Today, we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent. This season, I have tried to promote the idea of focusing on the real reason for the season and, certainly, that centers on Jesus and the joy that we should experience for the sacrifice that God the Father and His Son, Jesus made by providing a pathway for us to be reunited eternally with them.
God is a God of justice and one of the things that I learned in seminary is the fact that God required a payment for the sin of Man in Garden of Eden, even if He had to pay it Himself. I’m sure that God the Father could have turned His head the other way and ignored the events in the Garden, but that would undermine the nature of God and His demand for justice. I think the willingness of God to send His Son to earth to pay for the sins of the world is ample demonstration of His love for us – sacrificing His own Son for everyone’s sins.
That means the sins that occurred before the time of Jesus, as well as the sins that have happened after the time of Jesus – and even those sins that have yet to occur. That includes both you and me. It’s really quite remarkable when you look at it that way. Jesus came to earth as a baby in a manger, living the life of a human; fully man, yet, fully divine, to be the substitutionary blood atonement for ALL for the sins of EVERYONE – believers and non-believers alike.
The celebration of Christmas is a celebration of the entrance of Jesus into a world filled with sin and was the beginning of the earthly plan to provide a pathway for us to be reunited with God eternally in heaven. As I reflect on this during the Advent season, I am struck by a post from a high school friend of mine on this very topic.
Steve reminded his readers in a post yesterday that Jesus died for each of us, individually. While I know this in my head, it struck me in my heart. Now most of you know how I like biblical “nuggets.” Those pieces of Scripture that we have read countless times and know so well that we tend to gloss right over them when reading familiar passages.
Well, most of our Scripture having to do with the Christmas story comes from the Gospel of Luke. After all, Luke was a little more educated than the other Gospel authors and he paid strict attention to the accuracy of all the events since the beginning of the life of Jesus. He wanted his readers to know the certainty of the things that had occurred and, in fact, consulted eyewitnesses who could verify the statements that Luke eventually wrote about in his Gospel.
Now I know that there are slightly different translations of the original text from the Greek, but I was struck by a particular passage that my classmate focused on. In one of the most foundational Bible verses on the birth of Jesus, there are several words that I have apparently passed over in my many readings. And that brings us to our verse for tonight.
The good doctor Luke recounts to us one of the opening verses of the story of the earthly Jesus. He reminds us in Luke 2:11, “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Did you catch the two words that we tend to glance over? FOR YOU! Jesus came to save the entire world from sin. But this verse, from the NASB (New American Standard Bible), a very literal word for word translation, makes this an incredibly personal revelation. Jesus came for each of us individually; the same way that we will each be welcomed into heaven. We will each get our rewards individually from God Himself. I have passed over these words many times as I have read the birth story of Jesus.
I think that it is very important to focus on each word in the Bible. But, with stories that are so familiar to us, it is sometimes easy to pass over verses that we think we know by heart. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit convicts us in different ways as we travel along our path of progressive sanctification – becoming more like Jesus as we mature in our faith.
My encouragement this evening is that Jesus came to save the world – and each of us individually. My prayer is that we will focus even more intently on each word of the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate our understanding of the Scripture , especially as we celebrate the birth of our Savior this coming week. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…