Scripture References: Luke 2:1-20

He Came To Save Us – Continued

Back to God, the Father – Continued

When the Bible speaks of death, it means more than the heart ceasing to beat. It means total and absolute separation from God who is the source of life. Therefore, we can be dead while we still live. A man may get a clean bill of health and walk out of the doctor’s office a person without spiritual life. In a very real sense he is truly dead.

We are held in alien hands. Christ would wrench us free from those hands and give us back to the hands to whom we really belong. Augustine reminded us that God has made us for Himself and our souls are restless until they find their rest in Him.

Back to Himself

Christ desires to also win us to Himself. He intends for us to stack our arms of rebellion at His cross and ask for peace. And at His cross is precisely where peace is granted.

The freedom Christ gives us is not independent or self-dependent. It is freedom under the lordship of Christ. We are not free to do as we please but rather, as He pleases. The earliest Christian confession of faith was: Jesus Christ is Lord. The meaning of this is that Christ wins us back to Himself, establishing over us a new authority.

Sooner or later each of us has to make the confession that many members of Alcoholic Anonymous makes: I can’t manage my own life! Christ is more capable of managing my life than I am, and He is more worthy to possess it than I am.

Back to Each Other

Finally, Christ wins us back to each other; into a brotherhood and sisterhood that was always meant to be.

We so desperately need each other. Some of the most agonizing pain in all of life is to be separated from those who should/would be close to us, to be separated from those who should/would love us, and those whom we should/would love.

The tragedy of life can be expressed like this: We are like tiny islands in a strait separated from the two main-lands, God and our fellow human beings. Therefore, the reconciliation Jesus Christ gives is a double one. We are reconciled to God and to each other.

Where is it that Christ reconciles us to our fellows more than anywhere else? In the church. In that church universal, the Body of Christ. There we find brothers and sisters in Christ. It is there more than anywhere else that we are loved, accepted, and affirmed. It is there that we have our worth declared. It is there that people reach out and touch us, call us by name, strike cadence with us. It is there that our brothers and sisters, when we are descending into some long dark night of tragedy, walk with us, do not leave us, but stay with us until the night has passed and the morning is come.

Let us rejoice in the good news of Christmas and let us share it. Our planet has indeed been invaded. It may have happened centuries ago, but the invasion is still alive and well. Christ has come to free us and win us back to God, the Father, Himself, and those to whom we really belong.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.