My wife and I are blessed to have four wonderful children. They are all teenagers now and we constantly try to teach them important life lessons that will assist them in the future. This time of year, these young adults of mine are certainly growing weary of hearing me preach against the materialism of Christmas. The accumulation of possessions is of ever-increasing value in today’s society, but as Christians, we are called to be above this world – it is not our final destination. I hope all of us will spend more of our focus this Christmas on family, service, and of course, giving thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ.
You may be wondering why I chose an old-testament verse as the lead for this holiday edition of “At the Cross”. The physician Luke gives a detailed account of Christ’s birth and I encourage all of you to read the first two chapters of his gospel as part of your celebration. However, we must also remember that the entire Bible is pointing us toward God’s redemptive plan and the coming Messiah (Read Isaiah 9:1-7). I encourage you to realize that we are all in desperate need of a savior because as we learn in Romans Chapter 3 “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. In his Psalm above, written approximately 1,000 years before the birth of Christ, David realizes that sin separates us from God. The only way to find true joy is through the forgiveness of sin. For this reason, Christ left the glory of heaven and came to earth that first Christmas night. He lived a perfect and blameless life, was despised and rejected, and took the wrath of God upon himself that you and I deserve. Thankfully for us, the story does not end there. Jesus was placed in a tomb but on the third day, he arose from the grave and eventually ascended into heaven. For this reason, we have the guarantee of several promises.
- Jesus is always with us.
- Jesus states that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
- All who believe and call on the name of Jesus and repent of their sins will be forgiven and receive eternal life.
