Romans 6:23
In the name of Jesus, God’s Gift to the world, dear Christian friends,
I imagine that within the next 12-16 hours, all those Christmas presents under the tree that have taunted young and old alike will finally be freed of their colorful disguises of paper and bows and be revealed for all to see. Except for the moment of joy that may appear on surprised faces when a gift is first opened, the high point of the gift-giving process may simply be the anticipation itself. Think about it – it doesn’t take long for the “newness” of those gifts to fade, for them to take their place among the many other “things” that we have, to have even some of them forgotten completely. Show of hands – how many of you can remember what you received for Christmas just last year? Personally I’ve been trying to remember for a couple of days now, but I just can’t. I’m sure the gifts were something nice, but a year later it’s clear that
they didn’t impact my life all that much.
Isn’t it a bit remarkable, then, that even though the gift was given over 2000 years ago, we still remember what God gave us for Christmas? There’s a reason for that. Tonight let me begin our discussion this evening of God’s gift to the world:
“Jesus, the Gift You’ll Always Remember”
Many of the gifts we receive at Christmas may not be all that practical. They tend to fall more under the “luxury” category than the “necessity” one. It’s nice to receive a PS3, an iPod, a new plasma TV, jewelry, and the like, but it’s not as if we can’t live without them. It’s quite different with God’s gift. Jesus is a gift that is so greatly needed. He changed what would have been the inevitable outcome of our lives (v 23), “For the wages of sin is death.” OK, we admit it. We sinned and broke the rules. So we’ll just try to do better, to show God that we truly don’t deserve to spend eternity in hell. After all, we can do some things right, can’t we? Sorry, but the Bible tells us otherwise (Isa 64:6), “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” By ourselves we don’t possess the power to reverse what happened, no matter how “good” we may try to be. Earlier in Romans Paul makes it clear (3:20), “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in [God’s] sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”
That’s why Jesus is the gift we so greatly need (v 23), “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus put things back in place, the way they were meant to be. He makes it possible for us once again to look forward to spending eternity in heaven with our God. On that first Christmas he entered our world and began a journey that was never marred by any imperfection or mistake on his part. He lived a perfect life, completely without sin, and he gave that perfect life and the righteousness that went with it to each of us on Calvary’s cross some 33 years later in exchange for every sin we and the entire world had ever committed. He did so not because we had earned his favor or somehow just deserved a break. No, he did it all out of love! That’s why we rightly refer to Jesus as God’s gift to us. We may have earned death because of our sins, but the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation all come to us as a result of God’s gift of Jesus!
Jesus is the gift that will never fade, break, or become obsolete – contrary to the things of this world. In a span of about three hours last night, we discovered half the lights on our two-year old Christmas tree wouldn’t work, snow blown into the roof vents of our house had started to melt and leak into our house, and the garage door broke. This morning Bruce called to let me know that the furnace in the child care center office had died. Add to all this the church refrigerator finally giving up the ghost last week, and you have a number of reminders of how the things on this earth don’t last forever. I’m sure each of you can come up with your own list. Quite a contrast to the eternity awaiting us in heaven, described in Revelation as a place where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (21:4). God’s gift of Jesus makes everything new! The gift he brings will last forever!
You’re not getting anything new this Christmas from God. Normally if you received the same gift every year, chances are you’d get a little tired of getting “the same old thing.” With God, every Christmas his gift to us is the same – but we never get tired of it! Every year he gives us Jesus – the gift we’ll always remember!