Have you seen the CNN ad that shows us an apple on a white background, and the announcer tells us, “This is an apple”? When some wind-up teeth chatter across the screen, the voice tells us, “This is a distraction.” The ad is persuading us that CNN can tell the difference between news and distraction and that they deliver us the real news that we need.
During the holidays, we could use some of that CNN discernment because
the sales and decorations and crowds and get-togethers seem to take center
stage and distract us from the real news of Christmas.
And so this is the apple, the real news: Christmas began as a birthday
celebration for Jesus Christ. Scholars tell us this is a historical fact. And
it’s the best news we will ever hear.
The best place to go to find out why the birth of Jesus is such great
news is the Bible. And perhaps the one sentence in the whole Bible that best
explains it is this:
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Have you heard this before? I heard it lots of times before it finally
sunk in. And when it finally clicked, it made all the difference in the world
to me. When before I was muddling through life, making it up as I was going
along, now I have a clearer sense of purpose and direction. Before this, I was
worried about dying at a youngish age (I’ve had cancer and both of my parents
died in their 50’s). Now I am excited about the future because I took God up on
his offer of eternal life.
If you haven’t already, I want you to have God’s gift of eternal life,
too. In hopes that you might also discover this best gift, let me flesh out
this key sentence.
God loves the world
The universe is a magnificent creation and we are amazingly lucky to be
a part of it. Of course, God loves the stars and planets that he made (that
completely obey his laws of physics). And he loves the plants and animals he
made (that obey his laws of nature). But much more than these, God loves the
peoples of the world, including you and me, despite the fact that we don’t
really obey his laws for us.
Isn’t that amazing? Who are we that God would care about us? If we are
honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we’re not as good as we think we
are. We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions,
but we can only judge others by their actions.
So we end up unfairly comparing our first-rate intentions against our neighbors’
second-rate actions and come away with passing marks for ourselves while
looking down on our neighbors.
When it comes down to it, we’re pretty self-absorbed. We would rather
do things our own way. And we resent it when people attempt to offer guidance
that goes against what we want, even when in hindsight what they said was right.
Have you ever thought about how many of the bad things that happen in
this world are because of selfish choices? The fudged resume or tax return, the
crash of a drunk driver, the yelling and hitting of a bad marriage, turning a
blind eye to the plight of the needy, hopeless debt, child abuse, racism,
sexual harassment, STDs, lying, stealing, murder…
So it’s quite an amazing statement that God loves a world of people
like this. He loves people who, on the whole, are pretty unlovely. God doesn’t
love you and me because we’re wonderful. He loves us because he’s wonderful.
And he demonstrated his love for us by sending his son to set things
right in the world.
God gave his only son
God’s only son
It is vitally important to understand that, in a miraculous way, Jesus
is a man and at the same time, he is the son of God (and not some half-man,
half-God).
He is fully human. He was born, grew up, and had a job as a carpenter.
He felt sorrow, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. He didn’t take any magic
shortcuts to make his life or death easier, but he experienced it all as
completely as we do.
As God’s son, Jesus uniquely possesses all of God’s characteristics
wrapped in a living breathing person. One trait of being the son of God is that
he is sinless, which means he always does what is right in every situation.
Another trait of being the son of God is that he is of infinite value
to God. One man or woman is more or less the same value as
another. But in God's sight, Jesus is of greater value than all humanity put
together.
Since Jesus is of supreme value, it’s astounding that God would give
Jesus in exchange for the world.
God gave
In what way did God give his only son?
It wouldn’t do for God to give Jesus as some kind of ultimate example for us to follow, because the
example of Jesus is way out of our reach. That would be like sending me to the
national ballet and saying, “Watch how they do it and do likewise.” I’m not
capable of doing what they do. Likewise, we are not capable of following Jesus’s
example very well.
God gave Jesus to be more than an example. And he gave him to be more
than a teacher. There are plenty of
teachers and gurus out there giving plenty of instructions for how to live, and
we don’t even follow them. God knows we needed something more than another
teacher.
More than an example or a teacher, God gave Jesus as a substitute for us before God’s own law
court. If God is going to be just, he must punish the wrongdoing in the world.
It is you and I who are guilty of countless wrongdoings. We are the ones who
are earning his punishment. But because he cares too much to let that happen,
he allowed Jesus to take on our guilt as though he were the one who committed
our crimes.
Jesus volunteered to take upon himself all our guilt. When Jesus was
crucified on the cross, he paid the full price for all of our wrongs. He was
punished in our place so everyone who believes in him could be set free.
We know that God accepted Jesus as our substitute because he literally
raised him up from the dead a few days later.
“Everyone who believes in
him”
This is an unlimited invitation. It doesn’t matter how naughty or nice
we think we are. It doesn’t matter how religious we are or even what religion
we hold. God’s gift of eternal life is for everyone. It’s available to me and
it’s available to you if we believe in him.
We use the word “believe” in so many ways, but if you want to know what
believing in Jesus means, think of what you mean when you say “I believe in my
doctor”. You’re saying, “Doctor, I believe you can take care of what’s hurting
me. I am trusting my body into your care.” You sign papers giving the doctor
the authority to give you anesthesia and render you unconscious, paralyzed, and
totally helpless in hopes that he would do to your body what needs to be done
to make you less miserable or even to save your life.
And when you say you believe in Jesus, you’re saying, “Not only do I
believe you were that baby in a manger, I believe the Bible is being honest. I
believe you are who you say you are, the son of God, and everything that goes
along with that.”
That’s what I did. I signed my life over to him, giving him authority
to do in my life what needs to be done to prevent me from perishing and to give
me eternal life. And that’s what I’m asking you to consider doing, too.
This isn’t outpatient surgery. We are signing ourselves over to him
forever.
“Will
not perish”
We don’t need the Bible to tell us that we’re going to
die. The holidays are only a brief distraction from the suffering we see and
experience. The bills will come. There will be conflicts and accidents and
cancer and countless other tough things that hide for a while in the shadows of
the holidays.
How awfully sad it is that after a life of suffering,
people will perish. In the Bible, to perish is to be utterly destroyed. And if
there’s no rescuer, perishing is the plight of all humankind.
If the situation were not so grave, God would not have had
to send his son. But the situation is
that grave, and so that’s why God did give his son. Although we all must die,
thanks to Christmas, all who believe in Jesus won’t perish but will have the
opposite: eternal life.
“Eternal life”
Would it be eternal life if you could get older and older forever
without dying? Every year, more aches and pains. It wouldn’t be long before
that was eternal misery.
What if eternal life meant living forever in a body that never grows
old? That’s better, but after a few dozen thousand years, the empty repetition
would have to become agonizing.
The eternal life the Bible talks about is good because it is life
forever in the presence of the one whose imagination and power is the source of
the universe. We get to live forever with the one whose love is so gigantic
that he sacrificed his only son so that he can have you with him forever.
That’s why Christmas is a big deal. Every year, Christmas reminds us of
the lengths God went to demonstrate his love for us. He loved the world so much
that he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him would
not perish but have eternal life.
What do you think?
I would love for you to say, “Right on! Sign me up!” but I know there’s
a chance you’re thinking “Keep this stuff away from me!”
Or maybe you’ve never thought of it this way before and you’re
intrigued. If so, I welcome the opportunity to talk about this some more with
you.
Or maybe you have heard all this before and now you’re ready to accept
God’s offer of eternal life. In that case, tell him so.
Remember that CNN ad? This is the apple. And may the good news of
Christmas make this your merriest Christmas ever!
