Merry Christmas 2020!
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 11 months ago
All religions, denominations or sects that teach that Jesus worked His way to being the Son of God, or that there was a time when He wasn’t the Son of God, or that the Father saved Him because of His works, or that He was a mere teacher, or that His purpose in the incarnation and life was to exemplify behavior that would be pleasing to God, are false religions and cults. If you are in any such cult, get out of it. Your soul is in jeopardy, as well as the souls of your family.
Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is very God of God, and there wasn’t ever a time when He wasn’t God. He was God from all eternity, and will always be God. Mankind cannot save himself with any amount of good works. God doesn’t grade on a curve. As for His final judgment, He doesn’t care about you trying to make yourself better and that will not save you. You will stand in judgment for your sins, as I will for mine. There is no ledger with negatives and positives.
Jesus had to come to earth and take the physical form of a man because man couldn’t save himself by any actions. As it was put by C. S. Lewis, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” We are sons of God by adoption, not by works. Standing before God in final judgment won’t involve speaking on your own behalf, arguing, bargaining, or answering charges. Our mouths will be sealed closed, and we will be prostrate before Him.
The evil one will bring charges and lay claim to you. He is called the accuser. Jesus will speak on our behalf, and will remind the Father that you are one of the called, if you belong to Him, chosen from before the foundation of the world, adopted into the family of God because of the birth, life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
What does this all have to do with Christmas? Theologians customarily begin the “humiliation of Christ” at His advent. The incarnation was humbling, as was His life, as was His death on the cross for the sins of His people. God had to take the form of man because that was the only way to save man. This is the scandal of the gospel.
Why do men object so to the gospel, the name of Jesus, and to the Holy Scriptures? Because accepting its truth means acceptance of the scandal – the scandal that he cannot do anything to please God, and that he needs a savior.
Pictures of the manger scene usually show Jesus wrapped in “swaddling clothes,” all white, clean and unused. Truthfully, those rags were used to clean animal dung. God was born into the world in humble circumstances, of humble beginnings, and for a specific purpose.
This is the Christmas story. Know it. Understand its import. Teach it to your children. It is because of this that His people have life.
“And she will bear a Son and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins … Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:21, 23
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On December 24, 2020 at 11:31 pm, Fred said:
Merry Christmas.
On December 25, 2020 at 12:22 am, Wretched Dog said:
Herschel: Well said! Merry Christmas.
And if I may put in a plug for the most basic, yet profound apology for Christianity that I have ever encountered: C.S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity” is a must read.
TWD
On December 25, 2020 at 12:41 am, blake said:
Merry Christmas to all.
On December 25, 2020 at 1:16 am, Adino said:
Well said, and a hearty amen!
Merry Christmas, y’all!!
On December 25, 2020 at 4:30 am, Hudson H Luce said:
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:1-13
The Gospel of John reads an awful lot like an eyewitness account – which is precisely what the author said it was. As a lawyer, I read – and take – affidavits. John has the details which people give when they mean to get their testimony exact and correct. And I think it’s an eyewitness account, too – and it’s literally true.
On December 25, 2020 at 4:31 am, Hudson H Luce said:
Ooops, forgot, got carried away a bit, Merry Christmas!
On December 25, 2020 at 7:30 pm, John said:
On this wonderful day I put the outside world of human frailities away and try to concentrate
on our Saviors gift of salvation. I also ponder the Parable of The Prodigal Son in that it is
one of the stories in the Bible that tells us that if we repent of our evil, God will forgive us
and welcome us home. To this very long list sinner, that is a most comforting message.
Merry Christmas and may the Lord bless and keep you all in his heart.
On December 25, 2020 at 11:24 pm, BRVTVS said:
Merry Christmas!
On December 27, 2020 at 1:27 am, JB said:
Amen. Maranatha. For the believers, we are living in a Roman’s chapter 1 (verses 18-32) world plus Matthew 24 birth pangs added to the mix. Prepare accordingly. He is our all in all. Glory to Him in all things in the days ahead.