Reasons for Christmas

~ fundyreformed

Today during the Sunday sermon, I was reminded of some of the explicit reasons given for Christmas in 1 John. Christmas is when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. So reasons given for Jesus coming into the world, are reasons for Christmas.

As we all celebrate Christmas, and I hope you really celebrate Jesus this Christmas. The reasons given below for Jesus’ incarnation (his taking on human flesh and being born in the manger), should help us reflect on the wonder that Jesus did come. And they should help us to prize the Cross and Resurrection as we rejoice over the babe in the manger.

…[Jesus] appeared to take away sins… (1 John 3:5)

…The Reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (3:8)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (4:9-10)

…the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (4:14)

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true… (5:20)

7 thoughts on “Reasons for Christmas”

  2. Yesterday, I was able to attend the Cubao Reformed Baptist Church [http://www.cubaorbc.org/], the first Reformed Baptist church here in my country, the Philippines. The sermon can be divided into three points (The main text was John 10) and was focused on the life Jesus gives to His sheep (John 10:10).

    1. What This Life is NOT – it’s not about material wealth and/or full recovery from all kinds of sickness (Matthew 19:16-26)

    2. The Reason Why Jesus Came – to give life, an abundant life (John 10:10) to us, who were once dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2)

    3. What Jesus’s Giving of Life Accomplished
    a. forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13)
    b. justification/reconciliation with God (Romans 3-5)
    c. eternal life (John 3:16)

    Thanks for the wonderful post, Bob. Let’s pray not only for fundamentalism, but also for evangelicalism which has almost abandoned the Bible’s teaching on separation and is conseqeuntly in need of reform also. 🙂

  5. So, to attempt to systematize John’s stated reasons for Christ’s incarnation:

    The Son of God became man:
    1. To be the Savior of the world
    2. To destroy the works of the devil
    3. To take away sins (by)
    4. . . . being the propitiation for our sins
    5. To give us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. . .
    6. . . . so that we might live through him.

    That’s a great list of reasons to corporately celebrate the incarnation of the eternal Son of God! That’s a Christ-centered Christmas!

    Happy New Year! “Resolve” to make it a Christ-centered 2008.

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