Some say, and sing, that Christmas is the “most wonderful” and “hap-happiest” season of all. Their reasoning for this is that kids are “jingle belling,” people are telling you “be of good cheer,” and there are “holiday greetings and gay, happy meetings.” Though that sings well, it is insufficient against the real life-challenges humanity is creating across the globe.
I just heard about the latest nuclear bombs being created by the current world powers. Let’s just say the horrors of the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan were created with the tech of 75 years ago. The new bombs have 20-100 times more destructive powers.
I have now lived though a couple of years of extremely divisive and sophomoric responses in our country regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. When crisis hit our country I guess we thought the best way to handle it was to ramp up the politic divisiveness, turn up the racial tensions, and have a new form of sexual and gender revolution. And those challenges don’t include the internal struggles we all have as individuals.
Apart from Christ doing His work in a person, the Bible says this about the human condition:
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Even those who have Christ doing His work in them are still battling the human condition. Here is what Jesus has to say about that:
“The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Now, I am not trying to ruin your Christmas vibes. I am all about Christmas vibes. So let me wrap this up. To combat the reality of humanity’s propensity toward evil, we need something extremely potent — dare I say omnipotent. This is why Jesus is such a “thrill of hope.” God Himself became a man to face down all the forces of destruction. Jesus knew we were headed for destruction and he intervened. Jesus made a way through the virgin birth, sinless life, death and resurrection.
Without the virgin birth Jesus isn’t the second Adam, free of the sinful nature. Without the sinless life, Jesus doesn’t defeat sin, paving a way for all those who follow after him. Without the death and resurrection, Jesus doesn’t actually pay the price for our sin and doesn’t defeat death forevermore.
With that in mind, and with Jesus at work in your soul, there is more than sufficient reason to sing about the wonder and hap-happiness of this season. Even though our world has long laid in “sin and error pining,” Christmas reminds us to sing “sweet hymns of joy” in a “grateful chorus.”
I hope you and your family really enjoy this Christmas. Even if you’ve taken some “L’s” this year, God knows how to work the “L’s” of our lives for good.
David
P.S. I hope you join us for our Christmas Eve services at 3pm, 4:30pm, or 6pm at Living Streams Church