The Message of Christmas
by Charles Stanley
Please open your Bible and read:
(Luke 2:1 - 20)
The message of Christmas isn’t just that of a tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. We must remember the reason the tiny baby was born.
The true message of Christmas is that eternal God came to earth in the form of man in order to save His own creation. It was a necessity, because fallen man is mired in sin. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, so God’s perfect plan meant He had to provide a substitutionary sacrifice to atone for man’s sin. That tiny baby in swaddling clothes came for a purpose. He came to die.
Those infant hands that twitched and worked themselves out of their wrappings within a rough, perhaps wooden, feeding trough were the very same hands that were later nailed to a rugged, wooden cross. They were the same hands that, though scarred, carefully folded his burial wrappings (John 20:7) when He rose from the dead to defeat sin and death and to give us eternal life. And they are the same hands that lovingly reach down and pick us up through this often difficult life.
This Christmas season, when everything seems so hurried and harried, don’t get caught up in the materialism and busyness. When you come across a manger scene, notice the baby, but think beyond Christ’s infancy to His reason for coming. Make an effort to remember the real message of Christmas. Remember His hands. Remember His heart. Remember His undying love for you.
by Charles Stanley
Please open your Bible and read:
(Luke 2:1 - 20)
The message of Christmas isn’t just that of a tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. We must remember the reason the tiny baby was born.
The true message of Christmas is that eternal God came to earth in the form of man in order to save His own creation. It was a necessity, because fallen man is mired in sin. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, so God’s perfect plan meant He had to provide a substitutionary sacrifice to atone for man’s sin. That tiny baby in swaddling clothes came for a purpose. He came to die.
Those infant hands that twitched and worked themselves out of their wrappings within a rough, perhaps wooden, feeding trough were the very same hands that were later nailed to a rugged, wooden cross. They were the same hands that, though scarred, carefully folded his burial wrappings (John 20:7) when He rose from the dead to defeat sin and death and to give us eternal life. And they are the same hands that lovingly reach down and pick us up through this often difficult life.
This Christmas season, when everything seems so hurried and harried, don’t get caught up in the materialism and busyness. When you come across a manger scene, notice the baby, but think beyond Christ’s infancy to His reason for coming. Make an effort to remember the real message of Christmas. Remember His hands. Remember His heart. Remember His undying love for you.
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