December 10, 2023
Morning Service

Last week we walked together through the 5 Steps of Salvation; “Hear, Receive, Repentance, Baptism and Living Holy.”  This process was set in place before the foundation of the world by God for us.  This plan had a key point that had to occur; God Himself had to come to earth as our Savior. In this season of Christmas, we celebrate the coming of our Savior with Jesus’ birth in a manger. Christmas is a vital part of the “Greatest love story ever told.” To understand this love story which leads to our salvation and the true meaning of Christmas, we must first understand the character of the God who planned it because that is the key to it all.   The motivation for this story lies in one simple fact; God is love. (I Jn. 4:8) God desires to have an intimate relationship with those He has created, but He wants it to be a relationship we desire as well.   In Hebrews 12 we find out that Jesus is both the “author and finisher of our faith.” He not only was the writer of this love story, but He plays the key role in it.  So let’s try to get a big picture of all that God has done by going back to the true beginning of the story and fill in a few blanks as we go.

Gen 1:26-27  Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."  (27)  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Here is the account of God creating Adam and Eve in “Our image.” In chapter 2, God placed them in the garden “to tend and keep it.”  God then saw what He had created and said it was “good.”  During the cool of the evening, God would come and walk in the garden and have fellowship with His creation just as He had planned and life was perfect; until something changed.  Sin (disobedience) entered the picture and changed everything.  After yielding to temptation of the serpent and eating of the forbidden tree the evening visit changed.

 

Gen 3:8-10  And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  (9)  Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"  (10)  So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."

            We all know the story of the great fall in the garden.  Sin had entered God’s perfect world and it changed the relationship between God and man created in His image.  Up to this point Adam had enjoyed the company of his Creator but now suddenly he was afraid and ashamed; why?  The sin of disobedience changed everything.  The perfection of the garden was now tainted and broken through sin.  Our sin separates us from God as we discussed last week.

  Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.

            Our Creator is Holy, Just and Good and we are not because of sin in our lives.  God cannot violate His character by having a relationship with anyone that has been stained with sin.  Through Adam’s sin, God and man’s relationship had been broken and needed fixed.  This brokenness is a major part of this love story.

            The next step in God’s plan was to use the Law of Moses to prove to mankind that we could not repair that relationship on our own through our good works.  He spelled it out for them to on how to interact with Him and others, but no one could do it without falling short of the goal of perfection.  It was impossible to live a life of good works that repaired their relationship.   Man found it impossible to reach or maintain God’s standard of perfection.  Paul describes man’s brokenness like this to the Roman church:

 

Rom 3:23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

            If we are honest with ourselves, we all know we stand guilty in the eyes of God and deserve our wages; death (separation from God).  It appears hopeless if not for that huge three letter word BUT.  Paul says “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  What is this gift of God and how is it given?  We find the answer in the Christmas story.  Gabriel answered that question in his announcement to the shepherds.

 

Luke 2:8-14  Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  (9)  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  (10)  Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  (11)  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  (12)  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."  (13)  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  (14)  "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

            “Do not be afraid, for I bring you good tidings of great joy” the angel proclaimed as he had done previously in the story to Zacharias, Mary and Joseph.  Adam was afraid when his relationship with God was broken, but now the shepherds are told not to be afraid because the gift of God had arrived.  The angel said “there is born to you this day a Savior.”  Jesus was born to us (a gift) as our Savior. He is my Savior saving us from the wages of my own sin. The Gift of God given is the Restorer and Healer of mankind’s broken relationship with God (including mine).  A task that proved impossible for me to do on my own was now being completed by God Himself as He is both the “author and finisher of our faith.”  Because of Jesus sin no longer has to have its hold upon me separating me from God.  Paul again explained it this way to the Roman church:

 

Rom 8:1-5  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  (2)  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  (3)  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,  (4)  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (5)  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

            Who would have guessed that we find the true meaning of the Christmas season right here in the letter to the Romans?  The problem of sin that had existed from the Garden of Eden was resolved when that Baby in the manger lived a perfect life and then died a death we deserved upon the cross.  Jesus, our gift from God, restored the relationship that was broken in the garden.  All we have to do is accept that gift as our own and choose to follow this same Jesus; “not walking according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”  We choose to follow Jesus and yield to His will for our life dying out to ourselves (through baptism).  We choose to love Him because He first loved us.  What motivated Jesus to pay the price for our sins and what motivates us to accept that life changing gift and follow Him? Love.

 

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

 

John 3:16-17  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (17)  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

  Through Jesus, we too can walk and talk with our Creator in the cool of the evening.  We can have a close personal relationship with Him because of that Savior born in a manger.  Jesus, because He loves us, has removed the barrier of sin that lay between us and our Creator by “laying down His life for ours.”  “Unto us is born a Savior which is Christ the Lord.”  That truly is “good tidings of great joy.”  We laid out the path last week of HRRB &LH.  It is there for us to accept the love Jesus offers us this morning.  Don’t get caught up in all the busyness of the season and lose sight of the “real reason for the season.”  The true story behind Christmas is about a gift of love that God has given to you; “a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”  Christmas is the beginning of the “Greatest love story ever told!”

 

Heavenly Father open our hearts and minds to the true story of Christmas and thank You for loving us.