The meaning of Christmas

Published 7:11 pm Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Monday is Christmas Day, one of the two most important days of the year (Easter is the other). We celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ on this day and rightfully so. Burl Ives sang, “Holly, Jolly Christmas” and declared that this is the best time of the year. I love this song and agree Christmas is certainly one of the best times of the year. But we all need to ask what Christmas is all about. What does it really mean? and do we celebrate it appropriately?

To be brief, Christmas is all about Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God; and, for every Christian, it’s all about the Savior of all who will trust their souls to Him. But today, so many people ignore God and Christ in their lives. For many people in business, Christmas is just another opportunity for big sales and more profit. and to many ordinary consumers, Christmas is no more than a little time off from work and their responsibility to award gifts to children, relatives, and friends. Little, if any, thought is given to the true meaning of the season.

Sometimes we see signs that proclaim, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” and “Wise Men Still Seek Him.” These are certainly true statements, but how many people today really take it to heart? So many people, especially those young enough to have children at home, spend so much time rushing to buy gifts and do many other things that are expected of them that they don’t have time to enjoy Christmas.

Christmas celebrates the birth of a man, Jesus of Nazareth. He was born, as many of us, to a poor family in the little town of Bethlehem of Judea. The family was visited by Shepherds, who told of witnessing an angel of the Lord that proclaimed that God had sent the world a Savior, His own Son, Jesus Christ. The real meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of man from hell, and the absolute only way to get to Heaven. Nothing in this life is as crucial as trusting Jesus as our Savior. Nothing we can ever do on Earth comes close in importance to that one simple act. So the Christ child’s birth, we see, was of tremendous importance as the only hope for a sad and weary world of sinners.

No other individual in all history has had such an impact on the world as Jesus of Nazareth. The Christ of God had such a humble beginning! Born in a stable, He was laid in a feeding trough (manger). This was the King of the universe! How many princes were born that night in the luxury of palaces? How many babies were born to the rich and famous that night? We have never heard of any of them. The Apostle John tells us, “And the Word (Son) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

You and I will all pass away if the Lord does not return first. Our bodies will remain in the earth to decay or be scattered as ashes for those who elect cremation. But the moment of death brings separation of our immortal souls from our bodies. Your soul and mine will proceed either back to God in Heaven or to the place of eternal torment (hell).

We who believe God and what He tells us in His Word (the Bible), will certainly want to celebrate His earthly incarnation, as God became the Man Jesus to provide us pardon for all our sins. The blood of the Lamb of God was shed on the cross of Calvary to wash away all our sins, every one, and to make us acceptable to God and fit for Heaven. Christ imputes His righteousness to us the moment we truly believe in Him and call on Him to save us. That, my friends, is a real gift. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That is something to celebrate every day of every year that God allows us to live on this Earth.

Most people have heard that Christ is the only way to Heaven, but Satan, the devil, has deceived most people today into not believing what God’s Word, the Holy Bible, tells us. But the truth is still true, and not believing it does not make it untrue. That is the sad thing about our society. and that is the reason eighty percent of our people no longer attend church. This is the greatest tragedy for our society and our country. People have also been generally deceived into believing that they must be good or that their good deeds must outweigh their bad ones to go to heaven. This is another devil’s lie. The truth is that we can do absolutely nothing to earn or deserve life eternal. That is what grace means. It is God’s free gift to undeserving people who simply believe in His Son and call on Him for salvation.

The scary part of all this is that every person living can choose to trust Christ and later go on to Heaven the moment of his death, but he must do this while he is still living. Once physical death occurs, all opportunity is gone forever. and even scarier is the fact that no one knows when he will die and thus lose this most crucial of all opportunities.