“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
December 25, 2023
The secularization of our society has not yet erased the reality of the Christmas story from our collective memory and interest. The Advent of Christ is majestic in its simplicity and significance. The birth of Jesus Christ was God’s gift of a Savior to deliver rebellious, sinful man from the clutches of evil. In a letter to the London Times from G.K. Chesterton in reply to a request for essays on the topic, “What’s Wrong with the World?” Chesterton’s reply: Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton. Because Jesus is Savior, He alone can deliver us from the evil of sin (Rom. 8:1). Sin is the displacement of God, the failure to let God be God. It is the soul of idolatry. Its consequence is an eternity of alienation from God. Nothing could be worse. The only cure is faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. A soul-liberating, God satisfying, relationship-restoring, substitutionary sacrifice has been made by the only Savior there is.
Because Jesus is Savior He can make the evil of suffering bring glory to God (1 Pet. 1:7).
Because Jesus is Savior He can deliver us from the evil of death (1 Cor. 15:55-57). Where sin has been pardoned, death has no sting. That is what is in the obituary of death, “the death of death in the death of Jesus Christ.”
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The praise of the angels in response to the good news (“a Savior has been born”) is our cue for a celebratory response. Do I hear an amen?