The Child: Christmas is for Giving Jesus Away

​I hope you had a Merry Christmas. I pray you and your family enjoyed the blessing of giving and receiving gifts. May I ask you which one was your favorite? Why does it mean so much to you?

Each one of us needs to remember that Jesus came to this earth as a baby to grow up and be crucified on a cross at Calvary. The Bible says God sent his Son to earth to give you the greatest gift ever. He came to earth to die and make you right with God. 

The greatest gift you have ever been given was not bought in a store. No cash exchanged hands. It was not even wrapped. Yet it cost the Giver everything. Paul writes in Romans 3:24-25 from the Message Bible, “Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we were in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.”

So, Jesus was born to die. WHY? Nobody is perfect. I have never met a single person who has claimed to be perfect. I do not measure up to my own expectations, much less God’s perfect standard. Neither do you. We have all blown it. The Bible says, “All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23 CEV).

God is just. God wants to be fair. When somebody breaks a law, there must be a penalty for it. So, when you break humanity’s laws, you pay humanity’s penalties. When you break God's laws; you pay God’s penalties. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death“ (Romans 6:23 NIV).

Jesus paid the price for your sin. The Bible says, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT). Jesus took on my sin and your sin and all the sin that has ever been committed. That is the Good News, the gospel. Jesus paid the price you could never pay.

You can accept God’s free gift. God gave us a free gift of salvation when Jesus took our sin upon himself. It is a gift we must receive. The Bible says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NIV).

Let me ask you again: Will you accept God’s free gift of salvation? It is one thing to understand the basics of how to have a relationship with Jesus. It is another to accept the gift.

I pray you will make that all-important decision today.

Make Every Day Count!

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