During the Christmas season, we focus on the birth of Jesus. Our Christmas carols and Nativity sets put the birth of Baby Jesus at the center of the celebration. It’s great to celebrate His birth because of all the theological implications that go along with it, not to mention the miracle of how He came to earth and flipped the dynamics of this world by arriving in the form of a baby born to lowly parents.
But we can’t forget why Jesus came to earth. He was God incarnate, one person in the Trinity, fully human, yet fully God. He set an example for us, healed people, cast out demons, and taught us what following God truly means.
Most of all, he died on the cross, defeated death, and rose from the grave!
Jesus’ death and resurrection completed the Old Testament sacrificial system. There are over 600 Old Testament laws. Breaking one of these laws required a specific, elaborate, and gruesome sacrifice to set right a person’s relationship with God.
No one could bear the weight of his sin on his own, so the sacrifice was necessary to pay the debt of sin. Jesus became the sacrifice once and for all who believe in Him. Now we don’t have to worry about finding the right sacrifices to atone for the sins we commit.
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do,” the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:3-4. “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Related: Christmas Day Thoughts: Promises Fulfilled
“One of the key aspects of the Christmas story that is so beautiful to me is that God sent His son Jesus to earth because He knew that we could not do what needed to be done,” writes Lucy Kemp. “He knew we needed forgiveness of sins, but He also knew that sacrifices made by priests day after day would never be enough.”
The author of Hebrews put it this way:
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:10-18 (ESV)
Kemp writes (emphasis in the original):
Sending Jesus was the greatest act of love because it enabled us to be forgiven when we didn’t deserve it and couldn’t do anything to earn it. His sacrifice allowed us to be forgiven completely and eternally.
No more sacrifices and offerings - our slates were wiped clean by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus did not have to come down from Heaven and live as a human, but He did it because of His love for us.
He did what we could not do, so that we may live in His glory forever.
As we celebrate the birth of Jesus this Christmas season, let’s also reflect on His death, burial, and resurrection. He defeated death and the grave, which should always drive us to worship!
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