FBC Daily Devotional – December 22, 2020

I trust you're getting ready for and looking forward to Christmas celebration, coming very quickly now, just a few days until Christmas Day. And I also trust that just taking the time to listen to these few minutes of Christmas-related devotionals are helping to put Christmas in perspective, and to really have a Christ-centered Christmas, and not allow it to get all messed up and out of whack like it so easily is.

Christmas Entitlement and the Need for a Christ-Centered Christmas

Speaking of that, last week I wrote a pastor's page column related to Christmas entitlement, and in that post I shared the messy situation with the couple, the family, that creates this wonderful light display.

And they do this not for money or anything, just because they love doing it. And yet people have come to the thing, and they've just gotten out of hand, they've behaved terribly because they weren't able to see it like they wanted to see it, and get the parking place they wanted, and all that kind of stuff.

They had this sense of entitlement, and I just pointed out that those two words, Christmas and entitlement, they just don't go together. But there really seems to be so much of that attitude of being entitled to certain things just because it's Christmas, and you should do this for me because it's Christmas.

There is a lot about the modern Christmas that isn't right, but that's not true with the first Christmas. Everything about the first Christmas was just right. And we read of that in Galatians chapter 4, where Paul makes it clear that there is nothing wrong with that first Christmas.

Remember Galatians 4, verses 4 through 7, it says,. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth at just the right time, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, made under the law. God sent his Son at just the right time and in just the right way.

He was born in the right way. He sent forth his Son. God sent him forth. So he came from God. He came from God. This testifies to the deity of Christ. God sent forth his Son. You remember what John writes as he opens up his Gospel record?

He says, In the beginning was the Word, that's a reference to Jesus, the Word who was made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then in verse 14 of John 1, he says, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Well, he's obviously speaking of Jesus. And so this Word who was made flesh that God sent when he sent forth his Son, this Word that was made flesh is God himself. So this testifies to the deity of Christ.

But the fact that God sent forth his Son also testifies to the grace of God, not only to the deity of Christ, but to the grace of God. God sent. He took the initiative. We weren't entitled to him doing that.

We weren't. God just took the initiative to do it. I mentioned last week about how some people in their workplace get, you know, they gripe about whatever it is they get for Christmas as a Christmas gift or a Christmas bonus.

You know, like, oh, all I got this year is a lousy turkey. Well, what are you entitled to? What is your employer entitled to give you at Christmas? Can we not see that if I get anything more than what I've earned in my paycheck, that it's a gift?

It's a gracious gift. And that employer has graciously taken the initiative to give you a gift, regardless of what it is and how great or small it is. For that, we ought to be grateful. And this is the spirit of God giving his son.

He took the initiative by his own grace to give his son. It also testifies to his grace in that he took the initiative. God sent his son. He not only took the initiative, but he devised a plan to deal with our sin.

And then this sending of his son, God sends his son, also testifies to the unity of the Godhead. Remember, God is a trinity. There is one God in three persons, God the Father, Son, and Spirit. And God sent, and the Son came.

God sent, Jesus came. There's no conflict in this. There is no argument going on back and forth. There's not a reluctance on the part of the Son to come. There is no, well, I guess I got to do it because you're the Father kind of a thing.

No, there is complete harmony and unity in the Godhead. God sent, and he came. So he came from God. He came in the right way. He came from God. He came in the right way, and he came through a woman. God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.

Now, there's an interesting way that Matthew 1 .16 is phrased, and this is at the culmination of the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew begins his gospel, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

And he goes on through the genealogy going from Abraham down. And he comes down to verse 16, and he says, Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born. And that of whom is feminine.

So that of whom is referencing Mary. It's not referencing Joseph. All the rest of the individuals mentioned in this genealogy, they come from their father. But in this verse, it says that Jesus came from Mary.

He came through a woman. And when Paul says in Galatians 4 that he was made of a woman, it doesn't mean that he was created of a woman. He was born, not created. Literally, that word made could be translated having come through, having come through a woman.

Now, this is incredibly important because it teaches us two things about the birth of.

Jesus.

One of them is that he was human-born, therefore he was a man. And that is incredibly important. We read of that importance in Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and following. Listen to what this passage says.

Hebrews 2, 14 says,. Since therefore the children, that is, human beings, share in flesh and blood, he, Jesus, himself likewise took part of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, now listen, therefore he, Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

So, Jesus had to be human-born, had to be a man, and he was because he came through a woman. But he was also virgin-born, and therefore sinless. He was born of a virgin. And Hebrews 7, verses 25 and 6 explain the importance of this.

Hebrews 7, verse 25 says,. Consequently, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting, appropriate, that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He was virgin-born, and therefore sinless. He came in the right way. He came from God, he came through a woman, and he came under the law. He was made under law. And this is the law of God, the moral law of God established in the Old Testament scriptures.

And Jesus would come, made under that law, subject to that law, and he would keep it perfectly and accurately. Jesus himself said, I have come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And indeed, he did.

He fulfilled it completely. But he also came to pay fully the curse of that law. Back in Galatians chapter 3, verses 13 and 14, Paul explains this and specifies that this is what Jesus did and how he did it.

In Galatians 3, verse 13, we write, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Christ came in the right way, came from God, made of a woman, made under the law, so that do you see this? We might receive the promised Spirit through faith. We might receive those promised blessings of Abraham through Christ and his work.

He came in the right way. So, let's give thanks to our God for this wonderful, wonderful gift of Christmas, sending Christ at the right time in the right way. Thank you, Father. Thank you for what Christ did in our behalf, coming from you, through a woman, under the law, that we might be redeemed from the curse of that law.

We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, well have a good rest of your day today, and may God richly bless you in it.