his blessing on David’s kingdom. God blessed Israel for David’s sake. God blessed his people and loved his people and prospered his people for David’s sake.

And David sinned and thousands and thousands died from the sword of the Lord. We need a far greater mediator than that!

When your mediator is a sinner, you are a dead man walking.

As we celebrate the birth of this Mediator, as you read and hear about his birth, when you think about angels and shepherds and wise men, remember this inconvenient truth. The sword of the Lord has been sheathed for a while as the gospel is proclaimed. But that sword will fall. The wrath of God is still coming. How can anyone believe in a good and holy God and not believe in the coming judgment? Of course God is coming in judgment! That sword must fall because God is good and men and women are idolaters, murderers, fornicators, thieves. And the sword will indeed fall.

But before it falls, God has provided a perfect substitute, a perfect king, a perfect priest. He wasn’t sinful and weak. Born in a manger, and yet without sin. Worshiped by shepherds and wise men, wrapped in strips of cloths for a diaper. The creator and sustainer of the universe crying at night for the breast and a burp. And eventually nailed to a cross to take the sword of the wrath of God completely.

When we believe on his name and trust in him alone, the life that he provides is given to us. He who believes on him shall never die. The sword is put away forever in Christ, and there is now no condemnation. His resurrection is a sure pledge of OUR resurrection, because his sacrifice was accepted. And his sacrifice was accepted because in him, God was well-pleased. He was sinless, so that we could live.

Put away trust in men, put away faith in other mediators. Put away your blind faith in pastors, husbands, and kings. When your mediator is a sinner, you are a dead man walking. Rest in him alone. There is only one mediator: Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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December 1, 2014 · 9:40 pm

The Meaning of Christmas

It’s inevitable this time of year.  People seem obsessed with “putting Christ back into Christmas”.  They seem to mean by this that we should put Nativity scenes up instead of Christmas trees, and that we should rant incessantly about spelling the holiday “Christmas” instead of “xmas”. Soon we will be asked to share memes if we agree that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Even now, perhaps there are some that are concerned that I might be taking too light a view on changing Christmas to “xmas”.  No, I’m not. “X” is simply a Greek chi, and for 2,000 years it has stood for the name “Christ.” Everyone relax.

I agree that at many times the holiday seems overdone, vain and aesthetically offensive. Christians are not immune to this charge.  There are only so many times that you can hear “Jingle Bell Rock” or “Mary did you know?”

On the one hand, people become obsessed with gifts, wrapping presents and staying busy to ‘get into the Christmas spirit”, and the marketplace takes advantage.  On the other hand are those who decry the commercialism of Christmas, and shout to “remember the true meaning of Christmas”.  Movies and stories abound, teaching us that the true meaning of Christmas is family, doing good to others, sharing, and basically remembering that we can make a difference with sacrificial works and putting others, primarily children, first.  

But did God send His Son into the world in the womb of the virgin in order to teach us better ways of being better people?  Did God really become flesh and dwell among us so that we could go to Walmart and buy plastic idols to put on our front lawn, patting ourselves on the back for putting Christ back into Christmas?  Not according to the Bible.

People have tried for thousands of years to “make a difference” and after a few well-meaning spurts of outward displays of charity they  immediately return to their vain, shallow, cruel and abusive lives.  The fact is that we are all so hopeless, powerless, vain, shallow, self-centered and sinful that there was absolutely no hope in humanity whatsoever.  Every single one of us from the fall of man until now is subject to death and misery.  We aren’t smart enough, loving enough, strong enough or good enough to do anything about it.

But our natural religion says that we can fix this mess by greater motivation, or bigger acts of charity.  We can make a difference by doing better things better, by loving more, by “remembering the true meaning of Christmas all year round”, or by electing people smart enough to fix all of our problems.

It never works and never has.  But as a dog returns to his vomit, we return to our folly.  Every year at Christmas we offer our incense to the plastic gods of our self-righteousness, pat ourselves on the back for being basically good people, cry over “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and try to convince ourselves that we really can make a difference if we just try harder.

But what if we really aren’t good enough?  What if there really isn’t anything that we can do to make a difference?  What do we do when something happens in our lives that leaves us devastated, and there isn’t anything that we can or could have done about it?

What sacrifice will you offer to your gods that will take away the pain, misery and emptiness of the vanity of life?

Now we can begin to see the true meaning of Christmas.  The angel told Joseph “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”.

It isn’t about the spirit of giving.  It isn’t about the message of Santa inside of each one of us.  It isn’t about our basic goodness and kindness, for we have none.  The fact is this:  We are so hopeless, vile and corrupt that there is no possibility of saving ourselves in any way.  If there is any hope for man, God must save him.  So God became flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary in order to take the curse of death upon himself.  He gives us His righteousness, for we have none of our own.  And He takes our vile rags on Himself, dying under God’s curse, so that we might live.

When He rose from the dead, He showed the world that the curse was finally taken away, and He now reigns until all of His enemies are put under His feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Fellow professing Christians, please quit fretting about “secular humanists” or Hollywood taking Christ out of Christmas.  We have been managing the mangling of the gospel just fine without their help.  When we send the message that it’s about nativity scenes, “xmas”, Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays, giving and works of charity, all we are doing is enforcing man’s natural religion: that we can make a difference by our efforts and good will.

If we could have made a difference in this world, Jesus would not have had to come. The baby in the manger was the eternal, almighty, glorious Son of God, “whose goings forth are of old”. Instead of teaching us the inherent goodness of man, it teaches the opposite. We were so lost and helpless that it came to this. God became flesh and came to save us. He became poor, despised, rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in our place.  That was what we deserved – the outer darkness of hell. But Jesus took it upon Himself. Every child but one was born to live. Jesus was born to die.

Only when we get that figured out can we eat our bread with joy, drink our wine with a merry heart, live joyfully with our wives, and do what we can to relieve some of the suffering around us.  But this is only possible if we aren’t trying to save the world.  God will not give his glory to another, and there is only One Savior.  We will never save the world.  We will never HELP God save the world.  Only Jesus is strong enough, wise enough, good enough and loving enough.  All we can do is offer our lives to Him with gratitude and awe.  All we can do is wait and see the salvation of the Lord.

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