It╒s Christmas Eve! In homes all over the world, children will lie wakeful tonight, wondering what they will find in the morning, inside the pretty packages under the tree. Grownups, though they╒ve sworn it wouldn╒t happen this year, will be racing against the clock to get that last present wrapped and snuggled in with all the others. Some people are without homes, with no expectations of a celebration--no bright, shining tree, no gifts, and no Christmas dinner.
No matter what their situation, thousands of Christians will travel to church tonight, to worship their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Candles will be lit, one by one, and the light will pass from person to person, symbolizing the coming of the Light of the World to deliver us from evil.
If you╒re not one of these worshipers, you may wonder, ╥Why?╙ Why did God send a baby to be our Savior? What significance could a tiny baby have, to a world wracked with sin and torment? Why is there still fear and death in the world, if the baby who was born was truly the Savior--the Messiah? I don╒t know all the answers. The Bible tells us that until Jesus returns for His saints to take us to the Father, we will have only partial knowledge. Each year, though, I gain a better understanding of ╥why,╙ and the more I learn, the more I rejoice.
You╒ve probably heard the story of the birth of the baby Jesus many times. If so, you already know about the angel Gabriel and his messages to Mary and Joseph. You already know about the taxation law that caused the long journey at such a late date in Mary╒s pregnancy. Jesus╒ birth in a stable with a manger for His bed is no secret, right? But do you really know the continuing power of the birth of that baby? To understand ╥why,╙ we must go back to the beginning.
John 1:1-5 tells us, ╥In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.╙
Genesis 1:1 states, ╥In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.╙ Throughout Genesis 1, the Bible tells us the sequence of events, as God created the earth, its universe, and every animal species from the substance that previously was only inside Him. With His faith, He sent forth His Spirit to do the work, by the power of His Word--the same Word John spoke of, that ╥shineth in darkness.╙
Then God created one more thing. In Genesis 1:26, He said, ╥...Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion...╙ When Adam--which means ╥out of God╒s blood╙--had practiced his creative powers by naming all God╒s other creations, he and God decided that he needed a mate--one of his own kind--to help him populate, tend, and dominate the earth. To keep His bloodline pure, God took one of Adam╒s ╥tselas╙--one of his cells--and created from it the man╒s ╥other half,╙ whom Adam named Eve.
Genesis 1:28 tells us that God ceded the kingship of His earth to mankind--male and female: ╥And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.╙ They were made in the image of the Triune God, and He expected them to use every power at their command to rule their new kingdom.
However, God had built into them the power to choose, and though they were made in God╒s image, they weren╒t God. He knew that they would fail to follow His commands perfectly. So, before sin ever entered their lives through rebellion, He had a plan. After they listened to the deceiver and did what God had told them not to, He started the plan rolling. In Genesis 3:15, God╒s faith actively continued, when He said, ╥And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.╙ Adam and Eve heard Him, and so did the devil. They believed Him, and knew that it would happen--sometime.
Banished from their perfect Eden, the couple were still the rulers of their world. However, they had allowed Satan to use the power of their crowns through their disobedience. God couldn╒t just move on the earth by His Spirit any longer, to get the earth back for them, because He had given that power to to His created man. Only the legal descendants of Adam and Eve have the power to rule in the earth. God╒s plan, then, had to involve someone born legally into the family of man, and yet someone who would not fail to follow the precepts of God.
Through the centuries, Adam and Eve╒s descendants told the tale of the coming Messiah, who would deliver them from bondage. In the meantime, God gave them the Law, with blood sacrifices designed to cover their sin temporarily. He maintained as much communication with His people as they would let Him. By the time Mary and Joseph were to be married, though, the Jewish concept of the Messiah had lost a lot of its power. Most Jews believed--and many still do--that the Messiah would be another man God would raise up, who would become either militarily or politically strong, and that he would deliver them, as God╒s chosen people, from the bondage of only their earthly enemies.
Mary and Joseph knew enough, however, that they accepted what the angel Gabriel told them, fulfilling God╒s prophesies and allowing the ╥last Adam╙ to be born legally into the earth. I Corinthians 15:45-49 tells us that the ╥first Adam╙ was like God, but that the ╥last Adam╙ is God! By their obedience to God╒s Word, Mary and Joseph allowed God to purify the bloodline of Adam╒s descendants. He had breathed His own life╒s blood into the first Adam, but sin had introduced a flaw called death into that blood. With the physical conception of Jesus, a transfusion was made available, straight from Almighty God, and the new legal heir apparent--the King of kings--was born.
Because God carried out His plan legally, we can count on it╒s power to last forever. Jesus didn╒t sneak in through the back door. He crawled in through the front door as a human baby, carrying inside Him the full creativity of the Godhead, but submitting Himself to the limitations of humanity. When He was fully grown, He would proceed with the rest of the plan, making the blood transfusion available for all--but we╒ll have to leave that for the Easter season.
This Christmas Eve, it╒s enough to remember that God restored our link with His original creation in a way that the devil can never defeat. That is the ultimate triumph, and it is what John meant, when he said, in John 3:16 & 18, ╥For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life...He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.╙
Galatians 4:3-7 explains how the birth of Jesus--the only begotten Son--returns our earthly dominion to us. ╥...We were children...in bondage under the [rudiments] of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.╙
Hallelujah! If you didn╒t know about this Savior, or if you╒ve never accepted His Lordship as your own, you can do it now, and then you can worship the Lord your God along with the rest of the believers--the Body of Christ--this Christmas Eve.
This is my prayer for tonight: ╥Thank you, Father God, for sending us your pure and holy Son as a baby who could legally regain all that Adam and Eve lost. Thank you for your perfect wisdom, Lord. And thank you for allowing us, because we believe on Jesus, to reclaim our rightful places as fellow heirs of the earth you created for us. Help me, Holy Spirit, to remember, all year long, who Jesus is, why He came to Earth as He did, and who we are because of Him. In Jesus╒ name: Amen!╙
