Why Christmas?

Posted on December 2, 2019

Home Blog Posts Why Christmas?

Exemple

Why Christmas?

by Pastor Andrew Morgridge

On a noisy night in the City of Bethlehem, while the shepherds kept watch over their flock and men were grasping mirages in futile dreams Jesus Christ chose to be born in manger; amidst the docile creatures He created. He came in simplicity, lived in meekness and died in humility. But he arose on the third day in glory, having accomplished the work of redemption.

God in His mercy brought forth grace in Jesus Christ because He knows It is Impossible for any man to be justified by the works of the flesh or by obedience to Laws (whether human or Biblical) Gal 2:16. Man is born with a sinful nature which he inherited from Adam. That is why David said, “Behold I was sharpen in iniquity; and in sin did” mother conceive me (Ps. 51:5). David recognized the sinful nature circumstances had bestowed on man from the Garden of Eden. Paul did too, for he wrote: “For 1 know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present in me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me “(Rm. 7:18-20). And Jeremiah in His own summation on the nature of man wrote, “Every man is brutish in his knowledge…” The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it’! ” (Jer. L0:l4a: Jer. 17:9).

These are characteristics which no man can change, except by the power of the Holy Ghost who comes only into the lives of those who are born again – those who are confessing that Jesus is their Lord and Saviour (Acts 2:38; n. 8 :5–14). And that in essence is why Jesus died for us. That we might claim His righteousness, and receive the Holy Ghost to be able to live above sin as the redeemed of the Lord; no more strangers and foreigners in God’s kingdom, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the house hold of God” (II Cor. 5:19-21; Eph. 2:11-19).

And this is even more important now because we are living at the end or time when the coming of the Lord to rapture His Children (take them alive to heaven) and then judge the sinners on earth is at hand! So, this is not the time to trifle with issue of salvation, for after the judgement on earth, there is the judgement in heaven when all sinners – those who did not accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour will be sent to hell (Jn. 3:16-18; Rev. 14:9-11).

The Sin Nature

Evil. That is all there is about satan. According to the Bible, he is a thief, a killer and destroyer. A good one too, because wherever he goes he carries his trade marks along. These are sorrow, tears and pain; and they abound in the world today.

If God made the world and proclaimed everything good (Gen. 1:31), why then has evil “overshadowed” the goodness of the Lord?

In the beginning, there was no evil. When God made the earth and the things therein and proclaimed them good. they stayed “good” because satan was not in control of them. The control of the creation of God was given to man (Gen.1:26-28). But this dominion over all things was cut short when satan seduced man to commit the Adamic sin. .

The Adamic sin in its simplicity is DISOBEDIENCE. When God made Adam and gave him dominion over all things, it was CONDITIONAL – based on his adherence to the condition given by God. He was commanded, “of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Gen. 2:15-17).

As long as he obeyed, he had dominion over all things, and also had perfect fellowship with God, having all his needs supplied by God (Gen. 2:5). In this state, Adam and Eve were God conscious – the had the nature of God. And even though they were naked they were not ashamed. They did not even notice it because they were covered by the glory of God – the abiding presence of God (Gen. 2:25; Is. 4:5-6).

However, the sin of disobedience caused a break in this fellowship with God when Eve allowed herself to be beguiled by the serpent and ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which God had commanded them not to eat of. Adam, though not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14) also ate of this fruit and capstoned the fall of man. They lost the glorious covering of God and became self-conscious. Sin had found its way into the human race, polluted it and separated it eternally from God.

God is good and everything about Him is PURE. He does not have fellowship with sinners. The Bible says, “God judgeth the righteous (He relates with the righteous), and God is angry with the wicked everyday “(Ps. 7:11). The sinner cannot abide in His tabernacle or dwell in His holy hill (Ps. 15). The sacrifice of the wicked (the sinners) is an abomination unto the Lord: but the prayers of the upright is his delight. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the words of the pure are pleasant words. The Lord is far from the wicked: but He heareth the prayers of the righteous (Prov. 15:8,9,26,29).

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 Jn. 1:5). That principle automatically compelled Adam and Eve to hide from the presence of God after they had sinned (Gen. 3:1-10). Darkness had replaced the glory of God on them, and darkness cannot stand where Light is; for the word of God says. “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light. Lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God’ (Jn.3:20-21).

Now, that really brings out what the sin nature is all about. It is DARKNESS -The abiding presence of statan. Satan is incorrigle. He cannot repent. That means he cannot go near God, talkless of have fellowship with God. As mentioned in the Psalms and Proverbs quoted above, the same is the fate of the man under the control of satan. He is described as a man walking according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of DISOBEDIENCE (those who have inherited the Adamic Sin): Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by NATURE the children of wrath, even as others (Eph. 2:2-3).

