In Genesis 3:15 we have the first promise of One who would come and triumph over the sin and devastation caused by Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
God declared to the devil, “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Here we have the beginning of spiritual warfare. A first glimpse might leave us thinking that Satan had won. But not so. God declared that ultimately the offspring of the woman would triumph over Satan.
No one expected the promised deliverer to come as a helpless little baby born in an obscure little village in a manger. God, more often than not, doesn’t do things the way we might think or expect. In Isaiah 55:8-9 He tells us, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts” says the LORD. “And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Chuck Swindoll wrote “Without Jesus in a manger, Christianity could not exist. Apart from the real birth of the eternal Son of God, Christianity is just an empty feeding trough of wood and straw.”
But, those of us who have come to know Jesus personally realized that a royal birth took place that night many years ago. Jesus Christ, the King of kings and LORD of lords left the glories of heaven and was born to eventually be the atoning sacrifice for our sins who would take away the sins of the world.
There was at least one person who took the birth of the baby King seriously — King Herod. He gathered as much information as he could about the new-born King and had all of the male children, two years old and younger, to be killed.
God the Father knew the exact gift the world needed and we read about it in John 3:16-17. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.”
At the time when Satan deceived Adam and Eve and brought about the fall, God told our enemy that One would come who would triumph over him. That promise was fulfilled when Christ died for us on a cross at Calvary. Listen to what Paul wrote about Christ’s victory in Galatians 4:4-5 — “But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that He could adopt us as His very own children.”
We have a Father in heaven who longs for a relationship with us who were created in His likeness and image. So, He made such a relationship possible through the gift of His Son. In Ephesians 1:6-7 we read, “So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.”
The Apostle John may have been closer to Jesus than the others and in John 1:10-13, he wrote — “He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn — not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.”
I am assuming that everyone reading this meditation, about the “Perfect Gift” God gave to the world, knows when you were born.
But do you remember when you were born-again? I was nine years old at summer youth camp when I fully realized that God loved me and that Christ died for me and I invited Him to become my Savior and LORD. It was the best and most important decision I have ever made. I was accepted and adopted into God’s eternal family. Jesus is the best gift I have ever received.
Have you received Jesus, God’s Christmas gift for you? I pray that you have, but if you haven’t, I encourage you to do so right now. Talk to Him from your heart. Acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you want Jesus to be your Savior. Ask Him to come into your heart and take over your life. You will never be the same. It will be your best decision ever. Let me know so I can encourage and pray for you.
In His love,
Pastor Leonard