The Atonement

So, man died – got separated from God in the day that he sinned, just as God told him. The authority and dominion over all things that God gave him was delivered unto satan. That was his boast to Jesus, and Jesus did not refute his claim of ownership of the world (Lk. 4:6-8). Paul also confirmed his ownership, but at the same time stressed his ambit — range of authority and dominion, saying, satan has power only over the CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE – those who have not been translated from the realm of darkness into the glorious light of the Son of God; those who have not replaced their cloak of darkness inherited from Adam with the glory of God that is in the Lord Jesus Christ – those who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour; those who are not BORN AGAIN. Paul said “But if our gospel is hid, it is .hid to them that are lost: whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds them which BELIEVE NOT, lest the LIGHT OF THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF CHRIST, WHO IS THE IMAGE OF GOD SHOULD SHINE UNTO THEM. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God who commanded the LIGHT to shine out of DARKNESS, HATH SHINED IN OUR HEARTS, TO GIVE THE LIGHT OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST” (II Cor. 4:3-6; see also Eph. 2:2-6; Col. 1 :13; In. 3:3-6).

Redemption from the sin of disobedience – the Adamic sin was made possible by the shedding of the blood of Jesus. When man sinned at Eden, God decided to redeem mankind back to Himself. He chose the shedding of blood as the penalty for sin – the acceptable sacrifice for mercy and the forgiveness of sin to take place. He laid precedence for this by killing an animal, and using the skin to clothe Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:21). Following this precedence, men started killing animals in ATONEMENT for sins. For “almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without the shedding of blood there is no remission” of sin (Heb. 9:22).

But despite this – the forgiveness of sin, the people still left the presence of God as sinners. This is because a sinner is not only one who commits sin, but one who has the sin NATURE in him. Emphasizing this, Paul said in 1 Cor. 5:19 “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator…” Here, Paul was not asking us to keep away from one who committed fornication once or twice (due to pressures), but from one who was a PERPETUAL fornicator – one who HAD THAT NATURE IN HIM. The same goes for sin in general. You cannot be labeled a sinner just because you commit sin once, but if you have that sin nature in you. For this reason John wrote, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (I Jn. 3:9)

We can only be born of God when we have accepted the sacrifice made by Jesus on the cross of Calvary for the remission of the sin of the whole world. The blood of animals cover sins; it does not wash away sin. Only the blood of Jesus can do this. It is precious because it is the royal blood of God. God is spirit (Jn. 4:24) and thus cannot die. He therefore had to put on flesh to die for us (I Tim:-3:16; Heb. 2:9; Jn. 1 :,14). God could have used one of the prophets of old or .any other person, but He said in Is. 59:1-16 that mankind was in sin and there was no men (WORTHY) to intercede for him; “therefore His arm brought salvation unto Himself; and His righteousness, it sustained Him.” In other words, the shedding of His own blood pacified Him – took away His anger against mankind.

Abraham saw this in the Spirit and prophesied to Isaac’. “My son, God will provide Himself (not for Himself) a lamb for a burnt offering (Gen. 22 :8). Hence the Scripture says, “For He (God) hath made Him (the body of Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM (II Cor. 5 :21). This Scripture is saying that man by good deeds, righteousness or the shedding of animal blood could not pay for the Adamic sin. He was permanently cut off from the true and perfect fellowship with God. He was helpless. God saw his plight; and gave Himself as the sin offering for the sin of mankind. (Romans 5:6-11; Eph. 2:8-13)

Saved by The Blood

Indeed the blood of Jesus is the very essence of the work of redemption. It is the only EXPIATION (ATONEMENT) for the sin of mankind (Eph. 1 :7). As the drops of His blood fell to the earth (a type .of man), it took away the covenant of death (his inheritance from Adam) and signed the covenant of life with him (Rm. 5:12- 15; 18-19)

Isaiah prophesied of this long before the birth of this, saying, “Come now and let us reason together, saith Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Is. 1:18). It is only by the blood of Jesus that have that permanent cleansing effect, because it has redeeming power (Acts 20:2g. Rm. 3:25). It is the PERFECT ATONEMENT FOR SIN which do not cover but wipe them off. As it is written, “And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses’ Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross (Col. 2:13. See also Heb. 10:1-14).

Thus, it is this blood alone that has the power to remove sin consciousness and the agony of a guilty conscience. The blood of Jesus is not just any blood like the blood of rams or human being, it is the divine blood of the Saviour (El-Messiah) which speaketh better things than that of Abel (Mt. 1:18-23: Heb. 9:12-14.1. Its preparation had nothing to do with man. Mary just acted as an incubator to bring forth the body of Christ which God prepared for Himself to save the world. If the child Jesus was joined to Mary though the umbilical cord, then His blood would have stemmed from Mary. That would have made it human and not deity, and thus could not be the perfect atonement for sin. Heb. 2:14 confirms this, saying, “For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also TOOK PART of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil..” Jesus partook of only PART OF THE COMPOSITION of man – the FLESH.

That is why the blood of Jesus is the only expiation for the sin of mankind. A mankind that had no hope: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is non that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities (Is. 64:6-9).  This scripture was expounded upon by Paul as he explained to the Romans in other words that their righteousness would not make them acceptance to God.  He wrote, “There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asp is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes”. (Rm. 3:10-18). Even the law given to Moses could not save mankind – it could not make man to be righteous: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become GUILTY before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in I sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have SINNED, and COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD; Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath sent forth to be a PROPITIATION (the sacrifice to take away, the anger of God) through faith in His blood, to declare His RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS that are past, through the forbearance of God.” (Rm.3:19-25). That is THE ATONEMENT. It is for this reason that Jesus was born: what we call Christmas.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *